Anglo-Frenchman Posted May 16, 2007 Share Posted May 16, 2007 I recently replaced all four tyres on the 110 as the original Wranglers were looking a tad slick. In the course of the replacement the French tyre shop damaged one of the inner tubes and had to replace it. About two weeks later while on my way to a job and 300km from home in a very remote part of the moutainous Cantal region my offside front tyre gave out with a loud bang. Fortunately I carry two spares so I changed the offending wheel and carred on and pondered the possible cause thinking perhaps that the steel wheel had become rusty and perforated the tube. The next day I found a little garage in the village where i was working and left the wheel with him. On my return he showed be the inner tube with a rip about 400mm long in the outside. It transpired that the clowns in the tyre shop had fitted a 750x15 tube rather than 750x16. So much for tyre specialists! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill van snorkle Posted May 16, 2007 Share Posted May 16, 2007 I'm no tyre expert but it's possible you also got a cheap poor quality tube.I would have thought a good quality 7.50 x15'' tube shouldn't feel any pain in a deep well 16'' defender wheel rim. The shallower well Disco rims may stretch the ID of the tube a little but they are made to stretch anyway. I have personally been using 7.50x16'' heavy duty tubes first in 9.00x16'' tyres and then in various 280.85x16'' tyres for around 30 years without any undue failures. Bill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoSS Posted May 16, 2007 Share Posted May 16, 2007 Hmm, I too have not great experience of french tyre 'specialists' A while ago while travelling down through france to italy, i had a blow-out on the autoroute. It turned out that the spare had a slow puncture too, so we limped to clarmont ferrand. despite having the biggest tyre factory i have seen at the centre of town, nobody seemed to have the size i needed. I eventually found a euromaster with the right size but they stung me 460Eur for 1 tyre & repairing the spare!! I had no choice. the best bit - only after arriving in italy, i found that the spare still had a nail sticking out of it & had not been done!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
missingsid Posted May 16, 2007 Share Posted May 16, 2007 What is a tyre specialist?? All I can find is a 19 year old in a Franchise that has never seen an innertube let alone fitted one. I've been back three times with a nipped innertube in three tyres, they last on road until you go off road. This I guess pulls the innertube out of the pinch it was in and slowly deflates. I blame it on dads not teaching kids to change bicycle tubes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dixe Posted May 16, 2007 Share Posted May 16, 2007 Its not just the French who do these sort of tricks, I have similar experience in Germany. I had a tire replaced with a new innner tube which was 6x 16. this tore itself up on the motorway( The tear was was over half the circumference) and the new trye was distroyed at the same. Since then I look at everything that these so called experts do when ever I go to have new tryes fitted. Dixe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoSS Posted May 16, 2007 Share Posted May 16, 2007 Luckily i now have access to a tyre machine & balancer. I buy tyres direct now & fit myself. I can recommend these guys - linky They supply all over europe at very good prices. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rtbarton Posted May 16, 2007 Share Posted May 16, 2007 I watched in horror as a tyre fitted fitted my wheel on a balancing machine 2 inches off-centre. I managed to get his boss to stop him before he switched the machine on. They then decided the machine wasn't big enough to balance Landrover wheels and gave me some cash to get them done somewhere else! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThreeSheds Posted May 16, 2007 Share Posted May 16, 2007 Since lead balance weights have been replaced with zinc (?) at something like 8 times the cost, tyre places are getting reluctant to balance anyway. Whereas they used to rip off the old weights and replace them automatically, they now tend to stick the wheel on the balancer with the old weights in place to see if they can get away with it. Recently had this happen on my motorcycle. Not too happy ... Seems ok on the road but when I do a trackday I could be getting upto 130mph or so TwoShed (one of them is the bike!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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