rolandrat Posted September 2, 2014 Share Posted September 2, 2014 I've been running on a set of budget DoubleStar tyres for the last 6000 miles and during that time I've had to have the front pair balanced twice due to a vibration developing after about 2000 miles. The first time I noticed something wasn't quite right was in Spain during May this year so I had them balanced, then again whilst running up through France on the way home. Last week whilst returning from a rally cruising at 65mph the vibration came back with a vengeance so I reduced speed and it calmed down. When I returned home I did a thorough check of all the tyres and there it was, the front offside tyre had five sidewall bulges. I considered myself very lucky not to have had an offside front tyre blowout on the motorway. On both occasions that the wheels were removed for balancing did the fitters mention that anything was wrong with the tyres. I'll be fitting a new set of Continental Camping tyres in the not to distant future, safety is far more important than the low cost of budget tyres. The latest price of the Continentals is eye watering, priced individually at over £150 including fitting but reduced for four or more. There was an advert for a set of new 15" steel wheels in last months 3m's fortunately they were still for sale at a bargain price so I went over to Lincolnshire and bought them. Just as the owner had said, they were as new fitted with steel valves. All I need now is a set of Continentals to go on them. Never again will I entertain Chinese tyres. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted September 2, 2014 Share Posted September 2, 2014 :-S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billggski Posted September 2, 2014 Share Posted September 2, 2014 I just paid £118 for a fitted and balanced 15" conticamper, try etyres and then quote their mmm discounted price to a local fitter. They will match it. It was in stock and they put the vanco2 I had on the wheel onto the spare for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billggski Posted September 2, 2014 Share Posted September 2, 2014 Oh..... And get high pressure valves put on, you may have to source them yourself as some fitters don't know what they are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rolandrat Posted September 3, 2014 Author Share Posted September 3, 2014 Billggski - 2014-09-02 9:31 PM I just paid £118 for a fitted and balanced 15" conticamper, try etyres and then quote their mmm discounted price to a local fitter. They will match it. It was in stock and they put the vanco2 I had on the wheel onto the spare for me. Thanks for the info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
euroserv Posted September 3, 2014 Share Posted September 3, 2014 rolandrat - 2014-09-02 7:30 PM I've been running on a set of budget DoubleStar tyres for the last 6000 miles and during that time I've had to have the front pair balanced twice due to a vibration developing after about 2000 miles. The first time I noticed something wasn't quite right was in Spain during May this year so I had them balanced, then again whilst running up through France on the way home. Last week whilst returning from a rally cruising at 65mph the vibration came back with a vengeance so I reduced speed and it calmed down. When I returned home I did a thorough check of all the tyres and there it was, the front offside tyre had five sidewall bulges. I considered myself very lucky not to have had an offside front tyre blowout on the motorway. On both occasions that the wheels were removed for balancing did the fitters mention that anything was wrong with the tyres. I'll be fitting a new set of Continental Camping tyres in the not to distant future, safety is far more important than the low cost of budget tyres. The latest price of the Continentals is eye watering, priced individually at over £150 including fitting but reduced for four or more. There was an advert for a set of new 15" steel wheels in last months 3m's fortunately they were still for sale at a bargain price so I went over to Lincolnshire and bought them. Just as the owner had said, they were as new fitted with steel valves. All I need now is a set of Continentals to go on them. Never again will I entertain Chinese tyres. How much did you pay for the budget tyres? There must have been a strong motivational force for you to have chosen that route and I would be fascinated to know how big it was! There are budget tyres and budget tyres. You don't get anything for nothing but as a rule; if it's less than 2/3 of the price of an allegedly premium tyre I would suspect they are not much good. It gets worse actually.... A premium tyre like Michelin or Continental will be passed from importer to distributor to wholesaler and then to the dealer. Each makes a profit from their transaction. The really budget tyres will pass between even more layers of distribution before they reach your vehicle and this suggests that a £50 tyre may only really be worth £20 or so at the point of import. Our Hankook tyres are handled by the importer to the distributor and then to us. We don't have to go through a 'dealer'. This way, we pay about 60% of the price of a Continental tyre. You should expect to pay about 75% of the price at retail outlets. Whether that relatively small saving makes economic sense to you is your choice; but any bigger saving on seriously budget tyres is probably going to be false economy. In fact, thinking about this as i go along.... If the saving is going to be about 25% per tyre that's 'buy 3 get 1 free' and this offer is often available at ATS dealers on Michelin and Continental tyres anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rolandrat Posted September 4, 2014 Author Share Posted September 4, 2014 Hi Nick, the last thing I would do is even consider budget tyres but the dealer I bought it off had them fitted during the PDI service. The company is Marquis of Ipswich. Obviously I'm not very happy so I'm planning to change them very soon. They are aware of my reaction and views. Someone in that company authorised the fitting of them by Kesgrave Tyre & Exhaust Centre of Ipswich. Motorhomes run at near to capacity weight all the time not like goods vans which might run empty on a return journey. I don't think the safety implications were considered. All new motorhomes are supplied from new with a set of premium quality tyres fitted and when they come to the end of their serviceable life then similar tyres should be fitted. If I have any further trouble with these DoubleStar tyres whilst I'm running on them then I'm going to have to get some professional advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rolandrat Posted September 4, 2014 Author Share Posted September 4, 2014 I overlooked to tell you the price of the tyres invoiced to Marquis, they were £48.33 each. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
euroserv Posted September 5, 2014 Share Posted September 5, 2014 Irresponsible, reprehensible and unimaginably tight fisted. Horrified. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracker Posted September 5, 2014 Share Posted September 5, 2014 If Marquis had dumped cheap and nasty tyres on me I would be straight on the phone or email to their head office to complain politely but loudly, not forgetting to mention the forum! http://www.marquisleisure.co.uk/about-marquis/contact-us I have bough several vans from various Marquis branches over the years but we had a bad experience, funnily enough also with the Ipswich branch, a couple of years ago when we agreed a stonking deal at a show. Fortunately, knowing what an issue alleged damp can be, I agreed that they would damp check our van before delivery and of course they found it had 'extensive' damp that was going to cost over £3000 to put right. Funny that because the two other dealers that checked the van found it to be exceptionally dry - even on wet days. That and the attitude of the then branch staff plus the lack of interest in resolving the deal by head office decided us to cancel the deal and we have not been back. Having heard of other dis-satisfied customers leads me to believe that Marquis is now run by accountants who see only the theoretical bottom line and take no account of the power of advertising and referrals from satisfied customers. So don't stand for being ripped off - get after them for the decent set of tyres that you are entitled to, and do please let us all know how you get on! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelmetman Posted September 5, 2014 Share Posted September 5, 2014 Nothing wrong with Hankooks ;-).................We're on our second set, only changed due to age after 10 years..........still no sign of cracking when they were changed, although the ride did improve being fresh rubber :D......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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