Bongo Fury

simon heaton wrote:scanner,
they've been on for 8 months , i'm a hard cornerer, grip has been excellent in wet and dry, got slight wear on outside cos tracking out by a miniscule amount other than that i will be ordering more when the time comes.
At £55 approx you couldn't get better.... (well happy)

That will please tigs and vindicate Mike's views on "unknown" tyres.

Hope tigs is reading.

She Who Dares Wins

This is indeed great news, and for me as I search for replacements (but in no hurry).

HiddenMission wrote

Mike, thanks for your reply, but not too sure what you mean by a "hard compound" or how I would translate that into new tyres.

I know, no idea how you find out, which is why I wrote as I did. It's as though a compound that is regarded as cheap and poor grip by some (owners of lighter cars seeking megagrip and for whom tyre replacement cost is beneath their gaze) is perfectly suited to another. I mean, you can't get ANY Bongo tyre much under £55. It does sound as thogh the sumo tyres are a hard compound.

Very interesting thread this. Tigs where are you?



PS - esp with low profile tyres I reckon check tyres pressures religously. They don't give much of a clue when they are running low on air pressure (not much wall to bulge)

mikeonb4c wrote:.... I mean, you can't get ANY Bongo tyre much under £55. .....

You can if you stick to standard wheels

My 215/65 R15 tyres cost only £40 each, fitted and balanced

Dave

"for Bongos it MUST be 96 or higher"

Good thread but have I got duff tyres? 225 50 ZR17 94W - the same all round - How MUST is that 96?!!

It could be argued by the police or an insurer that they are not fit for purpose as they do not satisfy the minimum load capacity for the vehicle the are fitted to.

Bongos need 96 or 710Kg per tyre load capacity on the rear axle it says so on the plate just inside the driver's door.

94 only gives 670kg per tyre...................... http://www.tyresave.co.uk/tyreload.html

hi all,
what i forgot to say is that they are also extra load so the side walls are stiffer.I check prices here http://www.valuetyres.co.uk. , but order them from my local tyre dealer (a bit cheaper.)

On my bongo tyre loads are front 92 front and 96 rear.(label inside door)

Hiddenmission? It would appear from the tyre size you quoted that you have 18" wheels,as opposed to your earlier statement of 17" wheels.

I run 40 p.s.i. in mine, the official mazda tyre pressure qoutations are thrown out of the window as you are running a non standard size wheel/tyre.

Its just possible, that your shock absorbers are kapput! If the rebound of the spring and shock absorber are out of kilter,its possible to knock small chunks out of the tyre,as the spring and the shock absorber are fighting against each other,if the shocks are knackered.

I'm assuming that all the tracking and wheel geometry has been checked and set-up correctly? Wheels balanced etc?

I agree with above comments, and would have to say I would run minimum of 92s on front and 96s on rear....

but here are my thoughts......

92s and 96s are load rated at 630 and 710 kg

from this site.... a bongo weighs 1770 kg (can't remember if that is aft or bongolow, but doesn't really matter, just stay with me)

this implys the bongo has a 47% front to 53% rear weight distribution

then from those weights

2 x 630 added to 2 x 710 is 2680

so I reckon the mazda engineers licked their engineering fingers and said add a percentage to that for load......

and if right that percentage comes pretty close to 50%

1770 x 150% is 2655

but you will have load.....
add say 4 people 320kg (?)
camping gear 100kg

canoe, bikes, dogs, side conversion.... etc etc

that 50% is pretty quickly swallowed up......


which I why I wouldn't risk running lower rated tyres...

1, my family are inside (and to me worth an extra few quid a tyre!)

2, though noone knows about bongos, say you take 7 mates up to the NEC.... if they are built like me you could have 900kg of people alone in there!!.... if you then crashed and blocked the motorway... .when they investigated the crash and found you'd overloaded the tyres.... what would you get?

John

bigdaddy - I did say I wasn't an expert , so yes looks like they are 18".

Simon thanks for the tip with the sumo tyres.

To sum up my options -

First, I need to check that tyres are correctly inflated - again, is there a definitive way of determining the correct trye pressure?

I should consider getting 96s, as opposed to 92s on the rear

I should maybe look at some sumo tyres, 235/45/18s

The long and short of it seems to be that if you don't have standard wheels, you need to invest a bit more time and care in tyre maintenance, and work out the correct configurations. I was a bit freaked out by the damage described on the tyres replaced, so I don't want to make an mistakes with this.

Thanks again

HiddenMission wrote:
First, I need to check that tyres are correctly inflated - again, is there a definitive way of determining the correct tyre pressure?

It was quite unscientific H.M. In my case, i simply kept on putting air in till there was what i considered to be a reasonable amount of visible "bulge" at the bottom of the tyre.

I experimented for a while with various pressures, till i reached what i considered to be a reasonable compromise.

simon heaton wrote:hi all,
what i forgot to say is that they are also extra load so the side walls are stiffer.I check prices here http://www.valuetyres.co.uk. , but order them from my local tyre dealer (a bit cheaper.)

Only trouble with the valuetyres site in respect of this discussion is that it doesn't show the load rating of the tyres so you can't tell if they are adequate for the Bongo's needs.

http://www.camskill.co.uk & http://www.blackcircles.co.uk are better for that info.

hi scanner,
if you look at the make it usually has the load rating beside it.
eg.SUMO ST08 97W, 97 being the load rating .i've never had a problem of this site not showing the load rating.

simon heaton wrote:hi scanner,
if you look at the make it usually has the load rating beside it.
eg.SUMO ST08 97W, 97 being the load rating .i've never had a problem of this site not showing the load rating.

That's confusing, as that isn't where you expect to see it .

I'm here and guess what, FINALLY its all come together and i have a lovely set of alloys on me Bongo

and a set of sumo tyres, thanx the reassurance guys and yep Mike she who dares wins

Am shattered have been running around trying to get the things fitted all day, 50 mile round trip just for nuts and when i finally find somewhere not to busy to fit em he says wheres ya valves Will post piccie tomorrow

mikeonb4c wrote:Excellent news Tigs. Don't forget to keep us posted on handling and longevity (I suspect you will do well on both but you can never be sure).

Happy Motoring

She may well do, but what about the tyres?