Bongo Fury

Had a search, but not coming up with much.

I have acquired a nice S/H set of 17" alloys, came with 215/60/17 tyres which all need replacing.

Although these are Nissan wheels, they came off a Bongo so I know this set-up should work.

Are there any other sizes in 17" that I should consider, and should I have commercial van tyres? Local tyre man says 17" are hard to source in commercial tyres..I was hoping to find some part-worn tyres, but would this be false economy? Also, is anyone running a Bongo on 'budget' tyres, and if so, can you recommend any?

Currently on 15" wheels with Avon Winter Ice-Tourers, which are great, but want to retire them through our 'summer'

Unconverted, BTW, not carrying a heavy load, especially since removing middle seats

Thanks for all input, especially from those who already run on 17" wheels.

Derek

I use 225 55 17 and they do quite a few in 97 or 101 load rating. I have falkens on the front and they are ok.

lazyb5 wrote:I use 225 55 17 and they do quite a few in 97 or 101 load rating. I have falkens on the front and they are ok.

Do you have them on rear as well? I like to stick to same make all round.

Derek

No I currently have winters on the back but they are the same size 225 55 17. Also accelera have an ok review for a budget tyre. I used to have accelera before the falkens.
Hope that helped.

Thanks for that. I have been offered a set of part-worn Bridgestone 215/60/17, 4mm tread, £20ea fitted..sounds tempting to me.

Derek

Hi Derek
I don't want to cast doubts on your bargain...and I reckon you'll have no trouble, BUT...it's always a bit of a doubt with second hand tyres...have they been on a crashed car?....in which case, they might have been past the stress-capabilities....the same applies to wheels. It has been posted on here about someone who had found cracks in their wheels when removing them at a service...maybe they were second-hand?
Anyway...I'm not trying to cause you worry
Cheers
Helen

18" fill the wheel arches better.......I guess using a higher profile on the 17's will do the same though

helen&tony wrote:Hi Derek
I don't want to cast doubts on your bargain...and I reckon you'll have no trouble, BUT...it's always a bit of a doubt with second hand tyres...have they been on a crashed car?....in which case, they might have been past the stress-capabilities....the same applies to wheels. It has been posted on here about someone who had found cracks in their wheels when removing them at a service...maybe they were second-hand?
Anyway...I'm not trying to cause you worry
Cheers
Helen

I take your point, and will have a very close look at the tyres, and wheels. The wheels came from my supplying Bongo dealer, who has been an absolute diamond from the day I bought the van. The source van for the wheels was being broken for parts, but again, I will have a close look around them when the old tyres come off. If there's any problems at all, I know I can get my money back, no problem. For the record, the 4 wheels cost £150 inclusive of 4 tyres, two of which are still serviceable, though I want to replace all 4, and are Nissan factory, all looking in excellent condition. Having looked around at equivalent new wheels I reckon that's a good price.

Derek

The best way of filling the arches is lowering bit harsher ride tho

I have 225/55/17 101W XL all round on mine.... asymmetric tread Sunitrac Focus 9000 from ETyres... Low Noise, good in the wet same treadwear as Michelins..... they are rated as good as Bridgestones under the new EU rating system....
Yer pays yer money and all that.... got these in September last year for £70 each all fitted and balanced at home address

Got the 18" myself....tyres are a bit expensive but then they look brilliant.

We have a set of 17" five-spokes that look beautiful

We fitted 235 55 17 tyres, for several reasons:
a) they seem to be readily available & hence cost-effective on the new and part-worn markets
b) they raise the gearing slightly (2-3%) which makes the mileometer and speedometer more accurate / less stupidly optimistic
c) this increases the actual miles covered per gallon of gold dust - sorry, diesel
d) they fill the wheel arches well.

As they say on Tesco ads, Every little helps.

The tyres we use are Pirelli Scorpion STRs - readily available as part-worns, as they are often fitted to BMW X-series, and a good porportion of PW tyres come from Germany.
Overall, we've been on these for nearly five years, and never had any problems

Drive safely, but with a grin on your face

Thanks for these suggestions.

The wheel are on, look good, but I have to say I'm not too happy with the part-worn Bridgestones. They have 4mm tread, but after the 15" Avon Ice Tourers they feel decidedly twitchy on wet corners. The were only £20 ea, fitted, can't grumble at that, though new Bridgestones ain't cheap..£160 -ish

Checked out 17" Ice Tourers: even @ 15" the price is 30% more than what I paid in Dec 2011 what is going on with tyre prices? Is it me, or are they rocketing?

There are 'cheapo' Chinese options, £80-90, but last time I looked, (ok, a couple of years ago) these could be had around £40-50..will prob follow Windswept's suggestion and try and source part-worn Pirellis.

Derek

We've got 255x55s on as well for pretty much the same reasons as windswept.
These are Sunitrac, never heard of them before but supplied by Wheelquick with the wheels and I can't really fault them.
They seem to perform just as well as the Pirellis we had on before. Remains to be seen how they last but TBH I'd sooner have cheap new tyres than part worn branded ones having had some problems with secondhand ones in the past

Just recently put on 225/50 R17 98V XL Nexen NPriz 4S all season tyres from www.mytyres.co.uk. No problems driving in the snow that hit use overnight.