AT-ish tyres for a Fabia

[Biker]

Greetings ladies and gentlemen.

I have a Skoda Fabia, that came with 185/60/R14 Apollo tyres (yes, R14. Yes I know some fabias came with R15 and even R16, but mine's R14. 100% sure). They were good tyres, no doubt.

But now they're at the end of their lives. And time has come to change them.

Now that I've relocated to Amritsar, and given how close Himachal is from there. (Pathankot is 2 hours, and its himachal from there on), I've come to the conclusion that it makes more sense for me to get tyres that can take a bit of an abuse, and can stand slush and mud. (Sole reason I've not fitted another set of Alnac 4G or MRF ZLOs and decided to be done with it).

My sole concern is grip, both dry, wet and slush, and everything else is secondary (tyre life, road noise, high speed behaviour etc).
I would have loved to put on a set of All Terrain tyres, but there are none available in r14.

For that matter, in 185/60/r14 there are only three options that exist: Alnac 4G, Goodyear NCT 5 and Falkens.

So I reckon I'll have to downsize to 175/65/r14, and I'm okay with that.

TL;DR
Assume you live in a hill station in Himachal (lets say Dalhousie, because thats the closest), and your car needs 175/65/R14 tyres, what would you buy? Just to avoid looking like a massive clueless muppet, as this gentleman did.


& . But after answering my question, pls.

[sriharsha]

Nothing available in the market suits your requirements unfortunately. Proper AT tyres start from 15" but even those are too high a profile to fit on a fabia.

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[Jack Sparrow]

Assume you live in a hill station in Himachal (lets say Dalhousie, because thats the closest), and your car needs 175/65/R14 tyres, what would you buy?

I will stick with proper road tires with good quality rubber on a FWD car having open differential. I am not gonna compromise the comfort, safety and better braking ability on usual asphalt roads just for the sake of the terrain I am gonna encounter 1-2% or maybe 5% of the time. I have driven in Punjab, Kahsmir and Himachal but ended up getting stuck on familier terrain in or near my own city instead of those unknown Himalayan terrains due to limitation of the FWD vehicle with open differentials.

Now that I've relocated to Amritsar, and given how close Himachal is from there

For that matter, in 185/60/r14 there are only three options that exist: Alnac 4G, Goodyear NCT 5 and Falkens.
So I reckon I'll have to downsize to 175/65/r14, and I'm okay with that.

GC is much more important in Punjab than anything else. Though most roads there are smooth and wide, but when there are broken roads then they have big craters. Similar story with Himachal roads. You may have already seen tiny M800, Alto or Zen fitted with huge wheels protruding outside of fenders. Its not just because of affection of Punjabies towards funky alloys, rather they also need big tire which can't be fitted on stock rims because Punjab is not a state, rather whole Punjab is a big and beautiful village with lot of connectivity and its not possible to find well maintained roads everywhere.

Whenever I drive in Punjab, I don't want to compromise the joy of gliding on smooth two lane state highways of Punjab full of trees and green farms both sides of the roads by fitting noisy and uncomfortable offroad tires on my car, neither I want to let go the ability of crossing roads full of big potholes in Punjab by fitting smaller tires.

Just ask yourself, how much time you gonna travel to Himachal? 2-3 times a year? Once or twice a month? Once a week? Better to hire a self drive SUV for those ocassions instead of spoiling daily day driving capabilities of your Fabia, which otherwise is a wonderful car to drive on twisty-windy roads of Himachal due to the overall driving dynamics it offers in a small package.

Just to avoid looking like a massive clueless muppet, as this gentleman did.

Maintaining momentum was the key here. Other 'small' cars can be seen ahead of this Ecosport which means they also crossed the same terrain successfully, maybe the drivers of those cars had better experience.

[Biker]

Nothing available in the market suits your requirements unfortunately. Proper AT tyres start from 15" but even those are too high a profile to fit on a fabia.

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I know.
Thats why I said AT-ish, not AT.

For example, MRF Perfinza is a soft tyre, and will be not as well suited to say the broken roads of himachal, as say, a MRF ZVTS. So I want to know, personal experiences, of whats the most rugged normal tyre that people here have used.
For example, I had a Ceat Mileaze X3 on my maruti 800, and that thing lasted 90K km, and not a puncture. My apollo Accelere, as a contrast, pick up a puncture every 3rd week.


Lets just say, the cabbies in himachal, who use, for example a Dzire tour, which comes with r14 rims, who have to use their cars 365 days, hail slush or snow, what tyres do they use. If its good enough for them, its good enough for me.

I'm essentially, at this point in time, looking for ruggedness over refinement.

[Jack Sparrow]

Lets just say, the cabbies in himachal, who use, for example a Dzire tour, which comes with r14 rims, who have to use their cars 365 days, hail slush or snow, what tyres do they use. If its good enough for them, its good enough for me.

Taxis clock more mileage in short period whereas a normal car clocks less mileage in much longer period so thats not a fair comparison because taxi-wala can get away with a tire with a rubber which is able hold it's softness for couple of years. But a personal car user better a tire which holds its softness for 5-6 years, loner mileage is not necessary.

For example I got JK Vectra as stock tires with my car. My mileage is low, 7-8K kms max in a year. So after 2-3 years the stock JK tires clocked barely 15-20K but became painfully noisy and uncomfortable. They lost grip, braking became ineffective. Somehow I managed to drag them till 40K kms and finally ungraded to wider Continental MC5. At that time JK had plenty of tread left on them but it was useless. Now driving on the MC5 since Jan 2016 and find them as good as new after almost 4 years and 20K kms in terms of rubber softness and tread life, they are still silent and grippy. Same car transformed into a different car altogether.

I had a Ceat Mileaze X3 on my maruti 800, and that thing lasted 90K km, and not a puncture

Those kind of tires are okay on a 660-700kg car which is hardly driven at speeds of 60, 70 or 80 kmhr. Here you are talking about a car weighing more than a ton which is capable of doing constant 100 kmhr+ speeds.

Also a hard rubber tire will be less prone to punctures but it doesn't mean it will be more grippy, earlier you mentioned that grip is most important factor for you, looks like thats not the priority now?

My sole concern is grip,

I'm essentially, at this point in time, looking for ruggedness over refinement.

Since you have changed the priorities, why don't you get the Ceat Mileaze X3, probably the cheapest option available and you already have experience with them!

[Indian]

Just to avoid looking like a massive clueless muppet, as this gentleman did.

Lol, this is extreme. Even on snow I have never been stuck like this. i think most of the trouble was driver fault. I see him braking when the car starts to move. He might have been better off with snow tyres.

[Biker]

Maintaining momentum was the key here. Other 'small' cars can be seen ahead of this Ecosport which means they also crossed the same terrain successfully, maybe the drivers of those cars had better experience.

Lol, this is extreme. Even on snow I have never been stuck like this. i think most of the trouble was driver fault. I see him braking when the car starts to move. He might have been better off with snow tyres.

As much as I agree with you two gentlemen, we just cant ignore the fact that its a self drive rental, and as such, its likely to be running ultra cheap ching-chong ding-dong tyres.

That particular video, and seeing the Alto 800s just glide by was one of the sole reason for starting this thread. Yes,, driver skill is a key, no doubt, but tell me, if that ecosport had decent tyres, would it still be that badly stuck? I dont think so.

Those kind of tires are okay on a 660-700kg car which is hardly driven at speeds of 60, 70 or 80 kmhr. Here you are talking about a car weighing more than a ton which is capable of doing constant 100 kmhr+ speeds.

Also a hard rubber tire will be less prone to punctures but it doesn't mean it will be more grippy, earlier you mentioned that grip is most important factor for you, looks like thats not the priority now?

Since you have changed the priorities, why don't you get the Ceat Mileaze X3, probably the cheapest option available and you already have experience with them!

Here are, IMO, the parameters that a tyre has
1: Ruggedness
2: Grip slush
3: Grip wet
4: Grip dry
5: Road noise
6: Comfort
7: Tyre life
8: High speed performance
9: Rolling resistance (which equates better fuel efficiency)

Now I care about the first 4 parameters, and absolutely do not care about the other 5 or 6

For example, I understand that Apollo Alnac 4G (using them on my Getz 1.3) would be great on the road, and would have me covered in point 3,4,5,6,7 & 8. But will it struggle in slush, and is not known to be a rugged tyre.

I do understand that my requirements point out to needing an AT tyre, but the poor wheel wells of either of my hatchbacks cant take 215/75 R15 Wanderers, even if I upsize the rims.

[Indian]

That particular video, and seeing the Alto 800s just glide by was one of the sole reason for starting this thread. Yes,, driver skill is a key, no doubt, but tell me, if that ecosport had decent tyres, would it still be that badly stuck? I dont think so.

I think the car would have been stuck whatever brand of tyres he used. I think it is driver fault that caused it. Sometimes he spins the wheels until it smokes. I dont think off road tyres or even tractor tyres would have helped.

Here you can see cars driving up an icy hill. Some cars make it up.