Best deal for tyres in Hua Hin?

[easyas]

I need to replace a complete set of Bridgestone tyres (5) for a Nissan Navara. Can anyone suggest a good tyre place in Hua HIn? Price important, yes. Quality important, also.

[Nereus]

I need to replace a complete set of Bridgestone tyres (5) for a Nissan Navara. Can anyone suggest a good tyre place in Hua HIn? Price important, yes. Quality important, also.

Don`t know about price, but the service is good at Kosol Tyres opposite the airport.

[Babylon]

I use the place on the corner of soi 51 and Phetkasem, seem good / no complaints

[icebear]

Remember to check on the long number of the tyres, as the last 2 digits correspond the year of manufacturing the tyres.

[ste860]

I use the place on the corner of soi 51 and Phetkasem, seem good / no complaints

i too have used him a few times ,never had a problem ,

[Spitfire]

If you want to replace 5 tyres then you are probably looking at about 6 thousand baht each for Bridgestone Duelers or so if your pickup is a raised-up high style one. If you want just the 'light truck' ones and your truck isn't raised-up then you are probably looking at 5k each.

However, last time I checked was when I changed one of the Bridgestone Duelers (5500 baht at the time) about a year ago or so and you might find that the price of rubber, and thus tyres, has risen.

I reckon for 5 tyres you are looking at 30k-ish or more these days depending on specification for the Bridgestone type you wish to have.

[VincentD]

Remember to check on the long number of the tyres, as the last 2 digits correspond the year of manufacturing the tyres.

First two numbers is week of manufacture.
http://www.carbibles.com/tyre_bible.html

Not a big fan of Bridgestones, they tend to get rather noisy after a while and don't have a lot of grip. If you're using it mainly on roads, go for the H/T (highway tyre) as opposed to the A/T (all-terrain, which has a chunkier tread but is a lot noisier). Have this on the company truck.

I myself have been using the Nitto equivalent of the Bridgestone H/T for about a year and am quite happy with them. Cheaper too.

I usually get my tyres from Wongwien 22 in Bangkok as they're a lot cheaper and newer (as in week of manufacture). But.. you're not in Bangkok.

[Nereus]

I usually get my tyres from Wongwien 22 in Bangkok as they're a lot cheaper and newer (as in week of manufacture). But.. you're not in Bangkok

VincentD,can you tell me where in Bangkok this shop is, please?
I have A/T Bridgestones on my Land Rover. Two of them have sidewall damage and it looks like I am also up for a new set. Yes, they are noisy. They have done 60k kms and the tread is still just under half, but they are now about 5 years old and the rubber is showing bad signs of age. The car does not go off the road very often, but when it does it tends to be hard going. I would very interested in your opinion of how the H/T would perform off road.

[hhfarang]

I don't know about tyres, but I've bought tires and had wheels/tires serviced at two places mentioned above, the one on the corner of Soi 51 (Cockpit) and Kosol. I was happy with the service at both. The last time I priced tires for my particular vehicle they were a little bit cheaper at Kosol. I don't think you'll go wrong with either place.

[VincentD]

Nereus
The place (Wongwien 22) is also called July 22nd Circle.
I get my tyres from Saha Yang Tong(สหยางทอง). It's on Santiphap Road just off the circle. Lots of tyres shops around, but they give me the best deal. Unfortunately don't know how to post the image from Google street view.
http://maps.google.co.th/?hl=en&ll=13.7 ... 2.44,,0,-1
They also throw in a wheel alignment for free if you get the whole set done.

They recommended Nitto over the Bridgestones, and as I've used Nitto before on the Saab turbo I thought I'd give it a try on the Nissan X-trail. H/T would be less noisy on roads, do note that they are supposed to be off-road capable (20% offroad, 80% onroad as opposed to 50-50 for the A/Ts) Unless you're going to do some really serious bushwhacking, the H/T's should be good to go.

I gave the tyres a try-out earlier this year when I went to Lat Krathing and the waterfall is accessible only by 4WD. Must say both the tyres and the vehicle proved capable. The wife was a bit wide-eyed at times and the brother-in-law got out once or twice to scope the ground. Her sister (who used to sell Hondas) was also surprised and said it was definitely more capable than a CRV.

Will get the tyre specs and the phone number later when I get the car back from the service center.
The Nittos come highly recommended.

[VincentD]

Just checked. Nitto NT650 Extreme touring. spec 215/65 R16, set of 4 set me back just short of 15,000 baht a year ago. They are passenger car summer tyres.

The guy who changed the truck tyres (hhfarang, this is the proper English spelling, the 'i' in the tire is something that comes from across the pond... ) said the Dueller A/T cost about 4,400 baht each. Spec 235/70 R15. Also changed about a year ago.

[Nereus]

Just checked. Nitto NT650 Extreme touring. spec 215/65 R16, set of 4 set me back just short of 15,000 baht a year ago. They are passenger car summer tyres.

The guy who changed the truck tyres (hhfarang, this is the proper English spelling, the 'i' in the tire is something that comes from across the pond... ) said the Dueller A/T cost about 4,400 baht each. Spec 235/70 R15. Also changed about a year ago.

OK, thanks very much. I have Bridgestone Duellers A/T LT 245/75 R16 fitted at the moment.
The problem with all radial tyres fitted to off road vehicles is the likelihood of damage to the sidewalls, something that cannot be avoided. I guess it is a matter of which is the best compromise.

[Nereus]

Just to round this off a bit, a couple of things that came up over the last week.
I am in Bangkok, so the first shop referred to here is not in Hua Hin.

I went to the nearest local shop close to my Condo, an independent dealer that has a range of brands. Have only used them once before a couple of years ago for a small repair and balance. The salesman was adamant that the size I wanted, LT 245 / 75 R-16 is no longer manufactured! This despite the fact I had them on the car outside his door. “Only have LT 245 / 70 R-16,” which I did not want as the OD is smaller. He did not suggest that I go to a LT 265 / 70 R-16, which measures an OD of within a millimetre of what I wanted.

Price for BF Goodrich (imported tyre), 7,800 Baht! Bridgestone 6,500 Baht,
Dunlop crap, 5,000 Baht and Nitto Dura Gripper (imported) 4,900 Baht. All of these in 245 / 70 and included fitting.

Next day I went to the Bridgestone dealer and although he did not tell me the 245 / 75 is no longer manufactured, he did not have, and could not get any. So again I asked about the LT 265 / 70 R-16 and yes they have them but only in two different patterns, D683 and D689, neither of which really interested me. The D683 6,750 Baht, the D689 6,650 Baht, BUT, both of these tyres are made in Thailand, and only have a limited warranty. I have since read a horror story about these tyres shortcomings on an Australian website.
There were various stickers stuck up around his shop advertising D695 pattern, but of course, they do not have them!

I then went to the office of the Thailand distributor of Nitto tyres, the brand recommended by VincentD. What a difference! The young executive spoke excellent English, knew exactly what he was talking about and was only to happy to assure me they had stock of the tyre size and pattern that I wanted. They are labelled Dura Grippers LT 245 / 75 R-16 H/T, which is a good compromise pattern for some off road use. He said that if I went 200 metres up the road to another independent dealer that he would have the tyres delivered there within a few minutes. (these tyres are fresh stock, 5111)

Being a bit stupid I decided that I would go back to the first local dealer and ask them to have the tyres delivered to them for fitting the next day, as it was also getting on in the afternoon by now.
What happen next at that shop I have never seen before in over 20 years in Thailand.

This ancient Chinese crone came stalking out of a back office: “WHAT YOU WANT”? I told her, plus showed her a card with the tyre name and size on it and she then says “WHAT SIZE”? I pointed to the size and phone number on the card and she gets on the phone to get a price. She wrote 6,700 on a scrap of paper and then, again in the rudest most arrogant voice I have ever encountered here: “YOU WANT”? While all this is going on there is at least 6 other younger staff, both male and female standing around looking embarrassed. Enough of this shit so I said politely to her: “what is your problem lady, why are you speaking to me like this”? Again, in her rude manner: “YOU WANT”? I said “not at that price, or with your arrogant manner”! She then waves her podgy Chinese hand at me like I am some bad smell: “GO, GO “, she squawks”!!!
I can tell you she then got a mouthful of Australian adjectives that would do the proverbial bullock driver justice! I guess she had no idea about most of it, just kept screaming at me: “AND TO YOU”!!!!!!!!!!!! Damn lucky she did not get my walking stick wrapped around her arrogant head!
Many years ago when I worked in Singapore we used to encounter this sort of thing regularly, mostly in those days at small shop houses. But that was the way all of them spoke, whether to a customer or their own family, and in their own language, not English. One of the younger men in the shop, may have been her son, or some other family member, tried to shut her up a couple of times to no avail.

I went back the next day to the Nitto distributor and halfway through telling him what had happened he interrupted me and said I know which shop that is, I have had complaints about them before! He later said he had decided not to supply them in the future.

Nitto ended up fitting the tyres in their own shop. They have all the gear but usually just fit cars that belong to friends, as they believe as distributors that is the way it should be done. There was a big problem with removing the wheel nuts on my car, a direct result of some “mechanic” over torquing them with one of those bloody air guns, something that I have tried to prevent in the past, and something everybody needs to be aware of. No extra charge for this, but I did tip the poor sod that had to wrestle with them half the day.

These tyres have a “lifetime” warranty, which they explained, means that if the tyre fails because of a manufacturing fault at ANY time, it will be replaced, no pro-rata, no questions, it will be honoured. He has customers that have over 100,000 km on the tyres and still going safely. At that rate they will outlast me!

The LT 245 / 75 R-16 H/T cost me 26,000 Baht for a set of 4, but included a big armful of promotional gifts such as a nice big parasol, a cap, tee shirt, etc., plus a free ride to a local shopping centre for me to have lunch.

Highly recommended, and thanks to VincentD for the heads up concerning Nitto tyres.

[VincentD]

Glad to have been of help. Hope the tyres live up to your expectations.

[Nereus]

Here is a link to an interesting article about tyre pressures. Of course, you will need an accurate pressure gauge to do this, but at the current price of tyres it could well be cheap insurance. Quality gauges can be found on line, or the main 4x4 dealer in Bangkok can supply a suitable gauge.

http://www.aawen4x4.com.au/index.php?op ... t&Itemid=7