There are two letters on some sidewalls that matter rather more than most of what is printed there. XL, sometimes spelled out as reinforced, means the tyre has a stronger casing and a higher load rating than the standard version of the same size, achieved by running it at a higher inflation pressure.
Plenty of cars need it. Heavier estates and SUVs, cars carrying a battery pack, and anything whose door plate asks for high pressures were designed around that extra capacity. What actually matters is not the letters but the load index, the two-figure number sitting just after the size. That number has to be at least what the car's own plate calls for. Going above it is safe. Going below it, even by one, means the tyre is being asked to carry more than it is rated for, and the first sign of that is heat.
Fitting a standard load tyre in place of a reinforced one is among the commonest quiet mistakes in this trade, because the size on the sidewall reads correctly and only the small print is wrong.
Two decisions and you are done: which tyre, and what time. After that the van comes to the car rather than the other way round, so a set can go on while it sits outside the house in Hyde Farm, outside the office, or in a bay on the South Circular if that suits the day better. The Nightingale Triangle phone and the Bedford Hill phone ring the same fitter, any hour. Midnight in Bedford Hill, midday in Heaver Estate, the same call either way. SW12 takes in Heaver Estate and Hyde Farm, and we work the lot.
New tyres in Balham is part of our wider mobile mobile tyre fitting cover. For new tyres in Balham, call 07717 389637 or send us your details for a price.
A load rating is tested by how a car is really used, and use here is heavy. Short trips fully loaded, the pull up Bedford Hill and Balham Hill on every journey out, and long spells standing in a permit bay. All of that asks more of a casing than steady mileage does. Reading the door plate before you order takes a minute and it is the step most people skip.
A car with a matched set on paper: same brand, same size, same pattern. One carried a lower load index than the other three and had been fitted by somebody who checked the size and stopped there. It was the only one wearing unevenly across its shoulders.
An owner off Nightingale Lane regularly carrying four people and a full boot. We supplied the reinforced version the door plate called for and set the laden pressures rather than the everyday figures.
A full set ordered from the plate in the driver's door shut rather than from whatever happened to be on the car, which is the safer way round when a previous owner's choices are unknown. Two of the four had carried the wrong rating for years.
The plate in the driver's door shut gives the sizes and the load and speed ratings the car was approved on. Compare that against what is on the sidewalls now. If the plate calls for a higher load index than the tyres carry, they are wrong.
A little, yes. A stiffer casing at a higher pressure passes more of the road surface into the car. On the sort of driving this area gives a car that is a fair trade for a tyre that is not being overworked.
You can. A higher load index than required is never a fault in itself. The thing to get right is the pressure, since the extra capacity only exists at the higher figure, so the door plate numbers still apply.
The common car, SUV and 4x4 sizes ride on the van in both standard and reinforced ratings, so most planned fits come from stock. Anything unusual is ordered in, and you are told on the phone when it will arrive.
★★★★★ 4.9 from 151 verified Google reviews.
Read all 151 reviews on Google →Prefer a callback? Send your details for a new tyres price in Balham.