Morris Minor Owners Club

i had the missfortune to have the head gasket go ,and came back on a lorry,today i went to nuffield place and the car felt awful.i stopped and this is what i found.so if you have to go on a lorry watch they dont go mad on the tyre straps ,got to get 2 new ones this week . [frame][/frame]

See - if you had just had that spare gasket with you, you could have swapped it over - saved the lorry trip, and not ruined the two tyres!

Lorry? Was that RAC OR AA? .................. Regards, Peter.

Complain!
They will be covered by insurance for damage caused by their employees or contractors.
No reason you should have to pay for damage they caused.

On the positive side, you saved on petrol

I would suspect that tyre was aged anyway to get like that. The straps just "highlighted" it. Look for cracking in the tread bottoms and on the sidewall. The atmosphere and uv light destroys rubber in time especially if tyres aren't used a graet deal and left standing.
Motor homes and seasonal vehicles get flat spots where the tyre has been stood on the floor for weeks even if their not aged

I would say that the treatment that tyre has been through could easily have damaged even a new tyre.
They have used as much force, if not more, than they would one a modern tyre which has much more tread area and much less side wall.

It looks as if the straps were pulled down till they gripped the rims.
This may have been amusing for the lorry driver but no way would I be swallowing the cost of replacing those tyres.

If a few panels had got dented or scratched would you all be saying it's only an old car don't worry about it?

for me.. it depends on the age of the tyre, if the tyres are less than 5 years old I would be expecting replacement in full regardless of remaining tread depth on the tyre.

Over 5 years and I would certainly be asking for them to contribute towards the cost of new tyres.
Over 10 years I would ask but not expect anything

You can find the age of the tyres by looking at the side wall..
( just ignore the american spelling, the information is still correct )
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/ ... ?techid=11

That's reasonable, I certainly wouldn't "just let it go" under any circumstances.
Tyres, of whatever age ,weren't designed for that kind of treatment, now they are badly damaged, before they weren't.

the tyres were 3 years old im going to change both just to be on the safe side .

keep the tyres, at three years old i would certainly be asking for full compensation and you might need to prove that the tyres were damaged