A few weeks ago I hit a largish, and quite hard, anthill with the passenger-side front wheel – hard enough to pinch the sidewall against the rim. On inspection I could see a small bulge, suggesting that there was hidden damage under the intact rubber. As I was only running at low speeds around town I left it alone, but knew I would have to replace it before the next 500km trip home.
I didn’t think it would be a problem to find 195/65R15 tyres, but I went to all (well, both) of the regular outlets – Maxiprest and Tyre Services. No stock. Interestingly there was a council bakkie that kept arriving 30 seconds after me at each depot. Maybe the same problem?
Eventually I found an independent tyre supplier: Tyre Max. In Boseja industrial area, on the road parallel to the main road to Francistown, behind Buy n Build and Cashbuild.
They had Michelin Energy Saver 91H tyres at a reasonable P580 each. Since the other tyres were also wearing a bit thin I replaced the whole set.
The changing and balancing was done quickly and efficiently – although I did notice that one tyre was fitted with the manufacturers dots away from the valve stem. The tyres are marked with “outside” on the sidewall, and one tyre was almost fitted with this on the inside.
As a general observation for anybody having tyres fitted in Botswana (and anywhere else where the technicians may not be fully trained) I would recommend to watch what is going on, rather than sit in the waiting room: you may spot something that prevents a future problem, and it can be interesting to chat to the technicians.
Then it was on to wheel alignment.
Some time ago I noticed uneven wear on the driver’s side rear tyre and had Maxiprest Francistown do alignment – their system, at the time, was running on spirit-level bubbles, thin wires and LEDs. I do not recall the exact adjustments made, but there were some.
It didn’t stop the tyre wear.
The alignment system at Tyre Max is based on two LED arrays either side of the front of the car, a reflector on each wheel and receivers mounted in the centre of the LED arrays.
| Rear | Camber | Before | Specification (Min/Max) | After | ||
| Left | -1⁰13′ | -0⁰55′ | -0⁰25′ | -0⁰36′ | ||
| Right | -1⁰16′ | -0⁰55′ | -0⁰25′ | -0⁰43′ | ||
| Toe | Left | -0⁰32′ | 0⁰02′ | 0⁰12′ | 0⁰09′ | |
| Right | 0⁰34′ | 0⁰02′ | 0⁰12′ | 0⁰10′ | ||
| Total | 0⁰02′ | 0⁰12′ | 0⁰24′ | 0⁰19′ | ||
The front wheels were okay but, as can be seen in the table, the rear wheels were far out. In my opinion the numbers are too regular to be accounted for by knocks and movement over time – points to a dodgy system at Maxiprest.
The Tyre Max technician operated the system efficiently and made the required adjustments to bring everything in line with the specification. After a few thousand kilometres of driving I cannot see any visible signs of uneven wear on the tyres, and I will be taking it back in for a check after 10,000km.
Cost of alignment was P132.
The technician also showed me the ball-joints and tie-rod ends, which were kind of loose – they will need replacing at the next service, which is due soon.
So, if you need tyres and wheel alignment try Tyre Max (6864040) – they have the most modern wheel alignment system I have seen in Francistown and Maun and their service was good. Except they didn’t offer me a cool drink!
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