Plan B

Is this an Italian government organised (those two words aren't often seen together) rip-off to benefit tyre fitters?
Having twice had punctures this year I have come up against the rule that the tyres on an axle have to be identical and this usually means having to buy 2 tyres even if only one is punctured. It seems it's not enough to have tyres of the same size, but also of the same edition or model. I have just found that the same sized Continental tyre of last year has been superseded by a new model and have had to hunt high and low for a friendly enough "gommista" to source one of last year's vintage.
Is this need for identical tyres on the same axle peculiar to Italy, or do other countries have a similar rule?

jonwel

Well, 40 years ago when I lived in GB my car failed the MoT on the first attempt because it had a radial ply tyre on one side and cross-ply on the other. I don't think they make cross-ply tyres any more (correct me if I'm wrong, anyone), but anyway I don't think they would have gone to the point of demanding identical tyres - I just bought a new one making sure it was radial ply.
I'm not sure if iddntical tyres is a legal requirement or some garage trying it on. I'd try another gommista before spending money on an extra tyre.
Another thought: you'd have to change them around regularly, otherwise one of the two tyres would be more worn than the other and that would be unacceptable too!

Plan B

Having tried 3 gommiste already, all of which have spoken of the requirement for matching tyres on the same axle, it certainly would seem to be the law: unfortunately and perhaps unnecessarily. The other three tyres are all still newish, maybe 2,000 or 3,000km only.

philat98

I agree that all these laws are designed to fill the pockets of the gommista.
When I take my dog out I sometimes take a look at other peoples tyres and I have noticed that half of them are worn below the minimum tread depth. As usual lots of rules with nobody taking any notice.

Lorna at Vicenza

I'd never heard of this despite having only one tyre replaced last year by a 'gommista' so I did a quick Google search and all of the Italian websites said the same thing: that yes, it is a law.


È bene ricordare che i pneumatici DEVONO ESSERE UGUALI SULLO STESSO ASSE: Marca, Modello, Dimensioni, Disegno del battistrada, Indici di Carico e Velocit� . La legge vieta di viaggiare con gomme differenti sullo stesso asse (esempio una Michelin a destra ed una Bridgestone a sinistra, oppure una Continental SC2 a destra ed una Continental SC3 a sinistra).

ononno

Plan B

Thank you Lorna for your confirmation. (Damn it!)

arjacey

There's quite a bit about this on the web. Generally, advice is that it is not safe to mix tyres on the same axle, some that you should have the same tyre all round, particularly on 4x4s. I did this last year when changing back to summer tyres so did a bit of reading around.

Some of this advice comes from tyre manufacturers so might be considered with a healthy pinch of salt. However, there are some peer to peer posts (just like this really but for 'petrolheads') from people who experienced some problems when mixing their tyres front and back (lack of control, DSC coming on intermittently and so on). It seems to be generally agreed that they should be the same across axles, though.

So I guess there are two issues: one, do you need to be legal? As philtat98 says, Italy seems to have rules to be broken and, of course, its fine, as with all other law breaking, if you get away with it . Might be expensive if you get stopped though.

Secondly, do you want you and yours to be safe? You could try it and not have any problems at all. On the other hand, you might end up in a ditch...

HTH