Tyres - opinions please

Wayne,
A few years back we had the Yokohama Geolanders recommended to us by a Victorian Tyre dealer prior to setting out to the Centre.

At Dalhousie we woke to find we had 2 flat tyres. Had them fixed and proceeded to Kings Canyon.
On the Merneenie Loop Road we then had a different tyre blow out after hitting a rock.

In Alice Springs the tyre dealer there told us that the Yokohamas were good for bitumen and gave a good smooth ride because they were much more flexable than the Bridgestone or BFG and demonstrated it by pushing into the drifferent type of tyres. He recommended the Bridgestone for travelling on the rocky roads of Central Australia.

We have had Cooper ST and STT on our F250 and they gave us very poor results and now we have Goodyear Wrangler Silent Armour and although expensive they give a good ride on all surfaces and appear to be lasting well.

Brian

Also find the std Bridgestones pretty good. Used Cooper on the work vehicles out in the Little Sandy Desert - bloody hopeless. OK in sand but do not like rocky counrty and get spiked easily.

John

Tyres and More Tyres,
I've tried the Cooper STT and they were OK for 50K on a heavy Troopie but in the stony roads big chunks came off them
I had a great run out of Goodyear AT's with no flats and running them down to 22psi o in mud and bad corros.
BUT hopeless in the slipery stuff, Just not enuff grip. 4mths in Tassie on the moss carpets was real fun.
I've just put a set of Mickey Thompson ATZ on. They have about the highest load rating of common tyres, They are inbetween AT and a MT.My son has a set for his fully worked off road L/C for his "road" tyres and swears by them for grip in all conditions and puncture resistance at any pressure
Load rating seemed important to me and they don't have the "floaty" feel that the Goodyears and Coopers had.
$'s are not very important when it comes to having a set of tyres that won't let you down in the worst places.

Hi Wayne

I swear buy BF Goodrich All Terrain. I have them on my F250 with dual rear wheel. The last 15 months I covered 53,000k's on them. I got about 40,000k's out of the first set. Now this doesn't sound a lot but keep in mind I've had a GVM upgrade and am running the truck at about 5.1 tonnes. Also the dual rear wheels means I can never take their pressure below 50 psi - the reason being any lower than this and they will rub together, generate heat and pop. In all of our trip we only suffered one puncture, of course it was the inside rear. The puncture was significant, a very large sharp piece of rock in Karijini National Park. Keep in mind we've covered all the usual dirt roads including all through the Flinders Ranges, Oodnadata Track, Tasmania etc etc.

I've run the front tyres from 50 psi down to 24psi with no problems.

Hope this helps.

John

Hi Wayne

I have an 09/2002 LC towing a 19' BT. We have lots of 'toys' so both vehicle & van are fully loaded.
Over the last 12 months or so I have formed the opinion (After lots of questions & research) that BFG AT's seem to give the best service/least amount of trouble on heavily laden LC100 vehicles towing heavy loads.
The price of tyres would not affect my decision to purchase. I was planning to buy same before our next winter trip but someone has spoiled my party and mentioned Mickey Thompsons whch sound even better.
Any other comments on these MT tyres would be apprecated.

Safe travels

Greg

G'day Wayne,

Did you know that Bridgestone now have 8ply Dueller AT's 275/70/R16?. Apparently they are the most popular in Pibara mining circles. We shod our LC 100 with them in Broome last year after having 5 punctures in the Pilbara area.We then did the GRR and a gravelly run home without any problems.

Our local tyre dealer told me that Toyo now have both 10 and 12ply ATs. and he reckons that they will outdo the Bridgestones and are $50 cheaper per tyre. May be worth considering.

Cheers.........Rob

My two bob's worth...

Have had a couple of sets of BF Goodrich All Terrain on Landcruiser and usually get about 90,000km from them. Fairly aggressive tread, but not too noisy.

Hi Wayne,

Maybe I'm a bit late, but heres my two bobs worth.

On my LC100TD, I replaced the original Dunlops at 36000km (mostly blacktop service) with BFG's for my first outback adventure.
I replaced the BFG's after 48,313km. Treads were still legal, but badly cut-up from crushed aggregate on WA roads.
For a change, I checked out Micky Thompson tyres for Tojo & replaced the BT tyres with another set of BFG's all terrain (bloody good tyres)
I selected Mickey Thompson Dick Cepic FC tyres. They are more aggressive than BFG's & have an original tread depth of 15mm. After 37000km the tread depth is 9mm & the condition of the tyres is like new. The distance travelled was similar to that travelled with the BFG's.
By the way, We have not had any tyre troubles other than an occasional puncture caused by nails in caravan parks in the over 100,000km travelled with the BT.
We normally travel at 40psi for Tojo & BT on the black stuff & 28psi on the good brown stuff, & down to 25psi when things get really nasty.

In summary, nothing wrong with either BFG or MT tyres

Neil