Maxxis Big Horns are OK

Hi all,

In a followup to my thread 86000 on 1st of May I can give a report on how these tyres fared.

The distance travelled (ie. in the bush) was about 1500kms, sometimes good dirt tracks, sometimes old unused shotlines, and actually less than 100kms off road (sometimes rough). Many sand dunes and often rocky country. This was in the vicinity of the north western portion of the Great Sandy (see my latest blog for some pictures of the country)

I ran 2 Big horns (which I bought 2nd hand) at the front and the mostly reliable Cooper STT in the rear (which has been my preferred tyre since 2007).

My count came in at 4 punctures left front and six on the right front. All pluggable. 1 puncture I could even put my pliers right into the tyre and it only took 1 plug. Most holes were in the sidewall.

This thread is not about the Coopers but for reference I only got 1 puncture in the rear end.

I almost doubled the puncture count of the next vehicle (of which there were 3 others) however this may be attributed to the fact that I was leading 98% of the time. The other vehicles (including 2 exploroz vehicles) had a mixture of Toyo Open Country, Wranglers and the new Cooper ST's.

All in all I'm still not quite sure if any particular tyre is better than another however the Big Horns exceeded my expectations and are a good sacrificial tyre for my type of travel, probably not as good as all the others mentioned but certainly are good value for money (even when you would buy them new).

I would recommend them to the moderate 4wdriver / traveler and to the driver who would give them hell in the desert, though one must expect them to be sacrificial.

"There are no bad tyres, only drivers" - What I mean by this is if you don't run over a stake, then you increase your chances of not getting a puncture, and that is what it all comes down to!!

Cheers
Alan