Will these tyres be legal?

Thanks Andrew for your helpful response.

I am in the category of travelling on a variety of unsealed roads and tracks and are looking to take our recently purchased camper on trips to the Centre, Pilbara and the Kimberly in 2015. We have a fair bit of gear and towing a camper that will be around 1600 kg fully laden including water and extra fuel so LT will be required in the tyre specs.

Thanks for your timely advice Andrew!

David

M/T's will not give you anymore strength and in most cases less strengh over a good quality A/T and really offer no advantages unless you drive in mud, most M/T's have softer sidewalls and are more puncture prone in to open tread block plus the disadvantages of driving on dry semi sealed and sealed roads.

M/T tyres must be one of the most over rated products people fit to their 4x4.

I would be more concerned with the noise you have to put up with over 1000's of kilometers if going to an unknown brand.

Some brands of M/T's are stronger than their equivalent A/T's with extra ply around the centre of the tyre extra sidewall plies and stronger sidewall cords not sure where your info came from. M/T's may be overrated for your type driving but they are definitely not overrated if you buy them to serve you for a particular purpose. I used M/T's for about 18 yrs because they suited the places I liked to go but now I have only been using A/T's for about 9 yrs because I do more km on the road and on dirt tracks and less mud and clay tracks. M/T's can be noisy but really they're not that loud or unbearable plus modern cars are quieter in the cab than older vehicles. There is a few compromises to owning any type of tyre that's why you buy them to suit your needs.

Batts...... might pay to read my post again.

As I said "and really offer no advantages unless you drive in mud"

Many M/T tyres have softer sidewalls then many of the better off road style A/T's due to the design nature of them plus more open tread block making them more puncture prone, can't beat thicker rubber to stop a punture...... a M/T tyre you want it to conform to the surface it's transversing by offering more flex as opposed to an A/T tyre where you want less deformation and flex helping to make the tyre more stable at higher speeds.

As with most M/T and A/T tyres some have more strength then others.

Toyo Open Country M/T are my choice of tyre but when we went to the 200 series Landcruiser we ended up going to Mickey Thompson MTZ as Toyo don't bring a tyre into Australia that suited the 200 series so had to goto the MTZ's due to the rave reviews they had...... How wrong I was.

It made the 200 series very unstable and dangerous to drive due to tyre flex..... after 20,000k changed to Cooper ST Maxx and could not be happier, they have performed above my expectations in all conditions including 500 kilometers of soft mud and sticky clay driving on one trip (had camper trailer travelling 90 deg to the Land cruiser slippery.)

Getting back to choosing an M/T over an A/T...... most get carried away with the fact less then 1 percent of their driving a M/T will offer a slight advantage...... for the other 99 percent it offers a disadvantage.

After running a more aggressive A/T tyre there is no way I would go back to a M/T tyre again unless I was going to play in the mud for over 40 percent of my driving.

My reply was aimed at your claim that M/T will not give you any more strength which is incorrect and very misleading info.. And you also claim they are the most overrated product fitted to a 4WD again false and misleading based on no factual evidence at all. Now you're claiming they have a 99% disadvantage wow when will it stop again false and misleading info supplied to people who may be looking at buying a set. What the 99% disadvantage you claim remember it's not a race car you're driving it's a top heavy 4WD so you drive to suit the conditions they have reasonable grip on road surfaces but not as good as most A/T's good grip on gravel and excellent in mud, clay good self cleaning properties they will quite often get you further along a track and give you more confidence to tackle harder obstacles instead of turning around if you had A/T's fitted. They are quite good on sand and in some cases better depending on the conditions and the tread pattern their speed and load ratings are very good, they also have very good wear rates when comparing to other types of tyres. Apparently they are slightly more susceptible to getting staked because of the larger gaps between the lugs some companies have reinforced their tyres in this area personally I've only had one puncture due to that problem in 18yrs some people may have had more trouble. They are a bit noisier on road but you get that with M/T's. So if you live in an area where these tyres will be a big advantage over the rest and are contemplating buying M/T's give them a go there in definitely not a 99% disadvantage to owning them.

Will do
Thanks for that

Thanks for the useful links and information provided by all who have replied.

I will stick to the recommended size AT tyre and I have been given great suggestions to follow up with.

I was a bit concerned about "putting out there" my lack of knowledge but it is great to see a lot of helpful people more than willing to assist.

Hope to see some you on the tracks!

David

TomH new laws let you go to a max of 50mm more in dia which will give you a 25mm lift which is the legal max for a 4WD tyre and you can legally run that will a max of a 50mm spring lift as well giving you a 75mm lift overall which is legal. Page 42 http://www.tmr.qld.gov.au/Safety/Vehicle-standards-and-modifications/Vehicle-modifications/Light-vehicle-modifications.aspx#qcop

TomH when you open the link I pasted scroll down about 2 thirds of the page till you see The Queensland Code of Practice : Vehicle Modifications there is a pdf you can download and read it put a smile on my face once I read it.

Forget my last comment, I was wrong as usual.... :-)

PS Every state is different regarding tyre sizes. Check this-

http://www.drive.com.au/Editorial/ArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=52051&IsPgd=0

There was talk of allowing a 7% increase but I haven't seen anything official.

Gee, a 2008 article, not accurate anymore mate.

You can go 50mm larger diameter in Qld

The point was that every state is different. Its still only 15mm on the NSW site so taking advice without actually checking is no advice at all except to say that 15mm is legal in every state.