Tyres

I have had these for two years now and will get them again

2010-2018 - Tyres we used in South America on our X Trail T31 then Montero:

- Dunlop Grandtrek AT3 - good tyre on the highway, OK offroad
- Pirelli Scorpion AT - similar to the Dunlops
- Yokohama Geolandar A/T-S - the best of these three - good on the highway, more capable offroad.

2017 - In 2017 we made a "big trip" through Africa and had BF Goodrich T/As on our vehicle there (LC80) - they were a little noisier on the highway, however better than all of the previous tyres offroad.

2019 - In 2019 we made a "big trip" around Australia and at that point had the Yokohama Geolandar A/T-S on the vehicle. When we needed to replace one we found that the nearest shop had BF Goodrich T/As and we asked them to put one on the vehicle, however they recommended a Toyo Open Country AT as being as good as the BFG at a lower price. We took their advice and when we subsequently replaced two more tyres put on two more Toyos, which we have on the vehicle now (in South America). The Toyos are excellent - quiet and capable on the highway, and good offroad. So, I'd recommend Toyos.

2022-2024 – In 2022 we acquired another vehicle – it was way too expensive to ship our Montero to North America so we bought a Wrangler JK LWB and took it 53,000 km around Western/Northwestern Canada. It came with Michelin LTXs and although we were initially concerned at their capability they proved remarkably capable on tarmac, gravel, and “offroad”. We did experience 2 punctures, which we fixed, however it should be noted that on this section of the Dempster we helped fix a lot of punctures on other vehicles (as many as 3 simultaneous punctures on one vehicle in one case!), so having only 2 was not bad. Later in the trip we replaced the tyre which had experienced 2 punctures with a new Bridgestone Dueler A/T and put the spare on the rear axle. The choice was partly owing to the fact that the spare tyre was a Dueler and the tyre workshop in Fort Nelson had one available. We ended up with 2 x Dueler A/Ts at the back and the Michelin LTXs at the front and as the spare. If we had needed to replace all of the tyres on the Wrangler we’d have gone for the Toyos.

The tyres on the Montero are Toyos now, with one Geolandar left.

So – Toyos are our recommendation.

I've seen a lot of recommendations recently for Falken Wildpeaks, however have no experience to offer.

beg to differ ,now made in China ,i was a bit annoyed.

Bet to differ…..clearly stamped on my tyres…..”Made in Japan”

yours are ,mine aren't ,but i was expecting them to be ,i guess as long as they contain a certain % of Japanese ingredients its all good .

Stephen,
I nearly bought Open Country A/T's a few years back on your recommendation to someone else here on EO but on doing a little research, so many owners in review said they were terrible on wet sealed roads. I ended up staying with BFG A/T's. What's your experience? Regards, Michael.

We have had no issues in the wet on bitumen on both the old AT2 and now with the AT3

My current BFGs are hardly worn but they are getting old, I think I will go back to the original profile and give the Toyos a go. Thanks Stephen. Regards, Michael

re "I nearly bought Open Country A/T's a few years back on your recommendation to someone else here on EO but on doing a little research, so many owners in review said they were terrible on wet sealed roads."

We live in Colombia; it's a bit wet (highest rainfall is at Puerto Lopez, not far from where we live, which has over 13 m/year of rainfall; the wettest place in Australia is Tully, I believe, with an average of 4 m/year. When we completed our long trip in Australia we took the car home, since when we've driven 40,000 km or so on the Toyos, in very wet conditions during the rainy seasons. The tyres have been fine, with good grip.

Thanks for the feedback Alan, I was surprised at the nearly six out of ten who complained about lack of wet grip, a few others were happy with that aspect. I have seen the way many drive on A/T and Mud tyres and yes they probably are going have wet weather issues. Sometimes you have try for yourself and get some own life experiences. Regards, Michael.

Was running Maxxis 980 but have now changed to Maxxis Razrs . Great sidewall protection but cant say what they wear like as I am hard on tyres in general

Don’t keep track of my usage, Ivan, but rarely get more than 40K kms out of a set. Hear of blokes on the coast getting 80-100K out of their tyres, but once you live outback, good wear is difficult to achieve.

Bob

I’m running the Maxxis RAZR 811. I run 6 tyres, 2 spares. Purchased June 2021. They are currently at 72,200 k. Have done Hay river track, Plenty Hwy. French line, Colsen track & madigan line 2 years ago. Up WA coast this year & down Binns track, out to Surveyor Generals corner, back to Alice & then home down GCR. I have rotated them 6 times in the time I’ve had them & we are leaving Mon to drive across the Nullabor to SA. They will get me over and back easily but if I go remote again I will replace them. When I done the Simpson trip there were 6 Vehicles runing five different makes of tyres, none of us had a problem then or until now. The Maxxis are an aggressive looking tyre but are very quiet on the black top. I think there are some good quality tyres out there just need to make up your own mind what you want. Maxxis are out of Taiwan and have 5 factories around the world according to the bloke that sold me mine. Happy touring.

I changed to Maxxis Razr after using Coopers for a number of years, and very happy with the improvement on and off road - seem to be less prone to damage (fingers crossed of course!!)

Bob Y. I find the dirt roads and corrugations hard on the rear set so I'm always put the fronts to the rear and fit new tyres on the front. Out ute shares work and play duties but spends a fair amount of time on dirt. I do find the tyres noisy on Bitumen.

Do the same, Ivan. Almost due for a new pair once I drive to Townsville & back early next week. Don’t notice road noise with them, too much occupational deafness in my case. The rears have worn quite a bit, but put it down to towing a heavy van along Gibb, up to Agate Ck & a couple of bitumen runs up to Camooweal over the past 2 years.

Bob

Also have the Maxxis Razr A/T done 52,000km in the past 2 1/2 yrs just checked there down to 5mm. Been a good all round tyre and very good on wet roads I'll get the same again.

Same. I’ve had multiple sets of GO12’s, GO15’s and now on a set of 10 ply GO16’s.
Even put a set of p metric rated GO15’s on the wife’s forester.
Most of our fleet utes have changed to GO15’s now also.
Great tyres. Best puncture warranty in the game. I have not had to use it though.

I never actually looked at it that way before Allan. I currently have six wheels and tyres and rotate them at every 10,000 km service.

My first set of Coopers I did get over 120,000 kms with only the standard 5 wheels and tyres, and that included a half lap from Melbourne. Went up the Stuart Highway to Darwin, Kakadu, across to Katherine, the GRR to Kalumburu, then Broom, back to Halls Creek, down the Tanami to Alice, down the Oodnadatta and back to Melbourne via Broken Hill. That was back in 2004/5. After that I bought more Coopers only to have a total of 8 side wall failures over the next couple of sets. All were replaced under various warranty conditions. However, I will not buy Coopers again.

Macca.

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Hi Macca,
The first tyres I put on the Troopy were Coopers. After a few thousand k's several developed cracks where the sidewall joins the tread. Not wishing to be stuck in a remote location I ripped them all off and went to BFG's. When they wore out, my long experienced tyre dealer recommended General Grabber's as being highly reliable with a good mileage at a reasonable price. He was right and I stayed with them ever since.
In my opinion, the best thing about Coopers is their advertising!

But there you go….. the best tyres are always the ones on your vehicle….. ask anyone!

When we lived on the Diamantina, we purchased a very tidy 1997 model multivalve 80 series, shod with BFG’s. They seemed okay so continued to use them for another 250K kms!

But as average wear rate on the Diamantina River Road and/or Cork Mail Road was only 30-40K kms, for the BFG’s, it was an expensive exercise. However, never had a blowout, but tread wear was rapid on those gravel roads.

Bob