Willem replied:

Hi Mike

I think there has been a vast improvement in tyre manufacturing from 1956 to 2006. I am not sure how careful a driver Len was as he had to drive virtually in a straight line to get the right survey points. And he didn't have split rims which made tyre changing even worse.

Time will tell. I will be using the tyres next year for another off-track adventure and will report back by end July. Until that time you will just have to guess :-)

Cheers

Member - Davoe (Nullagine) replied:

spose youve just gotta use a decent set of crossplys backed up by proper tyre repair gearout in the never never to appreciate the difference. I guess the best comparrison i can give you is when one of the bosses tagged along to check out the work being done. As he had radials he had 3 spares but was quickly down to none with the rest being wrecked with sidewall tears. So the fieldie (luckily I was with my geo a few ks away) had to do some strip and refits to get some of his rag spares onto the 100 seies wheels.
...................... And the kicker is they never got close to going off track

Richard Kovac replied:

I would think the main reason for using cross ply's is the ply rating off the side wall, and that they are Cross ply instead of radial ply,
You will still (may) get a puncture but the tyre will not stilt radially around the tyre
and a stick will fined it harder to penetrate the Cris's cross of the cross ply rather then the radial ply..

me think's any way

Regards
Richard

Member - Phil G (SA) replied:

Gday Mike,

I used crossplies (mostly RTMs and Hi-milers) in the late 70's and early 80's on my 2A LandRover and then FJ55. When I changed to radials, I stopped getting punctures. The problem with the crossplies were that stones easily perforated thru the thin tread and they wore out quick.

If you use the really thick 12-14ply tyres, you're unlikely to get a "puncture". But the downside is heat build-up, when doing the long kms on the bitumen, which leads to blowouts from tube fatigue and the tyres wear out fast. I've had tubed tyres blow out at 110kph on two occasions and nearly rolled the old troopie as a result, so I no longer use splits for safety reasons.

Willem's not alone in the problems he's had with using high mileage tyres with thin sidewalls. We all debate what is the best compromise, and for me, I've had a great run out of thicker sidewall radials (like MTR) that don't boast a high mileage, and don't rely on huge advertising.

Cheers
Phil