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MT-762 BIGHORN MUD TERRAIN REVIEW

Submitted: Tuesday, May 01, 2007 at 21:03

Robin

MT-762 BIGHORN MUD TERRAIN REVIEW

With some apprehension I broke away from Goodyear MTR's for my new set of mud terrains. More so because of size availability than performance.

MTR's are a good all round tyre, however for me its always about increasing the
envelope of the cars performance not just a single aspect and the 265/75/16 size
I had did not provide enough axle ground clearance in a GU Patrol.

I believe 255/85/16 (33.3inch) is a better size choice for Patrols as it gives
a few millimeters more ground clearance without weight than the more familiar 285/75/16 size.

I also use Cooper ST in 255/85/16 for touring and this complements the muddies.

The Cooper ST have a fairly vertical edge to them and don't bag out the best whereas the new Maxxis BigHorn 762's lug moulding extends considerably further around the sidewall, effectively giving an extra 2cm of grip without using a larger casing.

Unlike the Coopers the rubber is a soft compound and the tyres are a lot less harsh on road. Sort of like MTR's and they have the sipes as well.

BFG MT are also in this size but they also had vertical side edges and lacked sipes.
A significant advantage with this size is that I can run 16 X 7 trak 2 rims which provides a track width increase and less weight than standard Nissan.
Rim + Tyre is 37.8kg only.
This low weight keeps the steering and suspension more responsive.

The Big Horns don't have white lettering though - but this makes it easier to reverse the tyre on the rim later in life or if they suffer damage.

The tyres balanced up correctly and ran true, with the car pulling
less to the left than my 80% left BFG AT reference tyre and wheel set.

On the road the MT-762 seem to perform similar to MTR's and I expect a relatively short life.

The sidewalls are relatively weak - making on road performance better.

The new Cooper STT would be better if sidewall strength was your concern.

A pleasant surprise was the low level of noise for such an
aggressive tyre and its almost acceptable for daily driving.
Noise is hard to comment on, and depends a lot on road surface. Fine bitumen
makes an annoying whirr sound on most muddies - but the noise generated was "pleasant" as opposed to the "no louder" but more annoying MTR whine.
On rougher bitumen, as found on many country roads the noise level was lower than expected and acceptable.

There a cheap tyre, mine were $240 from Bob Jane without much shopping around.

After a 900km loop thru the High country and test driving in all conditions I am
able to follow up with my impressions of their performance in the bush.

Essentially they worked well.

This trip began with 2 hours of highway travel in rain with 36psi and they performed pretty close to my previous MTR MT's - which was quite good with adequate water dispersion and effective stopping distance.
Both of these were significantly better than solid block Kumho's I also had.

In the high country while rivers were low, we arrived in the Talbotville area just
as a ranger left with a load of road closed signs he had just picked up and we were
one of first thru some of the mud/slush filled wastelands that were the Crooked
& Wonngurra rivers.
In each case the tall 255/85/16 tyres at 24psi churned effectively through the mud,
without the resistance and maintaining better directional stability than a set of
315 Cooper STT's on a friends car.

Dirt tracks through the Wonnagatta valley were no real issue although they did
cause the tyres to slip a little more than AT's would have on hard dirt.

We did many tracks with many sharp rocks and found only 1 match head sized
chip and an average amount of small cuts and low wear rate.

Under sideslope load the tyres exhibited little distortion (at 24psi).

Overall I find these to be a very acceptable tyre and a real boon to
those who like not to over-tyre their car but still require a tall
aggressive MT with acceptable levels of road noise except on fine bitumen.

Robin Miller 1/5/2007
Survivor -Top Crossing Hut Trk
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Robin Miller
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AnswerID: 237276   Submitted: Tuesday, May 01, 2007 at 21:41

fester2au replied:

Interesting Robin. What is your opinion of relatively short life like the MTR's. I have recently removed my 315 MTR's and replaced with the same size Mickey Thompson MTZ's. These are proving to be a nice tyre so far but as far as life goes I've still got the MTR's in the shed and at a guess they still have about 8mm of tread left after 72,000km. I onyl really replaced them as their offroad perfromance was obviously down but they were a bit light on in the wet under the 4.8 auto. Try to beat someone through a roundabout or similar situation in congested traffic situations and the back would just light up.

Interesting thing on tyre pressure which I am sure you have covered previously.. I used to run similar pressures to factory Nissan 29/34 (or thereabouts) as when a tyre shop fitted my 305/70 Procomp muddies at 38psi a few years ago the car was very rough and tramlined quite a bit. When I got the MTR's I dropped closer to factory for a better ride and as you have heard me state before my fuel consumption was Arabic. Just came back from a 10hr each way almost non stop run into NSW to pick up a van and averaged around 16 l /100k down and 19.5 with van in tow on return. Might not sound great to some but significantly better than I have ever had before. I guess it's time to forgo a little comfort for the sake of my wallet seeign as I'm paying for all my fuel these days.

To that end I must also state that the MTZ's seem far more stable and comfortable than previous tyres at those pressures.

Gavin
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FollowupID: 498351   Submitted: Wednesday, May 02, 2007 at 08:08

Robin posted:

Hi Gavin

I know you would be pleased with the 16 lt/100km. Theoretically you should get better than me on a run with your lower engine revs , but I'm still sub 15 on a run .

Yes keeping tyre pressures high is certainly the go and does make for harsher ride.

I am still running my 235/85/16 Opats around town at 45psi and just can't seem to kill them (80-90k now) , I'm sure the rubber has gone off and hard but theres only a mm or two to go before I throw them out. Probably saved me the cost of the new MT-762's.

I only had MTR's for 5000km and got rid of them as they were starting to cut up badly, as opposed to wear - then went for Cooper ST which chipped even worse - hence I keep putting OPats or BFG AT back on after every trip.

Did you ever get a uni-chip? I did but hardly use it as it makes no substantial difference on my car.

Robin Miller

Survivor -Top Crossing Hut Trk
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Robin Miller
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