Joe replied:

Neil,

When you are talking to a rep you must remember that, as a sales person, they are basically genetically bound to present the fact of any case in a manner that best suits whatever it is they are selling.

IMHO they are all similar to the used car salesman and are therefore all lying, cheating bastards. As I say, that is IMHO and is a broad brush generalisation.

Before you start looking at brands you should take a good look at the type of driving you will be doing.

If you are going to spend 98% of your time on road with the other 2% being beach or dirt road work then you should be looking at Highway Terrain (HT) tyres.

If you are doing more off road work then you should consider All Terrain (AT) tyres, or if you are doing any half serious off roading then look at Mud Terrain (MT) tyres.

Now, longevity. Well 4WD tyres are bigger so they almost always do last longer than the tyres on a conventional sedan. 80,000 klms is not unheard of, and there are some manufacturers (Cooper for example) who will guarantee that distance. Beware of the stipulations in the guarantee though - you need to have the tyres checked, rotated etc every 10,000 klms by a Cooper approved technician.

I find that 60 to 70,000 klms is more normal for a set of tyres, but I do tend to change them before they get close to being illegal, so I could possibly get closer to the 80k mark.

Firestone tyres - I have no experience with these tyres so I can't offer any advice there other than the fact that if you were comfortable with them before then you probably won't go far wrong.

There were some scares for people who had Firestone tyres on Ford Explorers, but that was (I believe) an isolated case.

Good luck
Joe

Rodger Tremlett replied:

Hi, if you intend on travelling on sealed as well as unsealed roads, 50% unsealed or more around australia I recomend the BF Goodrich All Terrain. Thet are excelent as an all rounder and can handle the sharp stoned roads we find around. They are made by Michelin now. Expensive but good.

Alex replied:

Hi,
I used a set of firehawks for quite some time (I can't remember the mileage though) and I was very happy with them for on-road and beach driving. They are a bit vulnerable to sidewall stake-ing if you do much desert driving in them, but otherwise they are good. Another option to look at that I have been very happy with is the Pirelli Scorpion A/T, which is good compromise tyre and wears pretty well too.
Now I've got you totally confused, I'll leave you in peace. Cheers, Alex.

Grant Taylor replied:

Neil, have no experience with firehawks but can tell you that Firestones are the cheaper end of the market for a reason. They just aren't as strong. Firestone tryes are factory fitted to Case harvesters and we had problems with the Firestones being too light for the job (the bead broke away). The next Case harvester we bought we stipulated - NO Firestones unless they are 16 ply (up from 12). The moral of the story being, if the Firestones are built a lot stronger then give them a go, if not, I'd avoid them. ps Case put another brand on.

Ken replied:

Niel,Regarding BFG all Terrain KO I used a set 9.5x15 on my Ford Courier turbo dieselthey have now travelled around 70,000km and are still legal.during this time they made two trips along the CanningStockRoute a trip along the Gibb River Road including Kalumberu and Port Warrender.Last year Ispent a week in Rudall River N.P.To date only one puncture! I would not replace them with anything less. Regards Ken.

Andrew replied:

I have Firehaws on my 95 discovery. Cant fault them. Great on-road tyre. Not bad off-road, though AT will win hands down. Done many trips with no problems. Only had one punture from city driving which was due to 3 nails (one in the sidewall) so it was beyond repair. Basically there as good as any standard 4x4 tyre but have abetter price tag. Approx $150
If you mostly a on-road driver with a off-road trip once or twice a month then there great. Quiet to.

Hope it helps.
Andrew