Cooper Tire Issues

Submitted: Wednesday, Oct 05, 2016 at 21:01
ThreadID: 133562 Views:7969 Replies:17 FollowUps:18
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I have recently experienced sidewall splitting on four out of a set of five Cooper STMAXX tires. All four had the same batch number. Cooper have replaced all four tyres under warranty, and advised me that they had a problem with a couple of batches of tyres manufactured in 2014/2015. They also advised that the problem has been rectified. I have had two sets of Coopers previously with out experiencing any problems. Each set delivered over 100K kms. I go off road each year on big trips, probably 60% bitumen 40% sand or gravel with pretty decent corrugations. I have been advised that MAXXIS tyres are the way to go. Would be interested to hear from anyone else for their views. I have also had a set of Mickey Thompson which I thought did not perform as well as the Coopers, even though they come out of the same factory.

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Reply By: equinox - Wednesday, Oct 05, 2016 at 21:34

Wednesday, Oct 05, 2016 at 21:34
Everyone has a different opinion.
I bought a full set of Cooper STT Pro's in April - they're all full of plugs and luckily the cops haven't seen them yet.
I'm getting another full set of Toyo OC MT's on the weekend for the next round.
I can assure you they will be stuffed by mid next year.
Everyone will have a different opinion and that's Ok - everyone drives differently - one tyre may suit one person and may not suit another.
They are just a consumable item, and you just have the make the best choice for yourself based on what you hear, what your read, and what you have experienced.
Cheers
Alan

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AnswerID: 604924

Reply By: Michael H9 - Wednesday, Oct 05, 2016 at 21:41

Wednesday, Oct 05, 2016 at 21:41
I've had Maxxis AT700's and didn't find them very good, they seemed soft and got ripped up doing virtually nothing on the Birdsville Track. Maybe others have a different opinion.
AnswerID: 604925

Follow Up By: Les - PK Ranger - Thursday, Oct 06, 2016 at 15:19

Thursday, Oct 06, 2016 at 15:19
I had AT700s on the Ranger early on, just wanted to try them so fitted to the front.
Mostly beach work to start, but took them on a couple of Simpson crissings too.

They seemed to handle that all fine, no problems with wear etc.

What I really liked about the, was like the OEM Dunlop Grandtrek AT22's, the LT (light truck) construction meant when aired down they didn't bag out sideways much, leaving them open to sidewall staking.
They just elongate, which is the main highly desirable feature wanted when airing down.

If you know the AT22's they are a road tread looking tyre, great on beaches or Flinders type tracks, probably cr@p in mud, the AT700's are certainly a little more AT looking, but still quite a fine tread compared to many AT's out there.

I have moved to give Federal Couragia AT's a shot the past 12 months or so, not a bad tyre, but even though they are also LT construction AT tyre too, they bag out too much for my liking.

Have to grin and bear it a while (they are wearing very well), but next June doing Simpson Geo Centre again, this time Geosurveys Hill as well, and I'm sort of dreading how they'll go.
Lots of virtually off track raw country type of driving in there.
Will be taking 3 full spares, couple of tubes, and 1.5 tyre plug kits with me.
Normally I take 2 full spares on this sort of trip, but the extra one is just a precaution this trip.
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Reply By: Echucan Bob - Wednesday, Oct 05, 2016 at 22:04

Wednesday, Oct 05, 2016 at 22:04
I've had a very good run with Coopers over the last 13 yrs (on the Disco and more recently on the big Lexus) and see no reason to change.

I think there is an element of luck with tyres, but also an element due to driver experience. The older I get the better the run I get from tyres. On the rare occasion when I sit in the left hand seat I find myself wincing when the driver fails to avoid sharp rocks, runs wide on tracks lined by stakes, and fails to slow down when the track surface deteriorates. Tyre preservation becomes instinctive with experience.

Bob
AnswerID: 604926

Reply By: Dean K3 - Wednesday, Oct 05, 2016 at 23:07

Wednesday, Oct 05, 2016 at 23:07
Curious to know what direction is split along side wall ie rotation like rim or vertically upwards from rim to tread block.

recently i spotted a prado 120 with this rather unusual split runnign vertically upwards -along meekatharra mt augutus road - and noep they didn't have a 2nd spare with them add fact it was 285/65/17 which isn't commonsize for prado wonder how they got along.

past experience had a good run with wrangler silent armour got 140K out of them but reckon after guys with australasian safari used one set of toyo open country Mt for 2 full years of route explore trips and running as course zero safety cars with no flats period If i had the $$$ I get a set of them - was given price of $500 a tyre but that was carnarvon not perth

currently running general tire at2 so far pretty good bit of block stripping (expected on rocky roads) but not so good on sticky clay/mud
AnswerID: 604927

Follow Up By: McLaren3030 - Thursday, Oct 06, 2016 at 08:17

Thursday, Oct 06, 2016 at 08:17
Vertical split from rim to tread.
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Reply By: Allan B (Member, SunCoast) - Wednesday, Oct 05, 2016 at 23:48

Wednesday, Oct 05, 2016 at 23:48
.
Hi Macca,

So Coopers "had a problem with a couple of batches of tyres manufactured in 2014/2015." did they?

Well that's not the only years......... first tyres I put on the Troopy in 2009 were Cooper ST's. All six developed sidewall cracks, in an arc just off the shoulder. I rode it out. Nothing blew up!

Since then I have used Bridgestone 697's with good results. Everyone has a favourite.......I think I'll stick with them. Reasonably priced too.

Cheers
Allan

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Follow Up By: Member - Blue M - Thursday, Oct 06, 2016 at 02:45

Thursday, Oct 06, 2016 at 02:45
Allan,
I had Bridgestone 697's on my Hilux and had a fantastic run out of them.
Just over 40,000 with approx. 30% left.

I put a set 697's on my cruiser at 22,100 and was completely bald at 55900.
They didn't wear uneven at all, just wore out.

Will admit I was towing a van for 20,000 of those k's, and not on the kindest of roads.
Am trying Toyo Cross Country AT2 now and will see how they go.

If I get 50,000 out of a set of tyres I am extremely happy.
Cheers.


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Follow Up By: Member - David M (SA) - Thursday, Oct 06, 2016 at 09:24

Thursday, Oct 06, 2016 at 09:24
Have been using Bridgestone Duelers for 15 years now.
Their black and round " most of the time ". I always put
the white lettering on the inside to avoid punctures and
get 60,000kms.
Dave.
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Reply By: McLaren3030 - Thursday, Oct 06, 2016 at 08:20

Thursday, Oct 06, 2016 at 08:20
Thanks to everyone that has replied so far. ??.
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Follow Up By: Dean K3 - Thursday, Oct 06, 2016 at 11:18

Thursday, Oct 06, 2016 at 11:18
Same as the prado had vertical split. a rather unusual failure to me

i've seen side wall damage where it blisters out as the plys have been damaged allowing air to escape into carcass often on rally cars or recce with WRC guys

I suspect the vertical failure might be a result of metal bands/fibres rusting internally and over time and heat from running on road something has to give. .

watched a youtube video on truck tyres and dangers of havign a run flat and re-inflating tyre with the resulting blow out due to damaged plys on sidewalls -scary stuff to be honest
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Reply By: dad1340 - Thursday, Oct 06, 2016 at 08:45

Thursday, Oct 06, 2016 at 08:45
Not a particularly new issue with Coopers. Plenty of threads here and on other sites.

In regard to Mickey Thompson tyres, yes, they are manufactured by Coopers but I've been advised the tread pattern, construction and in particular the compound are MT exclusive.

Cheers

dad
AnswerID: 604935

Reply By: vk1dx - Thursday, Oct 06, 2016 at 14:16

Thursday, Oct 06, 2016 at 14:16
No issues with both our sets. STMaxx (x 5) and AT's (x 5).

Phil
AnswerID: 604945

Reply By: Blown4by - Thursday, Oct 06, 2016 at 16:17

Thursday, Oct 06, 2016 at 16:17
Do yourself a favour and get a set of D697's with the LT load rating. Mine have done the GRR twice, Mitchell Falls and Bungle Bungles and haven't had a puncture yet. They don't chip or scallop either and are fairly quiet on the bitumen. If you look at what the Kimberley locals use i.e. station owners and aboriginal communities, you will see the predominant tyres are D697's and BFG All Terrain T/A KO's. Personally I don't subscribe to the 'exotic' brands that spend shed loads on advertising their product. I have personally seen treads literally peeled off the brand you mentioned and that was on a Patrol 'school car' owned by the WA Education Dept and the failure occurred between Onslow and Karratha on bitumen on a 35°C day. That vehicle had only ever done local running around the town of Onslow with the occasional 600K return trip to Karratha and had never been off-road as its use off-road was forbidden.
AnswerID: 604948

Reply By: Paul and Mel - Thursday, Oct 06, 2016 at 20:45

Thursday, Oct 06, 2016 at 20:45
Yeah I'll give the D697's a thumbs up too. Mine have done about 32K so far with mixed surfaces and are about 50% worn on a Mitsubishi Challenger.
AnswerID: 604950

Follow Up By: Paul and Mel - Saturday, Oct 08, 2016 at 19:22

Saturday, Oct 08, 2016 at 19:22
I have it on the hoist ATM and they have way more tread on them than I thought, try about 30% worn only.
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Reply By: Member - Robert1660 - Thursday, Oct 06, 2016 at 22:51

Thursday, Oct 06, 2016 at 22:51
I replaced my original Dunlops with Cooper ST MAX in 2013 on 17 inch Toyota steel rims rather than the original 18 inch alloys. A number of the tyres developed sidewall splits about 1 cm above the rim and running parallel to the rim for about 10 cm. No issue with replacement, however I was informed that grey market imports were not covered by the warranty. Apparently the split does not affect the tyre but I am not convinced by the reassurance. Nevertheless the Coopers have, at least up until this point, been excellent over a variety of surfaces.
Robert
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Follow Up By: Blown4by - Friday, Oct 07, 2016 at 13:46

Friday, Oct 07, 2016 at 13:46
Glad to hear you say: "I am not convinced by the reassurance". If those splits are deep enough to let water reach the fabric then they DO affect the tyre. You can check how deep the splits are by inserting a fine blunt instrument such as a paper clip half opened to form an 'S' shape. The tyre manufacturer has designed the tyre with the outer rubber sidewall layer to prevent water ingress, which will rot the fabric, as well as for protection of the under layers from rock/kerb damage, etc. and that layer also forms an integral part of the overall tyre strength. I would not be happy if tyres I purchased developed that problem even if I was just driving to the local shops. Those splits become the weakest point in the carcass and are a likely point of failure initiation should a large impact or extreme load of some kind occur. This circumferential splitting near the bead or near the shoulder is a common problem with some imported makes in low profile (lackey band) configuration when fitted to 'rice burners' and other 'hoon type' vehicles.
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Follow Up By: GREG T11 - Friday, Oct 07, 2016 at 21:46

Friday, Oct 07, 2016 at 21:46
That looks to me like the point where they " bag" out when being run at low pressure. Am I wrong.
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Follow Up By: Blown4by - Saturday, Oct 08, 2016 at 00:08

Saturday, Oct 08, 2016 at 00:08
GREG you would be correct mate but this photo was of a tyre on a road car and just shows by way of example how bad the cracking can be. This is seen often on certain tyre brands indicating poor quality control or a design fault in my opinion.
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Follow Up By: McLaren3030 - Monday, Oct 10, 2016 at 08:44

Monday, Oct 10, 2016 at 08:44
Thanks Guys, the splits on my tyres were verticle from the rim to the tread. Definitely not from under or over pressure. Agree with poor quality control during manufacture which is what the Cooper agent indicated.

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Reply By: mynance - Friday, Oct 07, 2016 at 07:55

Friday, Oct 07, 2016 at 07:55
Hankook AT Dynapro were quite good to drive on unfortunately managed to put a rock through the tread of one coming out of Cobold Gorge, they had done about 40,000K.
Realised how hard it was to find 18" tyres out west, wanted the BFG AT KO 2 but not worth the $550 each that I was quoted so put a set of Maxxis 980 AT, similar tread as the BFG.

They are noisy when I run with 50 psi back and 40 psi in the front, but quieten down at lower pressure when not towing.


Myles
AnswerID: 604956

Follow Up By: McLaren3030 - Friday, Oct 07, 2016 at 09:07

Friday, Oct 07, 2016 at 09:07
Wow, those pressures seem pretty high. All advice I have been given when towing (2.5 T off road van), is to maintain about 40 psi in the rear, and 36-38 in the front. Macca.
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Follow Up By: The Bantam - Friday, Oct 07, 2016 at 10:32

Friday, Oct 07, 2016 at 10:32
McLarren mate ....... pretty much all generalised tyre pressure advice is worthless ....... Tyre pressure is specific the the vehicle, tyres and load carried.

The only tyre pressure advice that can be relied upon is the Load V Pressure tables from the manufacturer or from the standards manual.
That in the light of what the vehicle combination actually weighs at the time.

for example
For highway

I run 32psi in the front and lightly laden 32psi in the rear of my 4wd utility
If heavily loaded the rears need to be up at 50psi.

Some one running the same tyres (4 of) on a 3.5 tonne van will have to get them up around 60 psi to carry the load safely

same situations a different size and type of tyre will require different pressures

I have a near identical 2wd utility
it runs 40 and 40 lightly loaded and 60 in the rear heavily loaded.

There are a lot of people having poor life and failures in tyres because they have taken generalised tyre pressure advice.

cheers
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Reply By: The Bantam - Friday, Oct 07, 2016 at 10:53

Friday, Oct 07, 2016 at 10:53
Sad to say, that it is my belief that the likes of Cooper and Micky only sell because they throw very large sums of money at adds in all the 4wd and caravan magazines and they throw heaps of free product at all the journalists and personalities.

There is a very wide range of tyres out there, some of the lesser known brands make some very good tyres.

Maxxis (Cheng Shin Runner Company, 9th largest tyre company in the world) make some very respectable tyres ... they are considerd top shelf in bicycle tyres ...... They have a pretty solid following in the for their 4wd tyres.
I've had a good run out of their light truck road tyres on my work trucks over 20 odd years ...... In my opinion only Michelin make a better tyre in that market.

Pirelli and Yokohma both make excelent all terains that review very well and they are well liked, but they will never review as well and copper and micky that spend cubic $$$ with the 4wd magazines.

We are starting to see quite a bit of Hankook out there too ......

Of course hardly anybody has heard of Apollo Tyres from India ....... yeh well they own Cooper.

cheers
AnswerID: 604973

Follow Up By: D-MaxerWA - Friday, Oct 07, 2016 at 23:52

Friday, Oct 07, 2016 at 23:52
Hankook, can't go wrong. Best thing I ever did for the D-Max. 50k and still at least 50% left. They are also good on a light truck, along with the Maxxis. Prefer the Maxxis as steerers on the truck. Hankook as drive tyres. Both have very good LT tyres for offroad use. Would not consider a "name brand" tyre, heard too many bad stories.
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Follow Up By: The Bantam - Saturday, Oct 08, 2016 at 10:30

Saturday, Oct 08, 2016 at 10:30
Yeh I'm pretty much off the US name brands ...... I've seen failures in Dunlops, Just finished a set of Goodyear light trucks that came on a vehicle .. horrible tyres, realy poor wet road traction and 2 of the 4 failed before they wore out.

The lesser names have a point to prove, so they seem to make an effort ...... the Americans just want to sell the cheapest crap they can for the highest price they can ...... and that is right across the board ... they just can't help em selves.

A lot of guys running obscure brands like "Triangle" in heavy transport and getting better results than they did on big name brands. Yeh ya see a lot of Hankook on trucks & busses too.

As I mentioned before Cheng Shin/Maxxis is the 9th largest tyre company in the world and they make a very wide range of tyres ... from super heavy earth moving down to bicycles ..... yeh they are an actual tyre manufacturer that owns factories not just a brand too.
Most people who have driven on them don't have a bad word to say.

cheers
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Follow Up By: The Bantam - Saturday, Oct 08, 2016 at 10:36

Saturday, Oct 08, 2016 at 10:36
Then there is the matter of Cooper and the paralell imports.

Cooper don't claim they are coppies or illegal use of their trademark ...... so why is Cooper making crappy tyres for another market?

cheers
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Reply By: nickb - Sunday, Oct 09, 2016 at 14:54

Sunday, Oct 09, 2016 at 14:54
I had Mickey Thompson ATZ 4-rib tyres a about 7 years ago. They all started cracking around the bead within 15,000km. The rep had a look at them and replaced all 5, no questions asked.

That are the same company(or a sister company) as Coopers so it seems they use the same manufacturing process.
AnswerID: 605019

Reply By: 9900Eagle - Sunday, Oct 09, 2016 at 18:39

Sunday, Oct 09, 2016 at 18:39
Macca,
all tyre manufacturers suffer batch problems, just had that problem with 2 Hankook steer tyres. It is the warranty and how you are treated and I see they have done the right thing.
AnswerID: 605024

Follow Up By: McLaren3030 - Monday, Oct 10, 2016 at 08:50

Monday, Oct 10, 2016 at 08:50
Thanks 9000Eagle, I have to say that Coopers have been very good at honouring their warranty. I had an issue with Cooper Tires once before when the dealer actually fitted two different sizes front to rear back in 2004. While it wasn't Coopers fault, they replaced two of the four free of charge when I had excessive wear. The dealer fitted & balanced for free. Haven't been back to that dealer since.

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Reply By: Member - Sam VK4AA - Wednesday, Oct 19, 2016 at 13:58

Wednesday, Oct 19, 2016 at 13:58
We had a cooper tyre staked and they refused to replace it under warranty. They got around it by quoting there warranty and slick wording about what is covered.
No way in hell would I ever put coopers or mt on my current vehicle solely based on the customer service of the national distributor in helping us find a replacement tyre and the dealer in melbourne. In the end we payed way to much for a tyre that was beyond its shelf life (the dealer didnt tell us this at the time of purchase)
The tyre fitter refused to fit the tyre. IN the end we ended up with 5 new Hankook's that outlasted any cooper tyre we had on the vehicle.
We had got 45K from the tyre at time of trade in and the trye still had 30k+ left on it.

Hence our new vehcile has hankooks on it... Never looked back (except for the rooding screws we picked up in SA and NT!!! 3 punctures in 1 day was rude.

But still love my hankook's anyday


Samantha
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AnswerID: 605210

Follow Up By: Shaker - Wednesday, Oct 19, 2016 at 16:22

Wednesday, Oct 19, 2016 at 16:22
I have had my own bad experience with Cooper Tires, their warranty & lying employees, but why would you expect warranty on a tyre that has been "staked"?

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Follow Up By: McLaren3030 - Monday, Oct 24, 2016 at 10:06

Monday, Oct 24, 2016 at 10:06
Hi Sam, if you read all tyre warranties, no company will warranty against stakes or punctures. They will warranty against defects which is what occurred in my case. As per previous comments, all tyre companies have issues from time to time, it is how these issues are handled that makes the difference. In my case, I have been happy with the service provided by Coopers. I have also been happy with the long wear life of Cooper tires when rotated at the required intervals.

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Reply By: Member - Sam VK4AA - Wednesday, Oct 19, 2016 at 23:56

Wednesday, Oct 19, 2016 at 23:56
Why? They where STT's and told by the repairer it should have been.
Some crap in the tyre should have stoped it and it went stright though them.

Cooper admin
(a) quoted there bullshit warranty to us!!!

(b) when we asked could they email there dealers to see if anyone had a tyre we could buy (as these where 4 tyres under 1500Km)
They refused to help us point blank.

We eventually found one from a dealer in Melbourne. We had no idea about shelf life and the tyre they sold us was outside of this shelf life and no one would fit it...

So we dumped the lot and with hankooks

Put it down to a bad experience. As I said I ould not use cooper or mt even if they where given to me!
AnswerID: 605224

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