Outback tyres

Bridgestone V-Steel 235/85 16 LT 10 ply rated. I live in Karratha and used to be a surveyor so had the opportunity to try out lots of different makes of tyres. Hamersley Iron and now many government departments here in the Pilbara use these tyres on our tyre unfriendly dirt roads - of which there are many. I've used these on my own 100 series for over two years and am very happy with their cost, wear, availability and performance. Shouldn't need to remind you to rotate every 5k to get the most from your rubber.
Stay away from mud terrains. They cost a bomb, usually stuff your speedo reado, are hard to find when you want them in the bush, make lots of road noise, pull power from your diesel if too oversized, take longer to re-inflate, travel hotter due to aggressive lug design, wear poorly. Need any more reasons. Remember, speed and overloading kill tyres, they don't usually just commit suicide for no reason.
Cheers. Jayson

Hi Andy
there is only 1 tyre I would recommend and thats the BF Goodrich mud terrain.
its a 10 ply tyre with tri gard sidewalls
I have used them over some of the roughest conditions in Australia, including the Canning stock route, gibb river road , tanami road, plenty highway, oodnadatta track, birdsville track, strezlecki track, simpson desert, the Gulf track and up cape york and back on the otl also stones crossing up cape york.
they have been on my Landrover 110 V8 for over 40,000kms now with not as much as 1 puncture
they are not just for use in mud give exeptional grip are fantastic on rocks and are virtually bullet proof.
its worth spending the extra money on them for reliability and safety and of course better off road ability

I just read the other reply and although the bridgestone V steels may be cheaper they are primarily a road tyre , yes mud terrains are slightly more noisy than road tyres and yes they are more expensive ,also yes they probably are harder to get hold of in the bush.. but if you have BFG mud terrains on why would you want to buy another whilst out in the bush ??
I havent managed to puncture one yet !!!

the saying goes you get what you pay for and that goes for tyres too try them you wont use anything else afterwards...

I just read the other reply and although the bridgestone V steels may be cheaper they are primarily a road tyre , yes mud terrains are slightly more noisy than road tyres and yes they are more expensive ,also yes they probably are harder to get hold of in the bush.. but if you have BFG mud terrains on why would you want to buy another whilst out in the bush ??
I havent managed to puncture one yet !!!

the saying goes you get what you pay for and that goes for tyres too try them you wont use anything else afterwards...

Andy - Have you lookes at the Coopers brand A/T caleed Discoverers?
I did recently - got all the guff and paid a little extra for a 60000Klm wear warranty - 16mm tread depth and a pattern that suits 30% bush 70% off road - good tyres!

No question - BFG mud terrains KM series best ever!

Used to travel the territory in a 2wd vehicle with ordinary tyres been the 1st vehicle into places etc etc after floods over rocks etc had to do the best with what we had (slow and careful - less tyre failures but they happened - these days we treat tyres like we hate them and wonder why they die?). Imagine my joy at having something like the MTs

Wear well hang on well and if sensibly inflated and treated will wear well and not puncture. Of all the other debates re semi off road tyres debates about speed ratings noise etc etc If you need a dedicated tough offroad tyre (damn! its only speed rated to 160 kph - well what do people need -a racing tyre or an offroad tyre-which incidentelly hangs on better in the wet on the bitumen than many harder compound AT tyres) this is it. Yes its a bit noiser that an AT but it is still a damn sight better than many other so called onroad offroad tyres. (They all make a lot of noise when they blow out or disintegrate - but lets look at the BIG picture here!) Mine look like giving me 60- 80,000kms with 5 mm of tread left over. They have got me where I want to go and Ive pulled out far more bogged vehicles in mud sand and slime than ever.

If you want a quiet on road tyre (a compromise) go back to the debates and one upmanship and the claims re the various brands -one mans nightmare is another mans wet dream -. Get my drift

Happy travelling
Kezza

Andy , I just came back from around Australia trip which included Gibb River and Great Top Roads. Didn't have a single problem with tyres.Not a single puncture. My Daihatsu Rocky was towing large Jayco trailer with Dunlop Adventurer (half warn) tyres which were quiet old and lost some chunks of rubber but were still good enough to get back to Melbourne.
On Rocky itself I had Bridgestones D693 AT and Kumho ATs at the back.
Bridgestones were excellent while Kumhos started to degrade quickly and were replaced with D693 when I got to Cairns.
I think the trick in this is to run tyres at around 32 -36 psi. I read somewhere that blockes who recover broken down 4X4 at Simpson Desert use soft Michelin tyres rather then BFGoodrich.
I guess what you can try is to run your tyres at different pressure and see if it makes any difference.

Just returned from Simpson which was surprisingly easy in itself but surrounding roads are very hard on tyres. My advice would be stay aware from Bridgestone Desert Duellers (in our group 3 blowouts with them despite correct dirt road pressures and lightly loaded vehicles) if travelling on rocky dirt roads. My road-based Michelins performed very well with only one slow puncture (not surprising given 10% tread left). The only vehicle not to have a tyre problem was running BFG All-Terrains. FYI, the Simpson recovery bloke does use Michies in preference to BFG, but then again he doesn't have too many muddy, rutted firetrails to negotiate which is where BFGs excel. Also interesting to note that he recommended 25psi for travelling on rocky roads.