Coopers St's - Similar Experiences??

Similar experience here with STs. I did get about 40,000klm out of them and there is still some tread on them, but not enough for me to confidently tackle the Simpson a few weeks ago. So I have changed to MTRs.
My Coopers suffered badly on our Cape York assault last Sept/Oct and the 2 back ones were badly chipped etc. When I got back here, it was time for a big 4x4 show in Adelaide and Coopers had their state boss there....I chatted to him, he offered to go out to carpark with me to look at them. He said they were a 'bit' chipped, but that as they continued to wear, the rough bits would become less obvious (sort of like ...if I kept them on there long enough they's be slicks, with no chips at all.....yeh;right!!!).
So, like you, I just walk!!! No more complaints!!! They just won't get anymore of my hard-earned folding stuff.

Hi Moggs

I was told a few different reasons, not what i would consider a straight answer. I firstly told it was a high impact that caused it, then i was told that the tyre was run flat for an extended period of time and then i was told that the tyre had an internal bruise from an earlier impact that caused it. I was then told not to worry about the wear as they are covered by a km warranty. They are regularly rotated etc and the front has about 6mm left, they start with about 14.7mm.

Geez, you reckon they would be visiting enough people re: warranty claims to have a good story downpat. Sorry to hear they haven't come to the party and replaced it. More importantly, sorry to hear you have (and possibly rightly so in your case) lost confidence in the ST's in general.

I reckon reading the responses below re: tyre wear that maybe some sizes / different period production ST's are better than others. I just measure mine (10ply 245/75/16's) and they have 11mm tread left (also started with 14.7mm. They have done a little over 20,000kms - so am happy with that.

Anyway, hope you fight the good fight with the Coopers Rep and get some satisfaction - otherwise stick it on the wheel carrier with a whopping great big sign :)

Oh yeah...maybe it was concussion from from that exhaust of yours that just blew the thing out! :)

Also, were they light truck or passenger construction?

Hi Scubaroo
At the time it blew, we were running about 28 PSI and yes the are all LT, 10 ply.

28 sounds a bit low?

28psi is ok for rough gravel/corrugations at a moderate speed, some guy on another forum was trying to tell me that because 28psi is the suggested pressure in the vehicle hand book so that's what you should run on the highway LMAO!

i expect the car to be fully loaded ( albeit a few coldies and food missing) but it would still be very heavy...at speed 28psi may not have been enough? just a thought to give rise to possible reason for failure

the way its peeled is somewhat indictive to overheating?

Hi Wanye

I can handle it not being a warranty. No sign of any puncture, but i doubt anyone could tell now hahaha. I was just surpised how it came apart and with the wear. They have always got me to where i wanted to go, but have lost the confidence in them.

Just out of interest for you guys, my MTR's have a warranty against punctures and sidewall damage as long as it is reparible in house (by the dealer).
They also give you free balances every 10k.

Wayne,
First time I've noticed that you're back. How are you? How did your Poron camera go? I've got one too now (gotta keep up with the Jones'..hahaha).
Sorry to hijack post.
Roachie

Jeff you obviously still happy with those MTR's How many K's on them now?

Have not heard a bad report on them as yet, , Maybe my next set I think????

G'day John,
8000 klicks since purchasing on 15th June. That included a 2000 klick trip to/from Narrandera/Wagga and a trip of a few thousand to Birdsville, across the Simpson etc.
They haven't suffered any noticeable chipping etc (unlike the Coopers) and , yes, I am very happy with them. I am under no dilusions about what wear I will get out of them. I expect to have to replace them in 12 months (say 45,000 klicks). The reason I'm soooo disappointed with the Coopers is that they tell you how flippin good their product is and that'll last till the "2nd coming" etc ...only to find out that they are no better than any other brand. The lesson is that if you are going to blow your own trumpet about how fantastic your product is, make sure it's got the pedigree and capability to DO what you claim it can.

Cheers mate...... BTW, how's that Poron going? have you got it installed yet?

Roachie

Hi Bill
Funny you mention the Proton, just going to the workshop to start fitting the damn thing (when I stop playing on EO that is) Played around in the dark last night seeing how it performs and where I was going to stick the camera.

The MTR's as I said heard nothing but good reports to date so will watch them with interest.

I agree with your comments on Cooper, Its seems like its common for the 4wd industry to make comments about how wonderful their products are when so much of it is not fit for purpose, IE tyres that don't perform, winches that don't perform in the wet, mud or dust, electronics that stop working, Nissan 3 litre diesels, Toyota front diffs etc etc etc, yet all are marketed as "Off road Tough" go anywhere etc
I reckon that some enterprising Lawyer will make a fortune suing the ar$se of these manufactures on day for failing to ensure their product does what they advertise it can do.
Not fit for purpose is the term that industry uses for crap.

Cheers Mate

G'day John, yeah I've still got bugger all K's on the MTR's as we currenty have two company cars that we've been using during the week and the Surf's been sitting in the garage,only comming out on weekends. Done a couple of small/medium trips but the weather's been pretty crappy over here too. I'm still amazed with the wet weather handling, and I got her bogged for the first time with the MTR's on on Sunday so that was a laugh, ironically it was in mud too! ;-)

We've pretty much done good smaples of everything with them on so far, just not heaps of it. We've done beach/dunes, a fair bit of highway driving, round town probally 25%, swamp mud, clay mud, general red dirt mud, a fair bit of gravel (different types) and have found them to really be good through it all. I did however try some sand on the weekend at 30psi (it was not really boggy looking and it was a little wet and I was being slack) and I can tell you that they dig big holes at higher PSI! Dropped them to 16psi and you'd never know you were even on sand.

So yeah still happy, but I havn't done major K's yet to trial their longivity. So far so good though (touch wood) They've got some scuff marks and scrapes on the sidewalls from all the sticks and rocks I've been driving through/over but nothing that I would classify as "damage" and we've been doing some pretty much unmarked tracks (havn't been used for a very long time and were very hard to follow as you could barley see them). So I've been driving over sticks and through shrubs and stuff with them and they are going well.

Sorry... I re-read my replay... and I didn't mean to sound so forthright :(

Not intended..... :)

In any case... what a PITA for you - I'd be pretty annoyed too.......

Hi Chrispy

No dramas mate, no offence here. Answers to your questions
Tyres had 28 psi in them, only been travelling for about 1 hour on a very well graded dirt road. Stopped about 15 mins before it blew to take some pics, tyres looked fine. The vehicle was not too heavy, Roof cage on, spare wheel and 10L of fuel up there, inside, nothing more than a normal weekend.

cheers

crazie

what speed were you doing on this very well graded road....

Hi Waynepd

I would consider them to be well maintain and I always check preasures regularly and adjust them for the conditions. It sounds like you are getting a great run out of them.

I had similar problems with lugs cracking/comming off, but got 38,000km out of them before I had any problems.
they dont seem to like rocks,aired down or not.
So far Ive had 3 replaced under warrenty and bought 1 to even them up, the other chipped one is now the spare.
Warrenty seems to be dependant on the outlet involved and how much noise you make, not the way I would be doing business.
What sizes were yours, mine and a few others have been 245/75/16, bought around the middle of 2002.

Now that is a tyre failure. Looks as if it was due to heat build up.

Red back, I have seen a ST similar to yours when I was getting my AT’s rotated. This 31/10.5R15 ST had every 4th lug on the shoulder torn off then it also looked like somebody had taken to this thing with a miller it was just cut up and pitted all along the shoulder’s, but the centre of the tyre looked fine.

Hi guzzi same as yours 245/75/16s and i run the right pressures for each condition we drive on.

Our convinciing arguement was we ran the manufacturers pressures.

Baz.

Gday Brew69,I use Bridgestone tyres and have now done 30000kms on tracks like GRR,Cape york,Tanami x2,Oodnadatta X2,Finke trk,Gary Junction Trk,Kidson Trk etc and have never had a problem with them(not one puncture yet).Price is heaps cheaper than other brands,wear is down to not quite half which Im happy with considering where the've been.
Now on our last trip one vehicle useing BFG A/T had 3 punctures(only punctures out of 6 vehicles) so I think alot has to do with luck.

Hi Nick.yes you are correct luck has a lot to do with things going wrong with tyres. All we can do is adjust pressures correctly, dodge what we see and cross our fingers. However..............some companies will leave a sour tatse in our mouths with their so called tyre warranty which is not worth the paper its written on. Glad to hear you have had a good run with the Bridgy's Nick and i hope u never have to make a claim for a new tyre with them. I guess its all about once bitten and twice very shy.

Well I have shied away from tyre arguments because I am not convinced about the reliability of any tyres anymore.

I ran BFG A/T's for years, at least 3 sets without a problem. So when it came time to replace the factory fitted rubber on the GU I went out and picked up the BFG's again.

28,000km later I was back at the dealer. I had done about 1000km on outback dirt roads and about 200km in the Vic high country About 50km in the high country was low range stuff the rest was good dirt.

All 4 tyres were a right off, worn to the wear markers and losing tread blocks. One rear tyre was through to the steel belts by the time I got home. The dealer told me I had abused them. The rep told that I had done well to get the mileage I had. When I expressed my dissapointment and asked for some form of compensation the dealer told me to F*&^ Off he did not want to see me ever again.

I bought a set of Cooper ST-C's, at a different shop. Ask me after Christmas and I'll tell you what I think of them.

Duncs

Hi Charlie
Tyres were on Alloys, not split rims and also tubeless.

thanks
Adam

Not sure how or why you think i had the wrong pressure? Not sure what pressure you run, but i will continue to run 28 on that sort of road

Coopers said the pressure was fine.

Nah, didnt make a big deal out the warranty as i said, this is not about the warranty, just sharing stories, doesnt really explain the wear.... hahaha
some seem to be good, some seem to be crap, i just put my down to being crap...lol nasty man..lol

shoould have been 29psi.
nasty man ah lol well then your a nastier man haha
cheers

Well my experience with coopers hasn't been too good either.
One of my ST's shed part of its tread at 100kmh on the bitumen after 35000km, doing some damage to the mudflap on the vehicle - pressure was about 45psi. The tread had been badly chipped by the rocky roads up here in the Pilbara.
I got a pro-rata rebate on a new ST-C.
Then another ST did the same thing, (fortunately in the same position on the vehicle so I didn't lose another mudflap) again at about 100kmh on the bitumen at 45psi.
By this time I couldn't trust the rest of the tyres, so instead of getting another Cooper with a rebate, I wrote this one off and am now trying a set of Toyo OPATs, although the tread on these is a bit less aggressive than I would like.
I ran the Coopers at about 45psi on the bitumen and about 35psi on the dirt on a Toyota 75 series.

Peter.
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Peter did they offer any explanation to why those tyres shed the tread like that?

I agree with Jim, starting to hear to many stories about Coopers.
fast wear is one thing but failures like that say to me something is wrong big time.

I have had 3 sets of BFG A/T 2 sets wore real well 60,000 plus Km's the current set is crap, chipped and wearing relatively fast, I think i would be lucky to get 40,000 out of them.
Also have a set of BFG Muddies, they are going real well, handle the rock tracks of the high country real well, But time will tell.

All good reports on the MTR's so will watch them with interest as time goes on.

No real explanation offered John, and in the first case I was glad just to get the pro-rata rebate, but after the second one went, that was it as far as I was concerned for Coopers!
I would have liked to get a set of MTRs but there were none in WA at that time, so I went for the Toyos sight unseen, and as I mentioned they are less aggressive than I would like, but quiet on the highway.
I will try again for MTRs after the Toyos.

Peter