Mickey Thompson Tyres...comments needed

Hey Oldplodder,

Can you post link to 4wdmonthly article or send to my email benplant@hotmail.com

Cheers

Why do people believe these things in print? magazines survive on advertising.... they bleep on a tire (notice they never ever anymore have the balls to say that anything is truly crap?)_ they lose money....

I rest my case - Pirelli Scorpion as BEST AT? we have them on the Pathfinder, they are nothing more than a HT!

Hey truckster, you got to start somewhere!

So why don't you think the pirelli suitable?

As far as I have seen, this site is mostly BFG or coopers, which came up best in the test as the off road ATs, but lost a number of points in the wet bitumen braking and bitumen slalom tests. I assume you read the test enough to rubbish it?

Why did you get the pirelli?

Plantman,

Sorry, can not post it on a web site, have not got mine up and running yet.
May not be able to send to you at hotmail either, has hotmail still got a 1mb limit?

Wonder if David the moderator could do a deal with 4wd monthly to post these types of tests at Exploroz. Imagine there is some copyright involved.

my hotmail will do 10 MB
give it a go if you like
cheers

The pirellis the pattern is pure road tire, theres no allowance for clearance of crap from the tread AT ALL! On gravel road on way to club property they were very average to say the least.. Wish I would have gone the BFG AT's.

Thanks Truckster,

I can believe that about the pirellis.
But then the test include bitumen, sand and gravel as well.

So it all depends on the 'all terrain' you are driving on.
For that mud/clay/gravel situation, the BFG, Coopers ST had better ratings.

This test in the 4wd monthly was one of the best tyre tests i have seen.
Not just subjective either.

Thanks to Old Plodder, Truckster, Andrew (atoyot) et al.
If anyone needs the review...I'll email it to them (4Mbytes)...see owenia's email address in my original thread (thanks Old Plodder for the jpegs).

Truckster, I think I might try the MT 'Baja Radial MTZ' which fit my Hilux wheels with exactly the same dimensions as the BFG A/Ts I currently have (31X10.5R15LT). Incidentally, the BFGs are 80k old now and still have the little slits in the tread blocks visible. They have done some sharp rock driving in the Abercrombie and Blue Mountains areas and plenty of state forest road drives - fairly tame roads as, they're well maintained. Some drives in the Werrikimbe NP were a little taxing on the tread and, I have just returned from a stay at Cheyenne Farm Stay in Walcha where there are heaps of rocks in the paddocks and i've noticed that there are many new cuts in the side walls which means sharp rocks do cut - even when driving carefully...hence the concern about side wall strength. The farmer told me not to worry about the cuts as his old cruiser showed the same cuts - and they were bloody old tyres.
I will take a punt and try the MT's in spite of the poor score in the reviews Old Plodder sent me as, I want to move to a slightly more reliable semi mud tyre. Going down the Enfield Forest Road south east of Walcha was not a pleasant experience after the rains two weeks ago on the ranges...at 30 kmh going down hills in some spots, i fish tailed. I knew I would never get up the hill...so I had to travel all the way to the Taree - Nowendoc road and go back up another 160 kms back to the farm. It was way to slippery and the timber jinkers had been working in the area creating deep muddy areas.

Sorry about the length...not in retirement mode yet so, I spend my early mornings before work reading the forums and also reading how my employer is seeking destroy Australia's 'clean green' trading advantage.

Have a word to Crazie on here about the MTZ's.. I wanted them for the new GU, but he said he was a little disappointed with the look of them in real life. The photos of them look really sweet..

owenia,

pdf the doc for people, it makes it smaller to email.

Leroy

Leroy...
sorry...don't have the publishing expertise. I've found the format provided to me to be a little simpler to use.

I wonder if the forum management would allow us to have it stored on the home site for people to access or, maybe they can translate the doc into pdf for us.
owenia

Sea-Dog ...
I have a friend at work whom had some muddies and one of them had the point where the tread and the side wall join explode (fortunately at low speed). Ofcourse BFG replaced it under warranty...since he'd only just purchased them one week before.
This really spooked me and I had to stop and think for a moment. I know that it's possible to have a 'lemon' so to speak in any production run, but I don't see how this can be with the engineering science available in manufacturing these days. My mind travels back to the time that one American brand went bust due to defects that killed people. But that's alarmist and I haven't heard of any such defects in the last five years.
Very interesting to know your history with muddies. Just wondering whether you checked the puddle for sharp things after you went through though? There were some sections of the Mungo Brush road to Seal Rocks that had nothing but puddles and I was reluctant to drive through without having seen them in the dry.
Cheers from owenia.

Also if it's the FCII's, we have someone running them up here and he was dissapointed at the mud clearing ability when the tracks were only greasy not muddy. Can't comment on their on road ability or longevity.

Regards, Trevor.

Sorry,my mistake. They were DCepicks that I was talking about. I'll shut up now.

The Dick Cepek FCII's are sold under the Mickey Thompson brand. I've a set and am very happy. They don't chip as much as Cooper ST's, and they're about as good on-road. A bit noisier on bitumen, and not quite as good as the ST's in mud. Quite a bit cheaper though, so good value in my books.

Andrew

I have photos of AJ's (South aussie 4wd magazine) GU up the high country, there was no way they were cleaning AT ALL in the mud/clay stuff.. they are total slicks!

but he likes them for desert travel etc

Truckster, that brings out an interesting point; the consistency/thickness/stickyness of mud has a fair bit to do with the self-cleaning characteristics of tyres. Some tyres fill up and won't self clean on wet grass, but I've also seen mud the consistency and clingyness of rice-fed baby poop, which could clog up 44inch Boggers! Also can depend on how much welly you use to spin the tyres up! I've not seen Scorpions in the mud, but I reckon just looking at the edges of tyres to see how open they are there gives you some idea of whether they might self-clean. Personally, I find that BFG AT's and Bridgestone Duellers (604's) clog pretty easy as they hardly have any open logs on the edges, particularly when they are half worn. But all things relative, there are situations where they might be OK.

Andrew

Yup true.

Ps boggers dont clean unless you do spin em up heaps :)

Hey Trevor,

Those were my tyres that you were talking about :).

They are the Dick Cepek FCII and they are made by Mickey Thompson. I am actually very happy with them in every way except the mud cleaning. Even there I think that if they are running low enough pressure they would be fine. I did a bit of mud on the flat while up in Burketown recently and they did much better than the Hilux in front of me did, though I don't know what tyres he had on. I was reasonably straight while he was using all the road and more while trying to go forwards.

I have now had them on for 25k and they have been excellent on every other surface including panick stops on wet bitumen, panick stops while towing over a ton of boat (bloody kangaroos) and general dirt and sand driving. They are certainly not even half worn and I really do love going round corners on the limit so I don't baby them. I think they will easily last more than another 40k so I am pretty happy.

I changed from BFG AT and after any dirt drive they would be chipped and a couple of long trips really cut them up. The FCII hardly seems to have chipped at all (though I haven't taken them out to the gibber plains yet like I did with the BFG).

I changed the BFGs after 70k as they would no longer stop in the wet despite having a fair bit of tread.

Tim.

My FCII's were great on gibbers and loose rocky tracks that had my Cooper ST's chipping like a lumberjack. I'm sure the right pressures are important in reducing chipping and also in self cleaning. They are pretty good in really soft sand, but their sidewalls seem to be fairly stiff so they do need to be aired down a bit more than some other types, I think. I aired down progressively from 25 PSI, and they didn't work well until I got to 15 PSI, where they were great (HZ105, 3.2tonne+),

Andrew

thanks atoyot.
chipping is THE issue and that seems to be the real clincher. Chipping seems to be related to compound strength and therefore must in a little way affect side wall strength considering MT's blurb states a 3 ply sidewall. so, I might purchase the Baja Radial MTZ www.mickeythompsontires.com/truck.html and get a little more mud thrown off while driving in the forests.

Trevor...you should update your signature photo and have some close ups of the FCIIs so that we can see. Interesting info about the Hilux swanning all over the road. Wonder if that is something to do with the Hilux or just the wrong tyre for the wrong occasion. Pity you didn't make a point of peeking at the brand - hey !

Photos seem to be a good method of comparing wear and tear. And in the public forum, it is likely to assist people to decide since we're all over the country and not likely to meet.

Truckster, Crazy isn't about at the moment it would appear...I'll ask Crazy when next on the web sometime over the weekend - cheers.

owenia,

They were Tim's tyres I was talking about and maybe he will do the honours and put a photo on his rig profile???
I might add I was not bagging his tyres at all just giving you info I thought to be true and helpful to you.
Good luck with your tyre purchase and maybe some feedback by you, may help someone else once you have run them in a little.

Regards, Trevor.

Ah - l lost that somewhere in my translation Trevor.
Didn't think you were bagging them as such - just very keen to be reading the observations.

You're definitely going to see photos. I'll keep a record of their ageing.
thanks for the info from you and Tim and et al.
owenia.