Good Year Wrangler Silent Armour

Submitted: Friday, Feb 02, 2007 at 18:34
ThreadID: 41907 Views:11823 Replies:15 FollowUps:12
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Yes I know the dreaded tyre topic. I am looking at replacing the currently warn Cooper S/T that I currently have on my 2002 Prado T/D that are on their last legs.
I'm not unhappy with the Cooper as I have achieved km on the set of five tyres with two major trips and only had one tyre that was about to let go but no punctures during the time I have had them.
However I feel that a less aggressive All Terrain tyre will suit me more at this stage.I have viewed previous post's on the forum and am keen to have an update on those who have the silent armours. Everything that I have read on them at this stage seem to point that they would would be worth a try. Also any comments to weather a lot out there have noticed a dramatic change in torque when towing up hills once they have changed from a 70 to a 75 series tyre size. I had noticed this change when I had changed from the standard grand trek to the coopers. Maybe it is a combination of both the pattern and the size, but I wouldn't have thought it would have had such an impact, even on the fuel consumption on average I would have reduced the kms travelled on both the tanks by 150-200km.
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Reply By: Salties - Friday, Feb 02, 2007 at 18:37

Friday, Feb 02, 2007 at 18:37
Sorry it was 115km that I had achieved on the coopers
AnswerID: 219307

Reply By: Nav 8 - Friday, Feb 02, 2007 at 19:13

Friday, Feb 02, 2007 at 19:13
Last year I had four Goodyear Wrangler RT/S fitted to my Navara STR. Since then I have had 5 wheel balances and about to book in for number 6 before a trtip to Darwin. Maybe I have copped a dud set but have had nothing but balance trouble since day one and have never had this trouble with any other brand before. This is just my experience with the brand, it will be the last set of goodyear tyres I buy.,,,Nav.
AnswerID: 219316

Follow Up By: Salties - Friday, Feb 02, 2007 at 19:33

Friday, Feb 02, 2007 at 19:33
Yeh I bet it has put a bad taste in your mouth forever, maybe jut a bad batch probably hard to compare as well as it is a completely different tyre but nevertheless certainly take it on board.

Also has had anyone had a close look at the Beaurepairs tyre insurance, I wasn't realy contemplating on getting this but someone had passed on the brochure to me that I had read in some spare time, what a scam.. $16 per tyre, you have to get a wheel balance, alignment and inspection every 10k, min charge each inspection is $32.50 covers staking, blowouts cuts, etc, so far doesn't sound that bad. Wait for it, it excludes off road vehicle use. This is called a 4WD road hazard warranty with a picture of a cruiser on a rocky track at the front of the brochure, if it wasn't for the word "Road" in the context I'm sure this would be false advertising be aware to those who are misled.
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Reply By: 120scruiser (NSW) - Friday, Feb 02, 2007 at 19:55

Friday, Feb 02, 2007 at 19:55
Hi Saltie
I can't comment on the silent armour but I run the MTR on my 120 in 265/75 x 16 and have had a great run. No balance trouble, no punctures and good wear rate. For a 120 prado thats good as they wear bad. They are a little chipped from the roads around innamincka but any tyre would do that.
I am currently getting quotes for a set of 17 inch MTR's. Love the tyre.
120scruiser
AnswerID: 219326

Reply By: Members-Neil & Margie-Cairns - Friday, Feb 02, 2007 at 19:57

Friday, Feb 02, 2007 at 19:57
2 1/2 days on the car on the blacktop , wife sliced a sidewall ,, still have no idea what on ,, but will never have them again !!

Neil ..

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AnswerID: 219327

Reply By: Member - Phil G (SA) - Friday, Feb 02, 2007 at 19:57

Friday, Feb 02, 2007 at 19:57
Salties,
theres only a couple on this forum with Silent Armours. Mine are 265/75R16, done just over 10,000k including two Simpson Desert trips, one included a fair bit of the Madigan Line. They have been fine - no discernable wear, no chipping on the outback roads. Good AT tyre.

I had taken out the Beaurepaires $16 a tyre puncture guarantee, as I knew I would be using them on a couple of rough trips. I staked one on the Madigan Line, and plugged it. Took it to Beaurepaires who took one look at it, and replaced it with a new tyre, free of charge. The $16 guarantee is good value if you're planning on doing some rough trips. You need to take them back after 5000k and then every 10,000k for a rebalance and alignment check (Cost of $32 for the 10k checks)

You won't get as good fuel consumption as you get on grandtreks, but I've found consumption to be better than it was with the more aggressive MTRs.
AnswerID: 219328

Follow Up By: SA_Patrol - Friday, Feb 02, 2007 at 22:02

Friday, Feb 02, 2007 at 22:02
Phil where do you get yours done? I've been ripped off by Beaurepairs in gouger st Adelaide, They slugged me $45 every 5000 k's and $65 and I used a free rotation voucher on a 20,000km service.
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Follow Up By: Member - Phil G (SA) - Friday, Feb 02, 2007 at 22:24

Friday, Feb 02, 2007 at 22:24
hehehe
Beaurepaires at Gouger Street :-)) Haven't had the 10,000k done yet, but the 5000k one (if they did in fact do anything) was free.
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Follow Up By: SA_Patrol - Friday, Feb 02, 2007 at 22:26

Friday, Feb 02, 2007 at 22:26
The first 5000k's is free anyway. I'm still worried. :-(
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Reply By: Salties - Friday, Feb 02, 2007 at 20:50

Friday, Feb 02, 2007 at 20:50
Phil G,

Thanks for your reply.

The $16 is not a bad idea and in your intention of knowingly doing some major trips is great the part that I can't believe is the exclusion for of road use is crazy especially with the picture chosen for the front of the brochure.

Have you previously had Cooper ST or BFG and how would you rate the silent armours over all compared to these if so, unfortunately I still do a large amount of kms on tar and at this stage prefer to only have one set of tyres.

I had travelled to the Kimberly through the Oodnadatta, Tanami and the Gibb and as mentioned I had only had one tyre on the copper rear passenger while I was towing a Jayco out back that had seemed to cop the most punishment. if I had kept on going on this particular tyre it would have let go nevertheless still reasonably happy. I'm not sure what the rolling resistance is compared to the Coopers but going up hills towing is something I would like to have a little like it used to be. Unfortunately there are not that many tyres in 70 series with the same construction as the 75 I know that the BFG are available but after being on trips with others with BFG A/T I'm not so sure, the wear rate seemed excessive but this is one of those topics like Nissan vs Toyota's, Engel's vs Waecos etc.
AnswerID: 219341

Follow Up By: Member - Phil G (SA) - Friday, Feb 02, 2007 at 22:57

Friday, Feb 02, 2007 at 22:57
I questioned Beaurepaires about any off-road exclusion, and was told not to worry about it. And when I brought the staked tyre back, there were no questions - they just replaced it, even though I staked it off-track. How would they know anyway?

In recent years I've used Goodyear MTR, BFG ATKO, BFG Muddies, Kellys, Grandtreks. The MTRs did the hardest trips and never had a puncture. They were the best tyre I've used, but they downsides were increased fuel consumption and a little bit of noise.
The 90series Prados are fairly kind to tyres because they aren't a heavy vehicle and don't get overloaded with heavy accessories. Most people I know with Prados get a good run out of their tyres, no matter what the brand. I number of my friends have run the Cooper ST in the past, but none do now. They have had severe chipping of the tread, and more staked sidewalls than most. But if they hang together, they will give good miles. Most went to goodyear MTR.
BFGATKO: are a good, quiet, long wearing tyre with thinner sidewalls than you'd expect - they have a sidewall ridge that can catch sharp sticks. The rears can chip easily on outback stony roads. The BFG M/Ts are a pretty good outback tyre - don't chip too much, but the sidewalls are a bit thin. Pretty handy out there when the heavens open.

The Silent Armours are better than both ST and ATKO in terms of case strength and resistance to chipping. They are a good choice for an AT tyre. If you don't mind a more aggressive tyre, I'd still prefer the Goodyear MTR for the rough trips.

You you want to stick to the 265/70R16, then the BFG ATKO is really the only good option out there. 265/75 opens up a huge range.
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FollowupID: 479897

Follow Up By: Member - Davoe (Nullagine) - Friday, Feb 02, 2007 at 23:49

Friday, Feb 02, 2007 at 23:49
just to balance up the MTR worship I fitted them and had 3 flats on the first 3 trips
(onewas possibly nothing to do with the tyre) other 2 were sidewall stakes albeit 1 was giving them a far harder time than they deserved the other was nothing maybe just bad luck. The tread is VERY puncture resistnt (I had ome damn big stakes unable to penetrate the tread I had to pull out) but the sidewalls are soft
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FollowupID: 479911

Follow Up By: Member - Phil G (SA) - Saturday, Feb 03, 2007 at 10:05

Saturday, Feb 03, 2007 at 10:05
Hi Davoe,
I guess it all depends on where you're travelling, and we know what you get up to :-))
I went away with someone who regularly travels in the WA deserts and Simpson desert. He'd just replaced his BFG's and counted 36 plugs in the old set. He added 5 plugs to the new set on the Madigan Line. (BTW, he was pretty good at plugging tyres) Most of my friends have gone to the MTRs and only one has had a puncture over the past 2 years. Friends with Coopers, Kellys, Toyos on the same trips have been a lot less fortunate, and have had to replace their tyres after getting back to town. We tend to travel in groups of 4-12 vehicles so side-by-side comparisons are interesting.
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Reply By: friar - Friday, Feb 02, 2007 at 21:17

Friday, Feb 02, 2007 at 21:17
I was going with the silent armour for my new prado , but changed my mind because of balance problems, my local tyre rep has had a problem with balancing on a set he sold, at this stage going with Cooper ATR lite truck 265/70/17, got till the 23 to change my mind again as this is the delivery date. I have had S/T & BFG on my hilux looking for something a little less noisy on this vehicle, Friar.
AnswerID: 219349

Follow Up By: Member - Phil G (SA) - Friday, Feb 02, 2007 at 23:02

Friday, Feb 02, 2007 at 23:02
My Silent Armours balanced with almost no weights.
I'd never trust anything a tyre dealer tells you - anything they say is slanted towards selling you the tyre they want you to buy.
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FollowupID: 479900

Reply By: RovingOz (QLD) - Friday, Feb 02, 2007 at 21:22

Friday, Feb 02, 2007 at 21:22
I fitted the silent armour because I just couldn't bring myself to fit MTR's.

I've seen plenty on 79 cruisers that get half way through the wear cycle with MTR's and they're as noisy as hell.

Cooper STT's were eliminated well and truly by this forum's feedback.

So it was a process of elimination which led me to go silent armour. I know there will be times I may regret not fitting the MTR's but the diff locks should get me through ;-)

I was convinced re the $16 guarantee by Phil G's experience with getting a brand new trye. Reasonable insurance for a $275 trye.
I'm not going to tell them I was following Willem into the unknown at the time, I was backing out the driveway and mounted the gutter. :-)

I also had balance problems but for a different reason. Beaurepairs switched all my rims around, once they went back to their original position all was fine.
Cheers
John
AnswerID: 219351

Follow Up By: Crackles - Saturday, Feb 03, 2007 at 15:21

Saturday, Feb 03, 2007 at 15:21
"I was convinced re the $16 guarantee by Phil G's experience with getting a brand new trye. Reasonable insurance for a $275 trye."
When the sums are done the Beurepaires tyre gaurentee doesn't look quite as good as it first appears.
$80 for the set of 5 tyres to be insured then almost $200 (min) for 6 wheel balances (number expected over the life of a set of tyres). So it appears at the minimum, you will pay for a 6th tyre anyway & more important for them you won't shop around for a cheaper price elsewhere, then they have you on a leash when it comes to additional work found & selling another set of tyres...............clever marketing really :-) For those like Phil who drive cross country & know they are going to destroy one or two tyres then it leans in their favour.
Cheers Craig............
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FollowupID: 479993

Follow Up By: Mad Dog - Vic - Saturday, Feb 03, 2007 at 20:08

Saturday, Feb 03, 2007 at 20:08
I've read numerous times from users that a balance will cure the noise problem with worn MTR's, no noise from mine yet. I was surprised from new just how quiet they are.
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FollowupID: 480059

Reply By: Richard Kovac - Friday, Feb 02, 2007 at 21:33

Friday, Feb 02, 2007 at 21:33
I just tried to buy some for the troopy 285/75/16 i think ... 3 months wait

O well back to the Dunlops

Tried Roadgrippers type "S" this time nice ride on bit and dirt.. $230.00 each

Will see how they go..

I was disappointed

Richard
AnswerID: 219354

Follow Up By: Richard Kovac - Friday, Feb 02, 2007 at 21:35

Friday, Feb 02, 2007 at 21:35
235/85/16 tyres
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Reply By: Eric Experience - Friday, Feb 02, 2007 at 23:13

Friday, Feb 02, 2007 at 23:13
Salties
The strong case on the silent armours make them less tolerant with out of round wheels. those who have balance problems most likely have bent wheels, the five stud Toyota wheels are particularly bad. large 4x4 wreckers are sending any straight 5 stud wheels to America because they get a premium price there. Before fitting any new tyre it is worth spinning the bare wheel on a front hub to see if it is round. Eric.
AnswerID: 219376

Reply By: Dave & Shelley (NT) - Saturday, Feb 03, 2007 at 02:57

Saturday, Feb 03, 2007 at 02:57
Hi Salties,

I know the dread of buying new tyres. You wait forever for the old one to finally give up so you can upgrade ( I certainly did!!!). I have had Perelli scorpion AT, Coopers AT, BFG AT, Bridgestone AT (only because they came with new Patrol and couldn't afford to change them over for 2 years) previously on my old Disco and Patrol. I went Goodyear MTR's on my patrol end of last year. This was mainly due to prices up here in Darwin and the Goodies were the best price by far ( around $27 a tyre x 5). As others have stated, the "guarantee" offered at beaurepairs seems pretty good and I to took them up on it, and told they will cover staking. Luckily I haven't needed it. I have done only 10,000 km (one trip) on them and they are holding up very well including some very muddy tracks lately (yeap, muddies working in mud, thank god!).

Balance problems. - I do have some feedback since I changed my tyres over to the muddies. I did expect a little of that. I spoke to a bloke who used to balance tyres at one of these places and he said for Patrol, 1 in 10 do seem to have some type of a balance problem with them and it is usually caused by the dynamic components (drive shafts) which are very hard to locate and fix. This accounted for the original tyres getting the feed back after about 10,000kms which still remains. Not an overall concern.

Mate, everyone can offer opinions on tyres and everyone is talking from experience. My experience is at the end of the day, the major brands are all OK. You get bad batches in all brands. Luckily I haven't and all the tyres have lasted around 70,000km doing some big trips (obviously chipping doesn't count). The only exception was the Bridgestone/Scorpions which last around 40,000km due to them being of a softer compound and very road bias. Pick a few types and start doing the shop around and go for the cheapest. It usually works for most people.

As for silent armour, I believe that is what Goodyear call there ply type. I think the silent armour comes in HT, ATR and MTR's. I have a silly "silent armour" logo on my tyres.

Good luck with your purchase and have fun.

Dave
AnswerID: 219392

Follow Up By: Dave & Shelley (NT) - Saturday, Feb 03, 2007 at 03:03

Saturday, Feb 03, 2007 at 03:03
Forgot to mention, my fuel economy went down as well when going from 265/70/16's to 265/75/16's. The I used my GPS to check my speed and it was dead on, no deviation at 100km/hr unlike before which always was around 5-7km out at 100km/hr, . I have concluded that I am actually getting an accurate MPG for the first time since I bought the Patrol (when new). Maybe this happened with your vehicle.

Cheer again

Dave
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FollowupID: 479924

Reply By: Salties - Saturday, Feb 03, 2007 at 08:41

Saturday, Feb 03, 2007 at 08:41
Dave & Shelley,

Yeh spot I had the same on my Prado with the speedo reading it is close as accurate as can be with the 75 series according to the GPS. Apparently most vehicle manufactures have this factor in the speedo reading.

Thanks to all for all the comments (and no one got hurt).

I did hear about the balancing problem from a tyre dealer, according to him this was a bit of a problem at first but has been rectified.

I spoke to a senior employee of Goodyear and he is a fellow 4WD traveller as well that has done a major trip on the silent armours and is extremely happy, yes he works for the company but my gut feeling was that he was very sincere and sounded extremely knowledgeable in his field. He also said that in the wet they are excellent. A good all round Tyre.

The best price I had for the 265/75/16 is $250 ea. Some places are quoting over $300 worth shopping around for this much variance.

I think I might give them ago I will let you know how things travel.

Take care all.

AnswerID: 219411

Reply By: djm67 - Saturday, Feb 03, 2007 at 19:06

Saturday, Feb 03, 2007 at 19:06
Just had a set of Silent Armours fitted to a dual cab rodeo (245/75/16), grip level went ***way*** up compared with BFG A/Ts on gravel & wet bitumen and seem to be as good on bitumen as the road orientated Bridgestone A/Ts that come standard.

Noise level is good, seem to be no louder that the Bridgestone A/Ts.

With only 1000km or so on them I am loving them.
AnswerID: 219499

Reply By: Gob & Denny - Monday, Feb 05, 2007 at 14:46

Monday, Feb 05, 2007 at 14:46
mine have been on now forabout 6 months and are going great no balance problems or any thing my tyres go on and forget them for a while they haveonly done 1 trip including broken hill to white cliffs via mootwingie just after the roads reopened and some offroad (not enough) but they just keep going and there is not much wear

steve
AnswerID: 219899

Reply By: Salties - Tuesday, Feb 06, 2007 at 07:31

Tuesday, Feb 06, 2007 at 07:31
Thanks Steve,

I have decided to give them ago and have asked the tyre shop to order me a set.
Sounds like they are a little short on stock as they have to bring them in from a country store. It was interesting to see the listing on the computer of the stores that had them, most in the top end and country areas. I had spoken to the gentlemen at the tyre shop about the balancing issue and he basically said that if there seems to be a tyre that needs an excessive amount of weight to balance then he would just order another tyre. He also had a set on his 4WD but he didn't sound like he did any real off road work with them.
AnswerID: 220101

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