Bridgestone Dueler Tyres which one

Mike i have ran my paj on 693's for nearly 5 yrs and have done various outback trips inclulding the gulf country last year and never a punture, my opinon they are a great tyre considering the terrian we have been over.cheer's GREENDOG

Hey mike.

The 265/75/16 693 AT dueller is Oz made and strong as an ox, where as the 694s are Jap made and has softer side walls.

I have put 13 sets of 265/75/16 AT duellers on my old 80 series, 75 series and my now 3 100 series and 79 series, I wont put any other tyre on my trucks, I run 40 psi all the time and these trucks do 150 ks per day every day for 7 months on corrugated dirt roads.

Tried and tested, 4 punchers and no blow outs.

Cheers Steve.

Steve,

I wiill have to disagree a little with you mate.

The 694's are now made in Australia as well as Japan, although I haven't road tested the new ones yet.

I have had a set of the original 694's (made in Japan) in the and they lasted 70,000 kilometers.

I am currently running 693's (made in Japan) as they were a proven tyre compound and I wouldn't accept anything else from Bridgestone.

I had a hard time obtaining a set of 693's in the 245/70/R16 size and was advised by Bridgestone that they were to cease importing the 693 compound. At the time however, there were plenty of the more common 265 size still available. Enquiries by my local Bridgestone tyre dealer with the Company resulted in the desire by Bridgestone to produce the 694 compound in Australia and cease importation of the 693's.

I was told by Bridgestone that the new 694 compound will be as good as the 693, but I told them I preferred the look of the pattern of the 693 and if they wouldn't sell me a set, they could shove their tyres you know where.

Mike,

Unless someone has had the chance to road test the 694 compound now made in Australia, the overall performance and wear characteristics of this tyre is yet to be widely established, but if what Bridgestone has imformed me is correct, it will become increasingly more difficult to buy the 693 compound in any tyre size in the future, as current stocks dwindle.

Mike,

I had the original tyres on the TD100 replaced with D694's when I bought it but wouldn't recommend them.

They were fine for the first 20,000K but I then started to have a lot of problems.

I had 5 punctures plus a rock through a sidewall and also a slashed sidewall and only got 34,000KM out of one of them.

They were rotated regularly and I altered tyre pressures according to the road/track conditions.

I've now got BFG muds with 50,000KM on them, have not had any dramas and they are wearing well.

Mike ,

I blew the side out of a Cooper AT on my way to Kununurra in June . It destroyed the wheel and consequently I became friendly with the towns tyre sellers as I looked for a second hand wheel .

I became quite trusting of the Bridgestone dealer there and I asked him which of all the Bridgestone he recommended for dirt road use . He said the 693 , so I bought one as my spare . I intend to replace all the Coopers with these , as they are shedding lugs at a great rate .

I have never worn a Cooper AT out , I have always chucked them away when the lug damage started to look unsafe . I have had enough with them now and I am a Bridgestone man ,

Cheers ,

Willie .

I can vouch for the 693's. Last set I got about 90,000 living and working in the NT. Milage included CSR and GRR both towing, Lawn hill (towing van) and overall about 20k on dirt.

Some punctures/stakes early on in first couple of thou.

Had BFG before and in comparison 693 do not chip and wear. And ride much better on dirt. There must be lots of other good tyres out there but for overall touring, 693's are good.

Now on second set of 693's.

Sean

One other thing told to me by Bridgestone is that both the 693 and the 694 compound tyres use the same carcass wherever they are made, so the side wall protection will be the same in both compounds.