That old Chestnut - Tyres!!

After my woeful experiences with Cooper Tires in the Outback, I decided to try Firestone RMTs, I can assure you that they handle the gibber with ease, & about $100 per corner less.

Oh and for reference original grantreks 30K's 3 punctures!

YES! you do so three.

My good self sir, just put a brand new set of STT's on the troppy which is the second full set of Coopers that have been on it.

First set were removed because they didn't have 'rim protectors' and I fell foul of a rock under the rim lip/edge.

They were also 235's and I wanted to go to 265's so I removed them and they now grace my CT. They have been up the Oodnadatta track to Mt Dare, then down to Dalhousie at red hot speed and pressure on around 35psi front and 46psi rear.

Then down the Cordillo Downs Road at a 100kph, same pressures.

All around the Outback Challenge areas same same again, with NOT one PUNCTURE or any other trouble that is touted on this forum re pressures and other 'pajero' oriented stuff.

Also NO CHIPPING , I'll repeat that NO CHIPPING.

The only issues were the aforementioned rock in behind the rim at 3kph whilst entering a little creek bed,which was an instant flat and a lump of steel on a dirt road that ran a huge hole through the tread and out the side wall.

Then Because STT's hadn't been released and Coopers didn't have a suitable tyre with a rim protector, I change to another brand on which I sliced the side walls of three tyres.

I tried the 'pajero' tyre pressure thing and still sliced them. I tried going slower and still sliced them.

Then to top things off I ran one off the rim going to the Pyrennees recce trip a month or so ago and chopped the sidewall to smithereens.

That did it - at $300 a pop the side wall issue was costing too much - but they had the best rim protector of any tyre that I looked at. (LOL)

Now I have the STT's on and all is well again.

I luv them.

Guess what - yep! pressures are back at 36psi Front and 46psi rear and all is well.

Lucky,

With the reduction in weight with the now smaller water tank and the inclusion of the gas tank the Droopy should be floating over the terrain LOL

Kev

Why would you do 100kmh on Cordillo Downs Road?

Skaker - two reasons:

Because it is a Land cruiser and because I can.

Just as an aside, the Troopy is made and setup to go bush and that is what it does. I do not spare it one bit and fix up what I have broken after I return home. Again - because I can.

Kev:

Oh! yeah mate, it will be 'floating' on the next trip LOL

Shouldn't you respect Station tracks?

Yep! Shaker you are dead right and I do respect STATION Tracks, however the Cordillo Downs Road is a made Road and usually well maintained, it is NOT a Staion road/track per se.

Also The 100kph only applies when the conditions suit. eg there are some corners on this road believe it not that you can't take at 100kph.

Also, even though drought conditions prevail, it does rain on this road which necessitates a whole different approach to how you drive it, not to mention the odd dust storm that lowers visibility and warrants a slow calm approach and maybe even stopping if necessary.

So you see, there is a whole range of factors involved in driving off of the bitumen on dirt roads which I take into account on the given day that I drive whatever dirt road that I happen to be on.

It's bad enough doing it ..... bragging about it & trying to defend it, only makes it worse.

Just for that, its 110kph next time

Hey Shakes!

Tell us about your experiences with Cooper Tyres which would be relevant to this tread, believe it not.

Hey....while everyone is OT..
Is Lucy a bloke???

OK, I have made my Cooper experience public here before.
I purchased 5 new Cooper ST Light Truck construction tyres, after a couple of trips to the High Country I noticed cracking around the edge lugs & chipping, this was dismissed as minor by the reseller.
In the Outback on gibber tracks, the tyres chipped very badly & on my return I was again told that it was inconsequential.
After a little more running I decided to check for wear & was horrified to find that they were over half worn after only about 21,000 kms.
I arranged a meeting with the Victorian Sales Manager for the Cooper distributors & he agreed that the tyres had performed less than satisfactorily, even though I had complied with alignments & rotations etc. He offered to allow me 50% off a new set of tyres which I was very happy about as he also said it could be any tyre that I chose.
I said, OK I will go in order new tyres now, to which he replied, you said you are doing another Outback trip next year, as your old tyres are worth nothing to me, why don't you wear them out & get your new tyres just before your trip. Understandably, I was in total agreement.

A month or so later, I was in the High Country travelling alongside a river on reasonably level ground, I came to a chipped up rocky section & stopped to assess the track, moved forward quite slowly as I had the camper trailer on the back & after crossing the rocky section accelerated away & heard a noise, thinking I may have picked up a stick, I stopped to look. By the time I got out of the car I had 2 destroyed tyres. No problem I thought, I will order my new tyres now as I am going to the Simpson next month anyway.

This is where it gets ugly!
When I returned, I went to order the tyres & I was told no way, as they had been damaged. Even after contacting the sales manager & reminding him that my tyres "were of no value to him" at the time of our meeting, he steadfastly refused to honour his word & after a lot 'negotiating' I managed to get 30% off 2 tyres.

The remaining 3 tyres were put on to my camper trailer, & lasted only another few thousand kms, making a total of 32,000kms.

I will not deal further with liars & cheats.

Vowing never to spend that sort of money on tyres again, I have since used Firestone Firehawk RMTs in exactly the same circumstances, highway, Outback & High Country & have never had the slightest problem or regret & have saved around $100 per corner.

Well! I am impressed Shakes.

You have convinced me, and just for that I will reduce my speed to 90kph.

I suppose there is such a thing as a 'bad tyre day'

Lucky,

I think you may have to revise your last statement. I think your last trip was with a fat overloaded Droopy :))

Now you should be able to maintain your 100kph due to lighter load and gas injection.

Now that should stir the nest LOL

Kev

BTW I have BFG AT's on the Triton, Cooper ST's on the Cruiser and Hankooks on the X Trail.

Kevvy!

Your going to get me into trouble, you are.

I have a set of Hankook muddies that go on the JEEP for High Country, mud stuff. (Noisy things) and will have to Re shoe the JEEP with Town Tyres soon. Most probably Cooper ATR's or a BFG equivalent.

My old Datsun Bluebird Stn Wagon has Hankooks and they have been a fantastic town/bitumen tyre

The TROOPY is on a brand new set of STT's which haven't missed a beat yet.

And

No! I am not going to infuriate the 'Scroobyites' any further (LOL)

Its Mike or Doug's turn as I have taken the 'heat' off of them for a day or two. (ROFLMAO)


See you at the Pyrenees

OK,

I revise my last statement maybe you'll get 110kph out of the Droopy instead. At least it won't be the mundain speed of a turtle.
With your theory it lends itself to the the fact that you get a longer life due to the tyres not touching the ground as often as they would if you were going slower ;))

Kev

100kmh on the cordillo road, yeah its a good speed and you wouldn't wanna go much faster, but have you ever heard how fast outback station staff drive... at least 100kmh most of them

Lucy ..... You asked me a simple question, to which I gave you an honest answer ..... so why the smartarse comment??

Shaker.

I said three things.

(1) You impressed me - (a) that you bothered to answer and (b) that your answer was good one.

(2) You convinced me that you had a bad experience with Cooper Tyres and to reward you for being and honest cove and concerned about me driving the Cordillo Downs road at 100kph, I would lower my speed next time to 90Kph.

(3) That there is such a thing a 'bad tyre day' - now that means any one can have a bad experience with tyres of any type.


However in view of your follow up comment - all bets are off and its back to 'business as usual'.


Just can't please some people.

My Troopy weighs in at 3.5t fully loaded and I have belted that sucker up and down the Cordillo Downs road, Oodnadatta Track, Mt Dare to Dalhousie and the Birdsvlille track at 100kph where possible on Cooper ST's at 35psi front and 46psi rear and never a puncture or chipping.

I firmly believe that you only lower the pressures when on sand such as the Simpson and the beach of course.

.

I would sure like to know in advance when that "lucy" is on a particular road so that I can make sure I am on another.
On those roads, at those speeds, in a Landcruiser, those tyres, mate , you a buffoon.
furph.

Hey Lucy,

How come you say you were doing 100 kph on the Mt Dare - Dalhousie road when there are very clear 40 kph signs on that road !

Back to back Idiot of the Day award I reckon. One for "belting" down the road, one for skiting about it.

"Because I can.." What a goose !! What about everyone else on the road.
Ken

Wayne,

The Oodnadatta and Birdsville roads are as smooth as bowling greens with hardly a ripple on them.

The track from Dalhousie to Purnie Bore is a real shaker - worse then anything I have ever experienced for an actual road. Add the Tanamai on top of the Bungles corrugations and you still don't come close at the moment.

Lucy is just a stupid school kid with nothing better to do than stir up the 4wders!

And you thought the Nissan mafia had it in for you. LMFAO.

Lucy may be many things but he aint no stupid school kid, or a goose or a buffoon or even an idiot award winner. He knows his stuff. Now i'm not a cooper fan myself but guys unless it's TIC don't berate the man. Give him heaps for driving a Yota instead. :)

Boys! Boys! Boys! - forget to take your pills today or just just failed English at school.

This thread is about tyres, in fact to be more particular: Cooper Tyres.

You can waste you time and effort venting your frustrations on me all day any day if you like, however thats just 'another day in the office ' for me and you are 'kindergarden venters' compared to what I have to deal with there.

So give us your thoughts and experience on Cooper tyres so we can 'value add' to this thread.

AND

The other MEMBER contributors to this thread who have been out there on Coopers ,have answerd all your questions about the roads that I nominated (super highways of the desert)

Very well put Mick and thats exactly my point, tyres are made to 'wear and tear' and if there is no 'road damage to the tyres it just means you have been driving to and from the local shop on the bitumen.

I have had BFG'S as well as the Coopers, however the BFG'S developed sidewall splits (Myriads of them both inside and outside walls) which were later attributed to a particular batch of tyres. I treated them exactly the same as the Coopers and never had a puncture on the same roads as I nominated.

If the Coopers weren't available I would return to the BFG'S as the next choice.

I have had other tyres with truly abominable results.

Have a good one.

I should mention I run BFG A/Ts.

Cheers
Himble

Well, Well, thank you Himble re the pressure thing.

I was born in Southern Cross and lived in the Marvel Loch area for most of my early years and started driving vehicles when I was 8yrs , cause I had to (and wanted to).

All the roads were crappy dirt roads, paddocks, bush and such like which drove 2WD vehicles on cause we had nothing else in those days.

Always thought was the norm in those days until I found out other people drove on bitumen and wouldn't go off same if the terrible 'dirt road' was wet or corrugated.

So my use of the terms 'Belting', 'flogging' etc are figures cof speech - however I do do 100kph and even more on some occassions on dirt roads.

Gday,
Whats this 100kph thing!
I dont know the stretch of road your talking about but why does every one have a trouble with someone driving at 100kph?
Surely if your comfortable with that speed and can do so safely there is nothing wrong with it. Shhiitt, we used to do a lot more than that on dirt roads.

Thank you Oh Hairy one.

A bunch of forum 'scrooby-ites' forgot to take their pills and found it down right outrageous that anyone should mention that they do 100kph on dirt roads.

I also used (apparently) emotive, inflamatory and downright enraging terminology to describe how the 100kph was carried out. (LOL)

This 'brigade' now have Willem primarily and Gramps and Kev (M) in their sights now due to a thread Willem put up last night.

Bit like sex on TV, they watch it to the bitter end just so their enragement levels hit the ' whinge bell'.

All high speed travel was done under controlled conditions, that is the drivers in question were in control. If they weren't then they would not be here to tell everyone about it. Simple really

Cheers Kev

I saw the Coppers on their new home Willem. Doing a fine job on the trailer. :)

Hello Willem

Seems as though I have outraged some visitors here (LOL) about things other than what this thread was/is about - Cooper Tyres.

Out of all the tyres I have used - BFG'S and Coopers are now most probably the only two I would use in future, other than a set of Jungle Trekker II is I was going to do a heap of continuous Desert travelling.

Coopers are my first preference and yes they do wear and yes the do get a bit of road damage, however I expect that from the treatment I give them and the terrain I travel over, especially those 'rock piles' north of Broken Hill.

From memory you gave those Coopers of yours a really good work out through the Western Deserts, didn't you.

Tyres are the wear & tear factor between the vehicle and the road when its all said and done, and when you have 2- 3.5 t spread over 4 of them being heated, chilled and pressured and de-flated, with continual flexing and distortion - they have to wear and 'disintergrate' as they are designed to do.

Anyway, see you at the Pyrenees where I want to discuss those MRF's with you.

G'day Lucy

I will have to find some dirt roads to get to the Pyrenees as the MRF's don't like the bitumine.

Yes, you do have a slight tendency to 'upset' some visitors....LOL but in general it is TTP

Cheers

Where you get that truck from Bro? she's a flash one.

Livin next door to Alan

Chris

There is no mention of 100kmh on a 40kmh track. So what are you on about???

Willem,
you need to save up and get some glasses.
In the mean time have a look through the bottom of your beer glass, that might help.

Member - Kiwi Kia posted:
Hey Lucy,

How come you say you were doing 100 kph on the Mt Dare - Dalhousie road when there are very clear 40 kph signs on that road !

Where did Lucy say that he was doing that speed on the Mt Dare Road. He said he was doing that speed on the Cordillo Downs Road. Kiwi Kia got it wrong and you followed down that same path. Obviously both of you assume that the Cordillo Downs Road and the Mt Dare Road is one and the same. Yer all full of piss.......

Nice thoughts Owen, however no white coated laboratory galoot can reproduce the conditions you encounter when you decide for whatever reason to go off road where there is no road, track and possible where no vehicle has been previously, such as the 'rock piles' on the stations north of Broken Hill.

Where minding your own business, crawling along trying to find an old Stage Coach track, you suddenly get a rock through the side wall which in reality kills the tyre, however you get 5-6 plugs to seal it and use it as spare (only in dire emergency).

Whilst you are attending to the said tyre, the on board tyre monitoring system starts going off its head with the other rear tyre deflating - stake through sidewall. Extract same and one plug sealed that nicely.

The tread blocks were perfect, not a sign of damage/chipping.

All those tyres were brand new and on their first off road outing, with 1,000kms out of the one with the rock through the sidewall.

$300 thank you.

Also the different weights of vehicles and the tyre pressures used with these weights has a big effect on tyre wear and tear.

Have a Good week end.