tyre report from cape trip

qubert,

What was the tread patern on the Mickey Thompsons as I have just done the Cape and mine coped a bit of a hiding although they wern't as bad as the Coopers that I had before. I was running MT.

Goona

Gday qubert yep the fella knows his stuff i see the same up ere in the pilbara most common tyre for seperation would be coopers or cheap caravan tyres Cheers barney

I put brand spanking new BFG muddies on in 2005 to do the cape from Brissy.. these were the old style tread pattern and we did all the tracks that are raved about and upon returning home you would never have known the tyres had done what they did.. I was very impressed with the wear overall..

I am still very impressed by the road manners for such an agressive pattern and even being 305/70/16 tyres they are quite acceptible around the local suburbs also...

Overall impression of them is just short of excellent as the only downfall I have found is the sidewall is a bit weak and I have staked one without even seeing what did the damage.

Well , I had Cooper AT's on my GU wagon , when we went from south of Perth to Cape York and return , via Buchanan Hwy , Gulf Track , Coburg Peninsular etc ..... heavily loaded + camper trailer ... had no tyre issues at all and not much wear .... was very happy ... compared to previous poor performance from Wranglers and the original Desert Duellers (useless).I guess I must have been just lucky .

There are a number of variables that would need to be considered in comparing tyres on a trip like yours:
load, traction control, engine torque, driver technique, pressure etc

For instance, my rear tyres take a far bigger pounding than my front tyres because the load on them is much greater. Traction control prevents lug ripping wheel spin. Lower pressures, higher load and speed all mean more heat which leads to more tyre damage.

In my experience, third hand reports from 'old mates' have little value. Maybe most tyre repairs he does are on Coopers because more people use them. He could have also concluded that Pirelli P Zeros must be great in the bush because he never has to repair them.

Qubet,

I did the Cape in August. I had the Cooper ST but light commercial not the passenger.

I had no problems with them. Actually loved them by the end. No chunks but I had some uneven wear on the front (alignment sorted this).
I would recommend them to anybody.

Marco

Cooper shmooper, I dont get it how any one recons they get a decent run from these things.
although i did chat to a bloke one time at innaminka who was telling me how great they were (after i had throuwn a set in the bin at 37k) but after he walked off i had a sticky at his closely and found chipped to the max and the cooper trade mark, lugs ripped off.
Any way i am glad some of you are happy with the coopers, others must of got bad batches??? But i would not put them on a boat trailer if it were to go off the tar.
Perhaps we just drive a bit hard or go more places??????
dont know but something doesnt seem to add up.

cheers all
GN

Had no trouble with my BFG AT's (3rd set since '98) after the Cape, not even chipping, just as good as they came back from the Tanamai/Kimberley. Locked in 4h in the Patrol, 200mm footprint F&R.

OT

Qubert, totally agree, my STT's are about 8000ks old and are chipped to the ma, with at least 3 lugs torn off. I have a 1 and 3 year old boys in the car ao im certainly not driving fast or reckless. I also let them down to 25 psi in the bush to hel;p them out with the loaded up 80 series.
Luckily the cruiser came with them brand new so i did not have to fork out for them..........but i know i wont be buying them in the future. Its a shame really cos they look pretty good and boy dont they talk them up in and on 4wd monthly!!