Mickey Thompson MTZs

I use them and would buy them again

A friend had them on his GU Patrol, they wore very quickly & cost him 3 litres per 100kms extra to have them on.

We have them on our Jeep Wrangler Rubicon and love them - perform well off road on the rocks and mud, a bit of noise compared to the standard tyres but thats to be expected and its only really noticeable with the windows down. We havent noticed any major effect on our fuel economy.

I have a 3.8 t GU Patrol & regularly travel tracks like CSR, Gunbarrel H'way, Great Central Rd, Connie Sue, Gammon Ranges, the stony deserts, etc....... and far too much off track running in the far north of SA & the NT. Have had disgustingly good luck in the last 2 years - only one flattie. I run 265/75 R 16's with two mounted spares.

It appears to me that mulga stakes, acacia sticks, stones and rocks do not understand that I paid good money for tyres; these objects attack my tyres without discrimination. So I am now of the opinion that it does not seriously matter what you pay for tubeless radials. A stuffed tyre is a stuffed tyre. There is not much difference between a rooted Mickey Thompson and a rooted Cooper/Goodyear/Bridgestone/your favourite brand name.

Lots of punctures/ruined tyres are to be expected when travelling on tracks and roads of poor quality. It is unreasonable to expect anything else.

For those who have not had the first hand encounters with terrible tyre days, witness the experiences of Mick O. My own worst tyre day experience is ruining 3 tyres (on the 2nd vehicle - it kind of slows progress when you have only 3 tyres left to dive on !) and puncturing 3 tyres (two on mine) between two vehicles. End of plans until new tyres obtained on that trip! I have found that one good way to lower the incidence of tyre damage is to make sure you are not paving the way.

Naturally enough, I look at what other folks are driving on.

Having spent the big $'s on serious MTR's and the like, of various brand names, I am now enjoying life on "cheapies." $ 280 got me Bridgestone 693's, and yes, I have had them before. I run 6 tyres, so that saves approx $ 300, or one tyre. Based on current performance, I'll be getting them again. But until I get to the new tyre decision, I'll keep on trying to have an open mind.

However, some blokes reckon I waste time and effort fiddling around with tyre pressures. Everyone is entitled to an opinion.

So, IMHO, as you postulate, it does not matter what you run.

Cheers

Have a look at the Bridgestone D694 in LT spec, about as good an all rounder as we ahve found. Nice and quiet, strong off-road in all situations expect mud and handle very well. We have several clients with troopies using them and they are very happy.

If you want something different then also consider the Goodyear Wrangler Duratrac and if you spend lots of time off bitumen then consdier their new MTR with Kevlar. The latter is fantastic off-road but like all aggressive tyres noisy around town

Like all things 4WD it depends on your needs.

We have covered plenty of distance on all of the above and have been happy with the lot. Currently doing durability and capability testing on the MTR with Kevlar and they are hard to live with around town and don't grip the black stuff any where near as well as the D694 but you cannot expect them to perform the same as such different tyres.

My all round preference remains D694 but when we head out on a tour or to train the MTR's go on the car

Regards

RobA

I run them on my GU which weights 3.4t, Being a mud tire they do wear a bit quicker and you need to have about 40psi + in them. I've done about 18,000k on mine and the still look like new.

have had a set(285/75/16) on my 80 series for just under 2 years.
they have done a couple of major trips ie cape york towing camper and hay river and heaps of weekend work.
Just measured tread depth and they still have 7mm left i.e half tread
they have done 47,500 km to date.I would expect at least 65-70,000 usable km
1 puncture (staking )down at snowy river NP last easter.5 plugs didnt work.
fortunately tyre will still run with a tube.
cheaper then MTR's which I ran previously and better wear rate.
I will definitely buy again
regards
Howard

Hi Glenn,
We have just finished a 3 year trip around oz. We had Mickey Thompson MTZ 285/75/RT16 on our 80 series and on the trailer. We did 83,000 kms all up and we had 4 punctures 3 nails we picked up in towns. They were plugged and are still in use and 1 was a railway spike coming out of Wilpina pound (nothing stops a spike). We never had side wall damage even running low pressure for long periods. They are great tyres and still have useable tread left on them. We rotated them regulary. I would run them again any day. If you read the history of Mickey Thompson then you realise the tyres are built by a guy who knew what he was on about.

Josh