Tyres gone hard

Five or six years about does them in Mark no matter what brand they are. Having had a couple of sets of ST's as well as some MT (Dick Sepek) FC2's, I'll be shoeing the new Tojo in the Toyo Open Country MT's. Not cheap but comparable in price to the BFG MT's or Cooper STT's. Very impressed with a set EO member John had on his 80 during this years trip into the Great Sandy. Of course they'll be a bit meatier and therefore noisier on the road but worth it in my mind. Something else to think about.

Cheers Mick

Hi Mark

Really go BFG AT or muds if you can next time , I still have my 2002 set with lots of rubber and they have developed much less in the way of those issues than a 4 yr old set of Cooper ST that I also have.

I can recommend Baullkham Hills Tyre King on Windsor Rd.

Cheers.

"tried to talk me into some Goodyears"
Generally you don't see alot of advertising for Goodyear 4x4 tyres, instead they sell by word of mouth because overall they work well. He could very well be pushing his product but they are an excellent tyre anyway.
Cheers Craig................

Hi Mark

I have Cooper ST 285 wide on my landcruiser and 275 Goodyear Wrangler on the Kedron we drag around.

As a excercise I decided to do a tyre swap and put the wrangler on the landcruiser and take it for a spin. Although the wrangler are AT's there was still quite a difference in the feel of the vehicle. I much prefer the Coopers.

Hope this helps.

Carl

Oh dear, so now I can only expect my tyres to last 5 years before disintegrating.
What do they make them out of these days? I am afraid to mention my set of
Roadgrippers that I use on the Hilux when set up as a fire unit in the summer...
circa 1988, 30% tread but no sign of disintegration, or the two Michelins that were original spares on my Peugeots, circa 1994, & now doing service with neither
wear or disintegration problems. I have a tractor that is 40 year old & the tyres
are fine apart from normal wear & tear.
Does anyone have thoughts on the effect changing pressure has on tyre life ?
I dont do it. My 4 year old BFG A/ts on the Jack have done 30k of outback travel,
show no cracking or any other damage, worn maybe 40%, but never run below
36 psi or above 40. If a Cooper will leak through the tread at 55k & 5 year old,
I consider that another reason not to buy them. In a general sense..what is the point of paying big bucks for tyres if the construction is going to fail before the
tread wears out ? This must be related to current manufacturing & materials as
it never happened to tyres made 20 years ago. Aaah, thats better..nothing like
a good winge to start the day :)))......oldbaz.

Hi Mark

Just for your knowledge tyre manufacturers do not warranty their tyres once they are older than 6 years from manufacture. Not from date of sale.

If you check on the side of the tyre there is embossed a date for you to see when the tyre was made. There has been a number of news articles about people having accidents with older tyres. You insurance will not hold full liability if you are driving on out of date tyres.

Have a look on forum 13665 which discusses how to read the numbers.

David

Funny my BFG A/Ts are now 10 years old with no problems and no noticable loss of wet grip.

They have been stored from time to time in a dark place but have also done a lot of Ks.

Nearly done now with only 4MM on the outer treads of the front.
Regards Philip A

A careful trawl through various websites will show that what happened to your Coopers (going hard towards the end of their working life) is not uncommon. Tyres that go hard like this become a major worry on wet tar sealed roads and for a 4WD this is an especially serious issue.

The fact that the Coopers do have that much tread after 55k is a definite indication of the type of rubber compound from which they are made. Coopers claim that their tyres will last a lot longer than any of their competitors and the hardness of compound is the only real way they can achieve it.

This gives you a choice when you buy tyres. Do you want a set that will last you over 80k yet give you an decreasing amount of traction on wet roads from 55k onwards and therefore increasing your risk of a serious accident in these conditions? If you do most of your driving on dirt then that's an easy decision to make. If you spend more time on sealed roads then you have to think about the ramifications.

In this respect I will have to think about the next set of tyres I buy. Three months ago I fitted my third set of Bridgestone 694s. These are (but won't be for much longer) the only tyres manufactured here in Australia for Australian conditions. I've got about 50k more of driving to find out what the Asian manufactured version of these tyres will be like before I have to make a decision.