What makes the perfect tyre?

Oh no, first fridges today, now this!

1) How many plies must a good A/T tyre have?

prefer 8 Ply Rating (not necessarily same as 8 ply)

2) What makes the sidewall more durable and less puncture resistant?

age

3) What compound, hard or soft?

Harder rather than softer

4) What brand tyre has the best tread pattern for this type of tyre? Eg. BF Goodrich, Bridgestone, Cooper, Toyo etc

Can only speak for BFG and Bridg, both OK

5) What do you look for in a tyre?

Price and availability

6) What tyres do you run on your vehicle and why?

BFG's, put onto by a mate 15 years ago, no problems, no need to change, available and relatively cheap in 265/75/16. Recently put a set of NEXEN Roadian AT's on another vehicle ($195 ea) to trial them, so far so good.

7) What pressure do you run your tyres at and on bitumen, and on gibber?

Enough to give 210mm contact patch all round, -10psi from that at the end of the blacktop. For me pressure is a variable like weight.

A couple of other rules I use is that do a trip at I will not do a harsh trip on a tyre older than 3 years and always put the best on the rear and the best of the best (hopefully new) on passenger side rear.

OT

Hi Kroozer,

I guess it would help narrow the selection process down if you could pick a type of terrain that you are most likely to frequent. IMHO there is no perfect tyre, just tyres that are most suitable for for a particular environment. I have 2 sets of tyres. I wont get into brands but I use 31x10.5-15 for beach or similar work and a set of 235x85-16 in 10 ply for outback, rocky or heavy stake riddled areas.Probably even 12 or 14 ply in really bad areas would be better. I try to stay away from mud myself but I know some who love to play in it and if that was the case a good mud terrain would be the pattern of choice.

So pardner name your poison lol

Cheers
Pop

Young Kroozer :-)

Its a slow night...so I will bite ...lol

Any tyre you shod your vehicle with is a compromise. There is no tyre for all seasons or terrain, to coin a phrase

Having done a fair amount of 4x4 stuff over quite a few years I have experimented with a variety of tyres. Over the past 10 years I have been doing a number of offtrack excursions and came to the conclusion early in the piece that radial tyres are really no good for this type of terrain = mainly desert country.

I switched back to cross ply tyres and am currently running 16 ply rating MRF rags 7.50x16 on splits. So that is 10 ply tread and 6 ply sidewall. These tyres are very good in hard rocky country and also in mud funnily enough, but because of their rigid sidewall structure they are prone to sand ingress if lowered beyond 15psi. This causes tube punctures. These tyres are not unstakeable (the only unstakeable tyre will be solid rubber) but they are better than most and I have been over some rough country with them. They give a firm to hard ride. I run them at 35-40 psi on bitumen roads and 22-25 psi on gravel roads. The tread does tend to scallop a bit especially when doing long stretches of sealed road but its no worry. Another drawback is that because the tyre is so rigid it is difficult to know if you are running on a flat tyre. I have detroyed one this way :-) It delaminated and is now out of round.
I expect to get around 50,000km from these tyres.

I will stick to what I have at present and probably buy 12 ply rating crossply tyres next time around as they are more suitable for desert sand country.


Cheers

OK, a complete contrast, Kroozer.
I run a Michelin highway tyre 305/70R19.5 XDE2 on the OKA.
They have a relatively hard compound and they chip on roads like the GRR. Softer would be better.
In 150,000km of serious work, I have lost 1 tyre before it was worn out (slashed the sidewall up in the Cape this year).
I have staked 4 thru the sidewall, NONE thru the tread.
Minimum ks 55,000, max ks 75,000 per tyre (repairs typically reduce life, even if they hold together).
They have a SINGLE steel ply in the sidewall and 5 steel plys in the tread. There is no polyester or anything else.

On the roads you describe, tread pattern is the least concern, as is side wall "strength". The stiffer/stronger the sidewall, the hotter they will run and the less they will bag out. It is a 2 edge sword.
My pressures are not relevent to you, but I do reduce pressures by 10%-20% off the blacktop AND I reduce speed AND I engauge 4WD. Pressures are directly related to speed AND load.

Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 Motorhome

Just got a quote for 5 bfg all terrains 265/75/r16 $316 ea . Anything cheaper that are just as long lasting ?

Kroozer,

Here we go.. the great Coopers debate......

Stay away from the Cooper ATR's. Too hard and you probably will rip large chunks out of the tread blocks off road, (Cape York) and deadly in the wet on the black top. Currently running them on a Nissan D40 265/75-16, at 40PSI on road, took back to tyre dealership they said to drop them to 30PSI, still slippery, but i have also been told that size tyre is too wide for the D40's to put enough downward force on the road to get them to grip properly?????

Ideas anyone?

Have a good one.