So, which AT tyre!?

Johnny,
You can not go wrong with BFG A/T's. I too tried Coopers ONCE! Am on my 3rd set of BFG's and have had only one puncture in 150Ks.
But you did open a can of worms with that question.
Ian

Hi Johnny
I have the Bridgestone 694's in LT and more than happy. No road noise at all on the black stuff. Good wet weather grip and great on outback roads some of the more remote places I have take the Bridgestone tyres:

Sandy Blight Junction Road
Old Gunbarrel Highway
Connie Sue Highway
Sydney Yeo Track
Lake Rason Road
plus a lot more remote places

You will find that any tyre in the right condition will damage through side wall punctures.

By what you are asking, you will be more than happy if you go for the 694"s


Cheers


Stephen

2x RD694 LT.
And if you buy on special are MUCH cheaper than the boutique brands.

AND this from a BFG AT loyalist since 1977.

Regards Philip A

Prices vary with the size you are after but here is my recent experience.

I've always used BFG ATs but, for my 200 series Cruiser I wanted 285/75X17s and the BFGs were $460 !! I just couldn't justify that money so I ended up getting Hankook RF10s. Heaps of tread depth and a 1700kg Load rating.

But best of all they were $120 cheaper, EACH, than the BFGs.

They are very quiet on the road too.

kuhmo kl78 AT have done 90,000k's in the last 16 months 90% of the time off road
mainly stony tracks and corr. doing research work in and deserts. Vehicle fully loaded ALL the time 3 tonne + Had two flats due to poor driving. They have a few bruises on them but no chunks out of them. Have at least another 10 or 20th. left. They have extremely heavy duty side walls .When purchased in Adelaide $255 on the car size 285*85*16.

AL

Bridgestone 693 (if you can get them)...or 694..!!

Put me down for Bridgestone 693/694's.

I found Cooper Tyres far too noisy on the road.Never again.

I'm a Cooper tyre person but also not biased!!.
Yes they are noisy but of course they are because they are an aggressive AT tyre (4 ribs compared to the standard 5 so bigger gaps between the lugs). Bagging a tyre because it didn't meet your specific needs doesn't make it a bad tyre - just a bad choice by the person.
My experience is the ST's do chip in a rocky environment no matter how they are treated but the STC's are brilliant. Both tyres I definately would not recommened for your needs though.

You don't want an aggressive tyre so look for anything with 5 ribs of rubber on it. Dont go LT (and then bag them for punctures!). An 8 or 10 ply will do you find (doesn't sound like you will be bouncing around the Flinders on sharp rocks all day). I reckon an 8 ply will do you find as they will bag out a bit better on the sand compared to an 10 (not by much though).

dont be scared off from the Scorpian tyre (bad choice doesn't mean bad tyre). Magazine reviews speak highly of them and there is alot of good comments around this forum for them also. Pat Callinan has just travelled all around Aust on them so they can't be too bad !!

Price would be a big consideration also as you don't need to spend $300 a tyre for you needs.

Agree the 694's would be a good choice but don't be scared off from people bagging a particular tyre of any brand or tyre, most are venting on making the wrong choice with their hard earned money for their purpose or didn't treat them well IMHO.

Maxxi 4 x 4 Tyres


Have a look at the above - they are one of the better prices and so far I have had a good run on them - A lot better than my Cooper ST's

Cheers Tony

You have a range of excellent tyres to choose from and the Pirelli is one of them. Your usage pattern indicates an AT is a good choice particularly if your vehicle is a daily driver

No mention has been made of the Goodyear range including their Silent Armour and Duratrac. Mickey Thompson make a couple of good ones as well.

Commentary on Bridgestone D694 in either LT or AT is supported. We have been testing for the company over many years and they are our prefered all round tyre

I note you seem to own a Freelander2? We had a client out training last weekend in a diesel and quite impressive. We are putting them on to D694 for a rather remote trip in the middle of the year and are very confident they will do the job

I don't really care about how far you travel on any tyre. I do care about how safely you travel in all conditions though. If you consider that no-one should travel in the outback with tread depth less than 50% given the considerably increased risk of punctures then keep it in perspective

We also care about how well a tyre handles wet and dry bitumen and all the conditions we find in remote Australia. Our D694 meet all those requirements very nicely thank you

Regads

RobA

i've been using the General Grabber AT2 on all surfaces for 70 thousand now and still going strong, a good looking, value for money tyre in my opinion.

buzz..

We have Cooper ST's. So far 25,000 kms and absolutely no problems. I get them rotated every 10,000km - including the spare! The jury is still out on how long they will last. At least half the milage has been on rough outback roads (stones and corrugations). I'm driving a LandRover D3 and I suspect that they are pretty hard on tyres.
Cheers
John

So fess up - what size do you have on the Freelander - I'd guess its either 235/65 R17 or 235/60R18.

That's a useful bit of info that would stop you getting a heap of irrelevant responses. There's very little available in those sizes. The Bridgestone D694 is available in the 235/65R17 size.

On my current vehicle I have had three different types of tyre.

It came with Bridgestone 693. They were OK but only lasted about 40,000km.

I swapped to BFG/AT's because I had put three sets on the GQ and they were great. Unfortunately the set I put on the GU only lasted 28,000km.

When I took them to the local BFG dealer to show him he abused me and said it was my fault that the tyres had worn out and lost lugs. They only did about 500km on dirt and about 50km in 4wd. I would have given the BFG another chance if the dealer had been reasonable, he wasn't so I went elsewhere.

I am currently running Cooper ST/C's and they have been very good. My 1 puncture was caused by a tech screw in my mother in laws driveway. I keep the pressures pretty right but I am not watching them all the time and I don't roatate them regularly either. Having said that I am got about 70,000km from the first set and the second is looking to be just as good.

Since moving to Sydney I spend about 90% of my time in traffic too. The time I spend in the bush is precious I don't waste it worrying about rubber.

Duncs

Cooper ATRs on the Jackaroo (245/75/16) 40000 kms on them, including Far West Coast of SA (Yalata/Dog Fence/Pt Lincoln National Park), south east (Robe/Beachport/Canunda NP), Strezlecki and old Strezlecki, Gammon Ranges, Flinders Ranges. Got 8 (5 for car/3 for camper), reduce to around 28 psi on stony tracks, keep at about 40 on road (32 for camper) and NOT 1 PUNCTURE IN nearly 5 years!

Seems that different sizes etc may make a difference. Can't complain about mine though.