Jackaroo Tyres?

Forgot to add -
Any feedback appreciated and Thank you in advance!

Really as long as the tyres are reasonably new and reinforced or LT rated , any good brand should be OK.
There is a special on Bridgestone RD694 ( I think LT) at Bob Jane at the moment for around $250.
I did cape York last year with my Bridgestones with no problems, and I did GRR with BFG Long Trail Reinforced 205x16 with no problems.

Just lower tyre pressures on dirt by about 10PSI .

I personally find the Bridgestones as good as if not better than BFG ATs which I used for 30 years, and seeing they can be $100 cheaper than "boutique" brands they are great.
I would not risk Cooper tyres however as I have seen too many bad reports on forums compared to any other brand.
Regards Philip A

Hi there,

We have the same vehicle and run Cooper ST's (not the new ST's recently released). Can't fault them, around 50,000 kms on them now and still going strong, plenty of tread left and not 1 puncture.

They have been outback roads SA, through the Flinders, sand driving through Victoria's Big and Little Deserts, and the High Country.

On road, have had no issues, even in the wet.

I have also read the bad feedback on the Coopers on forums, maybe we just struck it lucky.

I have had a 99 V6 auto since new. I fitted BFGs at about 10000 kms and were extremely happy with several sets. I fitted Bridgestones about 20000 kms back for $ reasons and they have been OK, but I am finding them increasingly noisy on road. I wouldn't fit them again. Big test for them begins next week as we tackle the Simpson again.

Our Jckaroo has over 240,000 kms on the clock and I am more than happy with it.

As others have said, lower your pressures (and speed) on rough stuff and most decent tyres will do OK.

Happy trails, Mike.

Ah the Jacks - sturdy beasts they are (had a 99 SE TD for 8 years) - ran BFG AT's on it throughout, did a lot of outback travel with it and never had a flat. Agreed though re the above comment about most reputable makes of LT tyre will probably do you, seeing that the driver is the most important contributor to tyre life in my view. If you carry a compressor, you can adjust pressures up and down to suit changing conditions. Also, while on gravel / stony roads, the trick is to watch for and avoid the nastier stones, while taking it quite 'easy'. The Bridgestone range may well fit your price bracket (seems the BFG's a very low $300's at present in your size). The Coopers in your size might be a saving on BFG prices LTZ, ATR, AT3, ST - nothing wrong with giving Coopers a try (but in my view, their 80k ''warranty'' is an insult and not to be taken seriously).

Angie - It's easy to get lost when examining tyre brands, sizes, tread patterns, ratings, etc, etc. They're multitudinous and confusing.

In essence, the tyre load rating system between heavy-duty car tyres and light truck tyres overlaps. The load rating system for passenger vehicles has the load rating "index", denominated in numbers - the last numbers in the sidewall code.

Passenger car tyres have "P" as the first letter in the tyre sidewall code.
Light truck tyres generally have "LT" as the first letters, if they're American.

In the tyre example you put up above, the load rating index is "111", and the speed rating is "T". This indicates a load capacity of 1090kg per tyre, and a speed limit rating of 190kmh.

http://www.bobjane.com.au/load-speed-ratings.html

Light truck tyres use an alphabetical code that is American in origin, whereas most other tyre codes are European (metric) in origin.
The Americans call this alphabetical code, the "load range".

The alphabetical load range code starts from A and goes through B, C, D, E & F. As the letters go further along the alphabet, so does the load capacity of the tyre increase.

This alphabetical code rating replaced the tyre "ply rating" that was initially used with crossply (or bias ply) tyres to indicate tyre capacity for loading.
A period ensued where radial tyres were rated with "ply ratings", when they did not actually have the number of wall plies indicated - but this "ply rating" indicated a comparison with the load ability of a crossply (or bias ply) tyre with that number of plies in the wall.
As crossply (or bias ply) tyres are nearly extinct now, the later rating systems with "load index" and "load range" now rule.

Load range/ply rating codes - http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=55

How to read tyre speed rating, load index and service descriptions in tyre codes -

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=35

Other tyre codes used by American manufacturers are:

"LT" = Light Truck
"AT" = All Terrain
"MT" = Mud Terrain
"HT" = Highway Terrain

The type of tyre tread you choose is important. All tyres are a compromise. Big heavy-lugged tyres are great for off road muddy conditions, but at the expense of harsh ride and lots of road noise. Heavy load rated tyres have thick, stiff walls, and give a harsh ride.

At the other end of the scale, a tyre with small lugs and lots of concentric grooves and lots of small grooves is a highway tyre that gives smooth riding, low noise and good traction on sealed roads. These tyres are pretty useless off-road.

Therefore, you must envisage what you require most in a tyre, as determined by the amount of off-roading and the amount of sealed road travel that you do.
Most people go for a tyre that gives fairly good highway ride and modest noise levels, with reasonably good off-road capabilities.

It always amuses me to see young blokes roaring around town with horribly-noisy, huge lugged tyres, when they hardly ever go off-road!

There's some good tyre testing reports on this following South African 4WD forum - but the testing was actually an Australian test of different makes and specifications available here.
Unfortunately, despite the tyre test being very comprehensive, it could not properly measure one important tyre factor - durability. This only shows up after extended use over a serious length of time.

http://www.4x4community.co.za/forum/showthread.php?t=23570

Cheers - Ron.

Also, How can you tell if a tyre is light truck rated?.........................


It will generally have LT written on the tyre before or after the sizing eg

LT 245/70/16 or 245/70/16 LT

Have run Bridgestone 245/70/16 D694 LTs and their predecessors on my '98 3.5 petrol Jack (manual) for a decade. Good allrounder, quiet, decent wear, absolutely trouble free. In about 3 months I'll be looking for new boots myself and will probably go for the new version of the same tyre the D697, possibly in a larger size 265/70/16.

Bob Jane has the standard 245 size on sale for $242 and most big tyre places will match their competitors on popular sizes/brands.

Other brands which get a lot of good reports are Yokohama (Geolander) and BFGoodrich - the latter are often closer to the $300/tyre mark but are very robust and long wearing according to a lot of reports.

Angie M, I run Maxxis 751 Bravo 245R70/16 AT's on my @001 3.0L TD. I don't think that you can beat them for all round value.I have done over 60,000 km on them, half of it towing a similar sized van and a fair part on gravel and half of the tread is still there. I am seeing more Maxxis tyres on other 4WD's as time goes on.
Cheers,
Kevin

We have an 2000 Td jack and the best thing we ever did was ditch the 245 size tyres and fit a set of 265 tyres.

It drives nicer, rides nicer and has a touch more ground clearance due to the slightly larger diameter.

No suspension modifications are necessary to run 265's on a standard jackaroo.

Hi, we have been running BF Goodrich all terain tyres on our 4wd's for about 10 years now, we get great milage and havn't had any problems . We wouldn't run anything else.

Thank you all so much, I knew I could count on this place to help me out.
Also in regards to the 694's the rep from beaurepairs told us that they were discontinuing this tyre and they would be moving to a 697(?)
Not sure on how spot on this is, he said it in passing when I asked about them, he said that's why they were on sale everywhere at the moment. No biggy though, but just an interesting tid bit I thought I would share.
Again Thank you all SO much!!