What Patrol do you have! I've had a Safari TD42 shorty for 12 years, running on an assortment of 310 x 11.5 x 15 ATs. Suspension is stock.Can't say I've noticed a difference in ride between tyres.I tend to keep an eye on tyres, rotate front-rear regularly as unless you run 40psi or more on the front, and 28 or so in the rear (not comfortable), the rears tend to wear in the centre of the tread, fronts on the sides.My biggest problem has been with tyres which go out of round and can't be balanced - last set of Goodyears I dumped with plenty of tread left.
vpholdie,
Nov 26, 7:33am
Have to agree with a.woodrow the shortcomings become apparent when you need them in wet conditions or when you have to stop in a hurry, maxxis have a 4wd tyre on the market called su800 which is an old bridgestone 693 pattern.
unclejake,
Nov 26, 7:55am
It is a LWB GU3 4.8 petrol. I put some Bridgestone 694s (37.5psi all round) on it and it was great, but they were stuffed after 47kms. We fitted the Kumho highway tyre and the ride was worse at 26psi than the Bridgestones at 37psi.
We tried another, identical set of Kumhos the next week but they were the same so a set of Hankook highway tyres went on and the ride was back to how it was.
She has 30% uprated springs (standard height) and a set of adjustable Rancho shocks.
The 19 inch tyres are for an Audi A6
mm12345,
Nov 26, 8:05am
Presuming you mean 47k kms (not 47kms <g>) then for a LWB, I'd have thought that was pretty good.With the GQ shorty, 40-50,000 kms would be about the limit.My safari is getting old. Only just over 200,000km (most of them mine), but today, 4 hours work pulling front callipers apart, unseizing, cleaning. reassembling.They are very well (over) engineered trucks, but 23 years on, it's a labour of love keeping it on the road.
unclejake,
Nov 26, 8:06am
Ha! Yes, 47,000kms. Sorry.
It has been a very reliable and dependable friend. It is just a shame it drinks more than Snoopy221
yendor,
Nov 26, 8:20am
They are the only thing keeping you stuck to the road, for the sake of everyones safety don't skimp on them!.
richardmayes,
Nov 26, 8:58am
I've had a number of Kumho/Roadstone tyres in the past (185/80 R13 on old English Triumphs) and with monotonous regularity they died young after developing strange hernias, lumps, out-of-roundness, blowouts, loops of inner ply mysteriously pulling tight inside the tyre making a groove up the side of the sidewall. Et cetera.
(In the end I bought a full set of good Cooper tyres made in the USA and they were just beautiful - quieter, more grip, more grip in the wet, basically did all of those things that I'd previously thought were just the BS claims of people paid to advertise tyres!)
Cheap tyres are still round, and they keep the back end of your car from scraping along the road. But tyres really do appear to be one of those fields where you really do get less, if you spend less!
friendly_prawn,
Nov 26, 9:02am
so with that reasoning, we should all go out and buy the most expensive tyres we can find!
clark20,
Nov 26, 10:40am
Or the other way around the question, are you wearing $20 shoes! If not why did you spend more!
pollymay,
Nov 26, 1:37pm
I wear steel caps, they weren't $20.
friendly_prawn,
Nov 26, 7:32pm
I disagree with you totally. I have only ever used cheap chinese tyres for years.I never pay anymore than I can. always the cheapest and I often drive my cars quite hard. Never had an issue. Ever!. I cant say if there would be a differenceif I were racing or really pushing the boundaries, but for every day driving and long distance trips, again, I have never noticed a difference, ever. Oh, I lie, yes I have noticed a difference, the cheaper tyres seem to last a long time. :-)
sw20,
Nov 26, 7:39pm
Next time when a car pulls out of an intersection right in front of you in the wet good luck controlling that.
romulan7,
Nov 26, 7:43pm
Thats what insurance is for.
hijacka,
Nov 26, 7:46pm
That is a bit of a contradiction there FP You say.I have only ever used cheap chinese tyres And then.I have never noticed a difference. The difference between what exactly! One cheap tire to the other perhaps!
pollymay,
Nov 26, 7:52pm
What do you drive! The mr2 I drive will eat you up and sh** you out if you put on bad tyres. Towing a trailer with anything I also have traction issues on cheap tyres in the cold wet with 2wd, noticeably bad traction
friendly_prawn,
Nov 26, 8:19pm
nope wrong. I only buy cheap brand tyres. But I dont have an option over what tyres are on a car when i buy it. Some of the cars I have owned have had expensive brand tyres.At some stage, they need replacing, obviously tryes dont last for ever, guess what I replace them with! :-)
friendly_prawn,
Nov 26, 8:21pm
my understanding is the more expensive a tyre, the softer the compound so they grip better. The softer the compound, the faster the wear. Im sure I'll be corrected on that if Im wrong.But if that is the case, then the more expensive the tyres the faster the wear.Can anyone clarify that for me.
angel_25,
Nov 26, 8:28pm
Is there no margin for safety of yourself and others in your budget FP!
friendly_prawn,
Nov 26, 8:32pm
no of course not. but then I like to live on the edge. bahahahahahahahaha
pollymay,
Nov 26, 11:43pm
It CAN be softer or it can be just better engineered. "Rubber" is made of all sorts, watch a "how do they do it!" or other similar program on making tyres, it's quite interesting.
Different vehicles also react differently to tyres. A fwd plod along tends to just plough into understeer and do that quite loftily, understeer always tends to feel the same. It's undramatic, A car like the mr2 reacts different, rear mass rwd once the slide starts it's more dramatic as it's like a pendulum and can get out of hand very easy if you are not quick to react so what was a slight loss of grip is now you going backwards into the trees. Likewise towing an unbraked trailer your stopping times are more cause you are using a good portion of the tyres grip if you try to stop fast, cheapies can add much more braking distance cause they try to lock up much easier.
studio1,
Nov 27, 9:23pm
Like most things that come out of china, and the problem is by buying their crap, we only encourage them to make more of it!
studio1,
Nov 27, 9:28pm
A van I had 10 years ago came with Michelin tyres on it. They had heaps of tread when I got the vehicle, and still had heaps a few years later. They were the best lasting tyre I have seen on any vehicle I have owned, and they are not a cheap tyre. They also stuck to the road really well, as I found out one day when I had to take a 90 degree bend in a road, with reverse camber - doing nearly 60 km/h! An old mechanic mate of mine reckons you should store new tyres away in the garage for a couple of years before using them, as it allows the rubber to 'cure' for longer, making it harder and therefore they wear less. I don't know whether this idea is valid or not, perhaps modern tyres don't need to be 'cured' for this period of time.
friendly_prawn,
Nov 27, 9:57pm
yes have heard that before too. although i dont believe it but cant be assed googling it.One problem I can see with your comment about storing them, you'll find in the URL below. That is something that every one in this thread should be more worried about than cheap or good brand tyres. Cheap or good brand tyres should be the last of your worries. checking the age of your tyres is far more important.even tyres sold new can be very old and dangerous.
I bought a farm ute with a flat deck which I only ever drive at 70/80 km/hr on the open road and it was fitted with Pirrelli's on the front and Michelin's on the rear. The Pirrelli's got side wall bulges and wore out completely, in the same time the Mitchelin's were only half worn and still warrantable when I finally changed them all to a set of Savero's, which are now still barely broken in a year later. And I quite often pull out in front of approaching lines of traffic but don't accelerate hard to save wear & tear, and don't have any anger management issues as I chant my open-road mantra, ommmmmm.
friendly_prawn,
Nov 27, 9:59pm
lol hyphen, just leave the road rage behind you eh!
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