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Quality all-terrians - what's what these days?


FridgeFreezer

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Yes it's another thread about tyres, yay!

It's tyre-o-clock for the freebie, and I want to stick something a little bit off-roady on it as it does get used in the mud occasionally, and someone down the pub said there might be a snowflake or two this winter :ph34r:

However, my anorak is sooo last-season I have no idea what the cool kids are doing in the 4x4 tyre market these days. I want something that's a decent brand, ideally around the £100-a-corner mark fitted, and not too terrifying on the road. Googling for reviews is getting boring as they're on a similar intellectual level to YouTube comments :rolleyes:

A few options are:

- Pirelli Scorpion STR: These look a bit roady to me?

- Yokohama Geolandar A/T-S

- General Grabber All Terrain

- Dunlop Grandtrek AT3

- Michelin Latitude Cross

- Goodyear Wrangler AT/R

- Can't see a BFG A/T in my size

So far the General Grabbers are looking good but I've no idea how any of this lot compare.

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My General Grabbers have now done around 30,000 miles and show relatively little wear, maybe enough to start thinking about swapping front to rear. Great on the road and pretty quiet. Off road I've done plenty of green laning on them, but I'm off to 7S with J33P this weekend with them, so can report after that!

I highly recommend them!

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Not sure if it helps as it is a different vehicle, but I run General Grabbers on my Defender and love them, great balance of road and offroad. My local specialist swears by them, thinks they give good mileage better than many options. They were on when I bought the 110 and I have put 12k on them, seem a great tyre imho. But I have never tried anything else on a LR... I know, I know, I'm new.

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What size you after? I'd go for BFG AT's everytime. Last set I had lasted 96000 miles 45000 ish of that was towing a 3 ton trailer. Would say they were better than the General grabbers fitted to my dads 90 off road too. Rich

I run BFG ATs on the work truck and don't rate them any higher than the General, particularily as they are 50% more expensive in many cases. It's not apples-for-apples though as the BFGs are 265/75/16 on a Ford F350, but it only gets ~30,000 out of a front pair and ~15,000 out of the rears :ph34r: also they don't seem as good off road, but comparing a F350 to a D2 on slippery mud may not be fair...

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Both myself and my dad had pretty much identical TD5 90's only mine had BFG AT's and his has Grabbers. It's full of clay round where I used to do most of my off roading but I never had a problem in mine. A few times when I borrowed my dads for whatever reason I always had more hassle because the clay seemed to clog the tread more easily on his.

I can't comment on wear, his is on the first set still and tows the 3 ton trailer mentioned above but it's only done about 50k and I can't say I've noticed how worn they are.

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Have you taken a look on the bay of e? not sure if it is the same in the FL market but my tyre buying for the Defender usually makes me money!!! I use the General Grabber and now a set of the Cross Connect tyres, they have done me well over the past few years and with T/C on my Defender work perfectly for my requirements.

I have noticed that a fair few people buy a new car and either fit new wheels (bigger alloys in the case of the FL) and then sell the old set. In the case of the Defender people either upgrade the tyres to MT ones or the wheels and the tyres to bling alloys.

I leave a search on eBay for new take off in the size I require, but am never in a rush I have found that I can get either, tyres only or even wheels and tyres for <£200/£400 (Wheels/Wheels & Tyres) they do come up you just have to wait, and normally you will find they are badly listed or have pick up only in an obscure place or the centre of London where people don't have the space to store them and just want rid of them.

Now new GG tyres are around the 14mm mark so I tend to run them until they have around 10 1/2mm and then change them which normally lasts me about a year, I have found that I can sell a set for >£250/£500 (Wheels/Wheels & Tyres) so typically will make around £100 and get a new set of tyres every year. A couple of years ago the chap I take my Land Rover to noticed what I was up to, so we have altered the deal a little: I find a set and can store them at his place when it comes to service/swap over time he will swap them over for me and buys the old ones from me at £50 per wheel £50 per tyre. Which he uses for either for customers spares or adds to build vehicles. The best bit is he then discounts that money from the service....

The last lot I got cost me £410 for the set of five with wheel nuts and centre caps, I sold the nuts, locking key etc for £50 so they owed me £360, My chap brought them for £500, The full service and a few bits was £420, So I was given £80. Therefore a Full Service and new set of wheels and tyres costs me £280.

Anyway it works for me....

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Something different, Bridgestone MT D671.

http://www.bridgesto...reads/d671.aspx

I am well pleased with these for all round performance on and off-road. They are reasonably quiet on the seal too.

There are these too.

http://www.bridgesto...reads/d673.aspx

They are used in the mines in Oz. Made tough and long wearing.

Edit: Tried including images of the tread pattern but apparently I can't use *.jpg files here :blink:

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I am presently looking for F2 tyres (235/60 18) and £520 looks an attractive price for decent tyres!

Remember that unless you are driving in virgin snow, the best tyres are not always the ones with the 'grippiest' looking tread but the ones with the most 'razor' cuts across the tread. On my Defender last winter I found that the OE General Grabber TRs worked brilliantly, despite looking like a road tyre. They have lots of the 'razor' grooves across the tread blocks - called siping I believe.

Chris

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Hi there, if you are still shopping for tyres have a look on the Camskill website. The Toyo, Cooper and Hankook brands offer AT patterns and they as as good as if not better than General Grabbers. They are also in that critical price arrange of affordable.

Cheers Gary

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