Road-biased Tyre suggestions.

[Tanuki]

I'll soon be aquiring a set of s/h Wolf rims - while I'm waiting for them to be stripped and sprayed the question arises - what tyres to fit them with?

They'll be on a 90TD5 CSW which is largely used for road/towing duty. I'll be keeping my existing wheels with Avon Rangemasters and SAGs for use over the winter and for any occasion where significant off-road stuff arises.

The new tyres need to be road-grippy, and able to survive regular bouts of six hours doing 70MPH fully-laden on hot summer motorways without delaminating, so no strange-brand 'budget' remoulds!

I'm happy if they last 20,000 miles.

The other consideration is that the rolling-radius cannot be more than a standard 750-16 tyre or I won't be able to get into the office car-park. Lower-than-750-16 profile is perfectly acceptable because it'll lower the overall centre-of-mass so improving stability when towing.

In the past I've had good experience with Pirelli Scorpions - but am rather open to other suggestions.

[Retroanaconda]

You could do worse than the current Defender standard fit, which I think is the Continental Cross Contact.

Alternatively I can recommend the Michelin Latitude Cross I have on mine in 7.50R16, they do fine for long road runs.

[Tanuki]

You could do worse than the current Defender standard fit, which I think is the Continental Cross Contact.

Alternatively I can recommend the Michelin Latitude Cross I have on mine in 7.50R16, they do fine for long road runs.

Thanks for the comments!

Must admit, in the past 25 years or so I've been distinctly unimpressed by Michelins on ordinary cars: they seem either hard-as-hell (so annoyingly last for 30,000 rather grip-free lethal-in-the-wet miles) or wear fast in odd asymmetric block-tread patterns that cause the steering to pull sideways rather than run straight ahead.

Will definitely check out the Continentals - I've had good experiences with Conti tyres in the past - they last well and give good road-feel.

[western]

or BFG All terrains in 235 or 265 sizes.

[Ratty43]

I would go with BFG ATs, my 90 gripped impressively well in torrential rain complete with localised flooding despite the front ones being almost treadless (now replaced) on top of that they seem to last forever and are apparently great in snow etc.

[PaddyMac]

I have "Maxtrek SU-800" 245 75 r16 on mine at the moment and so far I can't fault them..... good grip, good wear and mine is used in a similar fashion as a daily driver on both A & B roads

[Tanuki]

I have "Maxtrek SU-800" 245 75 r16 on mine at the moment and so far I can't fault them..... good grip, good wear and mine is used in a similar fashion as a daily driver on both A & B roads

I've not heard of Maxtrek tyres before: what company actually makes them?

[Tanuki]

I would go with BFG ATs, my 90 gripped impressively well in torrential rain complete with localised flooding despite the front ones being almost treadless (now replaced) on top of that they seem to last forever and are apparently great in snow etc.

Thanks for the suggestion - BFG stuff seems to have a decent reputation - I'll do some investigation regarding the treadwear/traction grading and see what the numbers say.

[Hybrid_From_Hell]

For a road bias tyre I would suggest you ignore all remoulds whatever the tread pattern as they are softer compounds and wear fast

Bfg ard very good on road and better of than you might expect

[PaddyMac]

Maxtrek are the company. I was going to get BFG AT's but couldn't afford them and a friend of mine with a Discovery told me about these, he seemed to think they were very good for the price so I decided to give them a go.

I have had them on over a year now through last winter with snow,ice and rain and this summer with no problems and still enough thread to keep me going until possibly feb next year..but it is my daily driver as I said.

I googled them and found below from an add.

Type: All Terrain
Vehicle: SUV/4x4
Pattern: Thickened carcass, wild pattern and deep grooves are the features of this tire.

Behind its simple appearance, a next generation technology is applied during production for improving its traction and braking performance. It can easily deal with a variety of complicated terrains and bad weather conditions.

Maybe someone else has tried them and will give a second opinion. If I had the money I would get the BFG's but then again I would prob get another set of these and some replacement shocks instead with the money saved...lol

[Tanuki]

For a road bias tyre I would suggest you ignore all remoulds whatever the tread pattern as they are softer compounds and wear fast

Bfg ard very good on road and better of than you might expect

I'm definitely avoiding all remoulds, not because of the wear-issue but because I really don't want a cheap tyre to delaminate itself messily when I'm hunting BMWs in the outside lane of the M5.

My way of thinking is that tyres are the only reference-point between your vehicle and the road. Good tyres are, in the broader sense, cheap; my life and the lives of others are spectacularly expensive.

Soft compounds in the abtract sense aren't a problem for me though - I'll happily accept a 20,000-mile service life if the grip's doubleplusgood during that 20,000 miles.

[Tanuki]

Maxtrek are the company. I was going to get BFG AT's but couldn't afford them and a friend of mine with a Discovery told me about these, he seemed to think they were very good for the price so I decided to give them a go.

Googling for "Maxtrek" doesn't bring up a company apart from:

http://www.trademarkia.com/company-maxtrek-pte-ltd-3246062-page-1-2

and

http://www.trademarkia.com/maxtrek-79062831.html

which lists it as something oriental with "DEAD" against it.

My chances of bringing a successful lawsuit against them if their tyres failed and I wiped-out a bus-queue as a result seem somewhat limited.

[PaddyMac]

HA Ha that's a sign..... better buy BFG's ...

[crclifford]

General Grabber AT2 aren't too bad in wet or dry. However with the snow earlier this year, they slipped a bit. That could of been my heavy foot though!

[miketomcat]

We've got AT2's on 45 I'm quite impressed with them wear well good grip wet, dry and mud mind I love the bfg km2's I had on the 110 to.

Mike

[bm52]

I changed from BFG AT to GG AT because I went from a few K a year and soft off road to 1000 miles a month on A roads and motorways plus 3k across France in the summer.

No problems at all with them and wearing very well

[BigBlue90]

or BFG All terrains in 235 or 265 sizes.

I agree that BFG are good, had some on a TD5 110 and it was sweet! But I have to say my MAXXIS bighorns never do me wrong.

[Snagger]

I have used BFG ATKOs for years. They are superb on dry, wet and icy roads, and only slipped on the ice and snow when I tried to make them do so. They were also superb on the dirt, loose stone and shale and boulder strewn tracks around the Alps. I get about 70,000 miles or so out of a set on the 109 with its part time 4wd system and about 40,000 miles out of a set on my late RRC with the viscous coupling, which does cause much more scrub than an unlocked centre diff.

Older BFG ATs are marked "M+S" as in mud and snow rated, but unless they are now marked with a snowflake symbol, you might not be allowed to use them on the continent in winter months. Shame if that's the case, as they are way better on the snow and ice than the Hankook ATs that replaced the worn out BFGs, and they do have the snowflake symbol.

[elbekko]

I'll go against popular opinion and say no to the BFG ATs. I have them on my P38, and they're horrendous when the road is wet. I was much more please with the GG AT², although that was on a different car with a different engine.

But they do wear very slowly.

[Oakmaster]

I've had some amazing experiences with road biased tyres, My 300 Tdi 110 CSW ran on BFG Commercials - they were not pretty - they looked like somthing from the 50's - but 67,000 miles (for the best pair - rotated) lots of motorway miles and towing - stopped well in the wet.

My late wife's 300 Tdi had Michelin M&S 235 70 16 - 92,000 miles (best pair - rotated) lots of motorway miles, Yes 92,000 miles - unbeliveable - they came with it when we bought it from the main dealer on disco rims at 12,000 on the clock - they didnt look new, but concievably may have been quite new, but even 80,000 is amazing. I did rotate them and this was the best pair, the others went earlier, and I fitted some Scorpion STs (I think) because they did so well in a magazine stopping test (might have been LRO) - they were gone in 20,000 miles, I was gutted.

My Puma (and the Td5 before it) have the factory fitment General Grabber TR 235 / 85 / 16 - Ive Just changed the front pair at 42,000 miles - they seem fine, but I completley understand the concept of not Penny pinching on the connection on the connection between 2 tonnes of metal and the tarmac – so very interested to hear other peoples’ opinion on which tyres stops the best on tarmac in the wet.

My V8 110 pick-up runs on a set of 255 / 85 / 16 Centennial Mud Campaigners that I've had as the off-road set on 5 different 110s, after 20 + years they are going to get pensioned off soon - not because of wear – there doesn’t seem to be any, but because they are becoming perished – they make the usual daft howling above 60 MPH, stopping is very variable, and ‘directional inputs’ via the steering wheel are treated as suggestions – which may, (or may not) be interpreted as a vague change in heading after a few moments – Great off road

[Exmoor Beast]

Nothing but good things to say about BFG ATs I ran them for a couple of years in 235/85x16 size on a Discovery1, as H4H said above they are surprisingly good offroad too, I found they gripped like hell with the pressures dropped a bit.

I've used Pirelli STs on most of my Discoverys and Range Rover P38, again I couldn't fault them.

I've heard good things about the Continental Cross Contacts, http://bermudarover.wordpress.com/ <<<have a look here, I met Craig recently and he is very pleased with them.

Will

[discomikey]

my "Chevy" has Cooper Zeon CS6's on it all round,

apparently they will last around 20k miles and are very very good on road, in the wet and came with loads of tread on them. ive only had them about a month but so far i am well impressed, maybe if they come in a decent defender size they might be worth a look

[muddy]

I had some bfg ATs and there not a patch on the road handling of cross contacts I have now, the cross contacts grip well in wet and very good in compacted snow. I think they are a fantastic tyre and you can get them at a good price as take offs from dealers.

Will.

[carlosbeldia]

BFG are good in off road, but not in the road. They are kind of scary when tarmac is wet an have some potholes. I have some experience with (all in 265/75 R16):

Hankook Dynamic AT: awful tire, really small when compare to others, weak walls, as grippy as SAG's

Michellin AT2: car like grip in the road, perfect in wet, very good in off road (off course is not an MT)

Pirelli Scorpio AT (don't confuse with ATR): good in dry and wet pavement, good in off road

None of these 3 were noisy (Michellin's were specially silent), and all of them cope all the weight with no problem (used to go with 1800 kg in the back of the 110 to the farm every week). Had to drive a 90 armored (level 3+) Defender with BFG's and really don't like them, off course are good tires, but I think BFG have stay in time while others keeps evolving..

I don't know how easy is for you to get a pair of Firestone Destination, they are by far the best AT working tire I have drive, both on and off road... let you some comparison where Grabber and Continental are the best:

http://www.leisurewheels.co.za/blogs/15-at-tyres-tested/

[carlosbeldia]

This was a really good comparative, but kind of old: http://www.4x4community.co.za/forum/showthread.php?t=23570