sharpy Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 Firstly hello, my first post anywhere else but the defender forum. So the question of the evening, which tyre? I have a defender 110, which chassis/lift wise is standard, I'm torn between 1. GT Radial adventuro 2 Cooper Discoverer STT BOTH IN 33x12.5x 15 or 16 on a simple modular wheel with a -32 offset Thoughts please other options also welcome, I mainly use the truck for a regular 10 miles a day, everyday on the road. Do a bit of greenlaning every other weekend and off-road play at shows etc. My only other considerations are I like to be ready for the snow, as I like to get out and help people with normal cars, I like the look of the style mentioned above. 3, 2, 1.......go! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejparrott Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 STT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
axlechorus Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 Agree, 265/75 R16 STT and I cannot fault them even compared to the BFG KM and KM2 MUDs we have had Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boydie Posted February 28, 2015 Share Posted February 28, 2015 I'm totally anti-cooper, consider Bridgestone Dueller - Light truck, they have an extra sidewall ply and are quiet on bitumen and have been faultless in mud, sand and gravel ad I get well over 120,000 kilometres (75,000 miles) out of a set of four. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
De Ranged Posted February 28, 2015 Share Posted February 28, 2015 I got warned off STT's by a mate with a tyre shop.... he has refused to sell anymore as he had too many customers complain that within a yr they weren't safe to drive on a wet road... to the point of customers buying new tyres when these are only a couple mm worn He thinks the compound they use gets age hard and wont grip, I've noticed a few references to extra snipping to improve wet condition handling in there adverts... this doesn't seem to address this issue I have also had this backed up by some of my logging mates who have tried them on there work trucks... alot of these guys run Duellers like Boydie recommended Now that said NZ roads from what my more traveled mates have said are carp lol but I've taken his advice As for the GT I don't know anything about there road going but if its the same as the old compound it will do well I know guys that got big k's on them 100k+, what I do know is they stuffed up when they changed the molds to this new pattern... these things used to be the choice of the majority of road going club trucks... now you won't see a set out there because they don't perform in the mud, most of the club boys are on Maxxis bighorn or buckshot MT they wear faster but are cheaper and they perform the same on the road and out perform them offroad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejparrott Posted February 28, 2015 Share Posted February 28, 2015 I know a couple of folks running 110's on STT's, one use to drive from Wolves to Southampton and back every week, the other is out daily and goes on regular laning trips all over the country in all weathers. Neither have ever had any issue's with their STT's and with the mileage they do, they'd know about it! VulcanBomber has STT's on his 110 too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigelw Posted February 28, 2015 Share Posted February 28, 2015 I run Cooper STT on my daily driver, they do everything they are supposed to, we drove over 650 kms a couple of Saturdays back, 500 on wintery, cold, wet tarmac and 150 off road driving a mix of gravel tracks to axle deep ruts in soft sticky clay, they performed faultlessly! They are popular too with 4 of the 9 Landies that were with us lso shod with STTs in varying sizes. Dont worry about road noise with them either, I have not yet fitted a radio in my Disco and didn't find the road noise tiring at all compared with a 200km trip in a similar Disco shod with Insa Turbo Dakar tyres, they are the copy of the Goodridge MT befor tge KM2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boydie Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 My experience with Cooper Discoverer STT tyres was mainly a temperature thing. I purchased a set of six tyres specifically to drive to Lake Eyre to see the once in 50 year flood, the ambient temperatures were in the regions of 40 - 55 degrees Centigrade. The entire trip was 70% on dirt roads 30% on Bitumen a total of 8500 kilometres. You can view the tyres on my site, the front nearside was almost down to the wear-mark. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muddychris300tdi Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 The new Bfg at looks good if you can wait a bit.http://www.bfgoodrich.co.uk/gb/spirit/BFGoodrich-in-live/Gravity Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
need4speed Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 Interesting that both the negative comments re STT's are from Southern Hemisphere? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave W Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 We used STTs for our trip around Australia, did over 15,000 miles in a mix of terrain and temperatures and they're still fine. Worked well in every terrain from the long relentless Tarmac run across the Nullabor to the mix of rock and sand on the Gibb River road, mile after mile of gibber roads and the big sand dunes and soft sand of the Simpson Desert. We caught the tail end of the wet season in the north and didn't have a problem on flooded tarmac roads either. They stood up fine to the trip and are still in use on the vehicle now and work fine in snow and wet weather conditions here in the UK. There's still plenty of tread left on all four tyres (now done around 30,000 miles) and to look at them you'd never know that they've had months of abuse in harsh conditions with the weight of a fully loaded vehicle. The most surprising thing about them getting negative reviews from the southern hemisphere is that they were developed specifically for Australian conditions. Not sure why that would be as so many people on our trip commented on the tyres and said how good they had found them. Maybe the tyres are fussy about pressures or something like that - we tuned the pressures using the pressure difference between cold and hot running rather than aiming for a specific cold pressure and only aired them down on soft sand stretches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
De Ranged Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 Like I said I've been told by mates who are from UK/France and US..... our roads are carp We do have an issue in NZ with the chip getting pushed into the seal, its common to see patches that only have the tar showing My tyre mate told me most people felt they were at there worst just as it starts to rain.... one client stating he had to drop his speed by 25% or more when it started to rain (our speed limit is 100km/h) Now bare in mind this isn't just talk, he talked me out of a $2500 sale so he really believes they aren't good Does seem odd that you guys love em and there is next to no one on the US sites with a bad word to be said about them even in reviews from people in Northern States and other areas that get some hard weather Again only thing I can put it down to is the roads here So I'll stick with the Micky T's for now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rangy35 Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 That is so cool, amazing camera work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicken Drumstick Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 Firstly hello, my first post anywhere else but the defender forum. So the question of the evening, which tyre? I have a defender 110, which chassis/lift wise is standard, I'm torn between 1. GT Radial adventuro 2 Cooper Discoverer STT BOTH IN 33x12.5x 15 or 16 on a simple modular wheel with a -32 offset Thoughts please other options also welcome, I mainly use the truck for a regular 10 miles a day, everyday on the road. Do a bit of greenlaning every other weekend and off-road play at shows etc. My only other considerations are I like to be ready for the snow, as I like to get out and help people with normal cars, I like the look of the style mentioned above. 3, 2, 1.......go! Depends what you want to do really. The STT's are pretty good multi purpose tyre and work well in the snow. But for me they are too tame and not really a mud tyre. If you green lane or off road a lot on normal British mud, then there are better off road tyres IMO. Teh GT Radial IMO looks way nicer in terms of visuals. Bigger lugs. That said I've not used or seem them used off road. In reality I expect they would be worse than the STT's on road and maybe only marginally better off road. For an MT patter they are still quite mild overall. However these would be my choice out of these too tyres. Re: sizing. A 12.50 will give you even worse turning circle than standard. And at 33" they are likely to rub in a few places, under full flex expect them to rub on the stock wheel arch spats and rub on the front radius arms. Nothing too major, but just a heads up. Also off road on mud, I mild MT this wide is not likely to offer the most traction. You'll need a much more aggressive tread or narrower tyres. On Sand they'll work well however. What modular rims are you looking at specifically? For a 12.50" section you should in theory go for a 10" wide rim. Wide rims with wide tyres with a big offset all means that there is a good chance they will stick outside the wheel arch spats and technically not be legal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boydie Posted March 5, 2015 Share Posted March 5, 2015 I don't know if the Coopers were intended for Australia or not but if they were then they got their compounds seriously wrong . At 50 degrees C ambient temp at Lake Eyre, that's around 60+ road temperature the rubber was so soft I could push my ignition key into it ! The dealer who supplied them said that they were never intended for seriously hot temperatures (but knew where I was going when he sold them to me) but that they were intended for colder areas such as the Southern Alps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
need4speed Posted March 5, 2015 Share Posted March 5, 2015 Well in that case, considering the OP lives in UK, all the Cooper trash talk was a waste of time.. I havent heard anyone in UK with something bad to say about them. Sure there are certain tyres better at certain things, but as an all rounder i think they are pretty hard to beat. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
De Ranged Posted March 6, 2015 Share Posted March 6, 2015 no trash talk just my mates knowledge from selling them.... I've never run them, I was looking at tyre choice about 3-4 months ago and asked his advice, I passed this on here.... I still haven't made a decision (other than I'm not going with Coopers, based on his advice), so at the moment I'm building around a set of Micky T MT's I happened to have for my toy.... which is kinda ironic as they are an aggressive mud tyre so will be just as bad onroad in the wet lol Did have some more info from him but I'll leave it there.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
honitonhobbit Posted March 6, 2015 Share Posted March 6, 2015 I would rather eat my own brains than fit STTs Nothing but bad experiences with them. Especially lower side wall cracking. Poor in deep mud. Awful wear in hot climes. Loud. I prefer Maxxis 764's Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
need4speed Posted March 6, 2015 Share Posted March 6, 2015 I would rather eat my own brains than fit STTs Hahahahaha! After a comment like that, it just goes to show that you cant listen to anyone on forums. It just proves that you pays your money, you take your chances. Maybe a poll: do more people like them than dislike them. In the case of the STT's, in the UK, id say thats yes. JMHO though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharpy Posted March 6, 2015 Author Share Posted March 6, 2015 Well! I did it! I took the plunge. After seeing the two tyres mentioned in the flesh,plus others I went for the STTs, in direct comparison it looked better than the GT, kumho kl71 and the recip mud, in my opinion. The GT had a lot less tread than the STT and the guy fitting them pointed out that they wore quicker and start off with a lot less tread and didn't perform on road as well. The kumhos looked very similar to the GTs and got the same response from the fitter. We dropped both the STT and the GT, the results of this revealed that the wall of the GT was flimsy and wobbled noticibly to the eye? It sounded like a flat tyre, whereas the STT bounced and made that ping of something solid ( if that makes sense?) you could flex the wall of the GT, but the STT wouldn't bend easily by hand. Now I was using (don't laugh) some Greenway, "big macho" they where awful! Just a small comparison, driving on a muddy track, the truck slid sideways, the STTs didn't move on the same track. I've only done 100 miles this week and the truck feels like it's on rails on and off road, in the end I went for 33x12.5x15 on a 10 inch heavy duty, deep dish rim with a -32mm offset, yes they rub a little at half lock, once past half there fine? Full lock doesn't seem to be a problem, they catch slightly on the front wheel spat at the very rear. I'll address this tomorrow. They do stick out from the wheel spats about 2-3 inches, from an MOT point of view, I've been told that it's the widest part of the vehicle they shouldn't exceed? Which is the wing mirror, they are actually inline with the outer edge of these. So, my opinion? The drive well on road, the mud track I use, great! Noise levels are good, I can hear now and hold a normal conversation. They fill the arches beautifully, give the truck an aggressive look and they look awesome! Completely happy, so far, only a week in and 100 miles. So looking for a wide tyre choice? Try lr99gmc on ebay, he's local to me in sandiacre and does ship. I paid £780 for a 4 wheel package, fitted and balanced on the above rims, in short, happy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
need4speed Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 Thanks for giving us some feedback sharpy. Glad your happy with them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
De Ranged Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 Just had one of the top 4wd NZ competitors rock in home, just bought a 517hp motor for his S1 landy lol, i mentioned this thread and the support for these tyres.... told me of two club guys he knows with road legal Nissan Patrol club trucks that ran them both only got around the 15,000k mark before the tyres started to delaminate (giving a bit of ground for exaggeration lol so probably closer to 20k) .... I know of both these guys and they are winch challange competitors so they would have put them through there paces.... but still.... I'm glad I listened to my mate I really hope you get a good run on them..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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