Coming up for new tyres soon on the ute, now away back once when I had to stop quick, the car I was driving simply slid across the surface of the road, since then I have been thinking that soft tyres are the way to go to give better braking. Hard rubber compound for long lasting, soft for better braking.
If that is the case, how do you know the softness of the compound?
You can google search and compare tyres pretty well these days , just enter your tyre size eg : 235/55r 18" reviews , and away you go....you'll see general trends to certain tyres as to whether they're good or not and stats as to wear,grip etc
Been on the net, nothing much comes up for tyre sizes for the BT50. Certainly nothing that mentions braking ability. The Yanks have a number that ranks tyre performance, but we don't. I find it kind of ironic, that we put so much emphasis on weight distribution hitches, yet have no knowledge of tyres, which would be just as or more important than WDH's. Seems little point in getting the weight on the front tyres if they don't grip.
Seems its Bridgestone duelers, Continental's, Mitchlins, and Dunlop.
4wd action did a comparo sometime ago, it did include braking distances and had one really bad brand(which claim long life). Micky Thompson ATZ on my BT50 were pretty good, much better than OEM Dunlop. Yet Dunlop of similar appearance are good on new Landcruiser. cheers Craig. No worms today
Good braking and handling is inconsistent with long life on the black top. Softer compounds give better braking and handling, harder compounds give longer life. But most of us, not being racing drivers, would be hard pressed to tell the difference. Using the correct tyre pressure is probably more important in this regard.
A tyre fitter that helped me change a tyre in the middle of the Simpson stated that he just bought fair quality tyres these days- had stopped buying the expensive ones like Mickey Thompson or Coopers because he thought they were a waste of money. He said the ever so slight marginal improvement in various characteristics wasn't justified by the significantly more expensive price.
Well my reading on the net has yielded little result, tires given the thumbs up on one report will get a poor rating in another. I have a little time yet before I need to change tires, so I will pay a visit to our local tyre shops. The other brand I will be looking at is Yokohama, Geolander. Not looking at price at this stage, but am compiling info.
Your getting too into Google . Your just out there driving around . The top brands or the Asian tyre like Kumho are on ok tyre also . Keep in mind there are many types of tyre in same brand . Donāt go too much lower profile than std or what factory fitted .
Interesting visited two companies, Tyre Power and Classic tyres. Both suggested I go from what I have fitted 255/70H to 265/7H, why, more rubber on the road, and the dia is increased 14mm, so that the speedo reads more accurately, it is about 7kmh down from the GPS.
Now are they also suggesting the 265's because landcruisers use them, and it means not having to hold the stock of 255's. Will the increased diameter effect the gearbox and diff towing the max load? or will the gearbox just kick down sooner, so long as I watch the temperature, the effects will be nothing.
The tires fitted, Dunlop A10 A/T are not stocked, way too expensive. So I noted what each had, and went away to contemplate. Yokhama Geolander were also not stocked too expensive.
If you want the best performance , fuel economy, braking , stick with the std size tyre the vehicle came with but going only 14mm bigger in diameter you most probably will not notice any difference.
Like I said above any quality brand name tyre will do the job ,
My next set of tyres will be A/Ts we do very little dirt road stuff,but last year we followed a good dirt road to a campsite it started to drizzle overnight,we got out of bed because I new what to expect !on a slight hill withe car in low4wd the van and the car kept sliding down the hill backwards a last desperate lunge climbing to the top got us out,but it did not end there,even on the straight flat road out,I could only just control things the tyres were just choked up too much the van was sliding more than the car which was bad enough,A/ts might have made all the difference to this guy that does not do much dirt road stuff...
