Tyre Topic - Cooper STT

[-Scott-]

This Tyre Topic is for members to post about Cooper STT. Post your thoughts on grip, noise, wear, airing down, or anything else you consider of interest to other members.

A new version of STT was released in Australia in 2005. This topic is for reports on both versions - original and new.

Original Version.


New Version with Armor-Tek3.


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[-Scott-]

I'll start here, too.

I bought a set of the new STTs when they were still new to Australia (thanks Ryano!) They replaced MT/Rs of the same size (285/75R16).

They went to Fraser in their first week, have been to Cape York, Northern Flinders (twice) and across the Simpson.

On road I'm more than happy with grip (as was the engineer who tested my Paj on a race track ) and I don't think the noise is any worse than the MT/Rs. They're wearing faster than my S/Ts did, but they still look like providing 50k to 60k km from the set.

Off road I think they're great. They take my Paj everywhere I want to go, and they've never given me trouble. However, I did suffer my first ever 4wding flat with these tyres - a stone "spear point" buried itself into a sipe in a tread block, and created a slow leak which was discovered about a week after a 4wd trip. I class it as a freakish occurrence which could have happened to any 4wd tyre which has sipes, and don't see it as a weakness.

The northern Flinders have some pretty nasty rocks, so the tyres are full of cuts and chips, but I haven't lost any tread blocks. Maybe I don't try hard enough?

I suspect I'll sell the vehicle before these tyres wear out, and I'll re-consider my requirements when I next buy 4wd tyres - but I wouldn't rule out buying them again.

[shorty_f0rty]

Bought a new car (80 series cruiser) and they came with 33" Cooper STT's.

This has been my first time driving on these and have only driven them on road so far.
Size: 33"x10xR15 (need to update with specific size).
On Road: They are good and dont squeal and hold their line well. Being wide tyres they do seem to tram track on bad roads, not excessively though.
On Road Wet handling:In the wet in a big 4wd they handle well. I was taking it really easy in a full time 4wd but had absolutely no issues
On road noise: nothing really excessive, taking corners they get a fraction louder but have nothing on the JT2's. hardly notice them at hwy speeds with windows up a/c + engine noise.
On road pressure: TBA
Off Road: N/A. Haven't had an opportunity to test these tyres yet off road but will update this post when I have.

[phil94delica]

I have a set of 32's with beadlocks in them. They baloon good at low pressure but my van is heavy so that might not mean much. They grip good aswell. Mine are getting pretty old and worn and have chunks taken out of them so they are getting pretty noisy on road. They also seem to have fairly soft and weak side walls. One has a hole in the side wall and others have cuts but I guess if you hit a sharp rock the right way it wont matter what tyre you have. The main put off for them for me anyway is the $360 price tag.

[nastytroll]

we are running STT armour tek 285 75 16's on a gq wagon. I got them off a mate that hated them, he complained of chips ect. I found out after it was from spinning them hard in shail at 45psi.

I have had them fitted to the girls wagon about 3 years now, abit slippery on corners when pushing them in the wet but have been impressed offroad when aired down to 18psi.

We have never chipped or cut these. I popped a bead comming down hard on the front left, from about 1m under both fronts, doin a hill climb, but it did hit hard on a big root and landed only on outside sidewall.

I hated my ST coopers but am happy enough with these. Seem s good all round tyre.

[matto]

i had 285x 75x 16 and i would have to say they were average.
In mud they clagged up bad and could not self clean
They were good on road for noise and wear but very slippery when wet.
overall i would say they would suit a 90% on road vehicle but not a 4x4 that plays every week.
Other tyres i have had are simex et 32" and 35" creepy crawlys 37" duelers 31" and army tyres (same as a jungle trekker)

[brad-chevlux]

was quoted $1780 for 5 33s today, that $356 per tyre. they then wanted $120 each for steel wheel to go with them.

[Sammyboy]

I had 2 sets of Cooper ST's (31x10.5) on my NA Pajero SWB. The first set got 117,000 (with about 10k to go) and the second set got about 80k. I then swapped from ST to STT (31x10.5). At first, my STT's were better in every way than my previous ST's, but as time progresses, the STT's became rougher and rougher on the road until my steering wheel was vibrating violently. This was partly my fault as I didn't align or rotate them as regularly as I should (but I didn't treat my previous ST's much different), but I was still really disappointed to get rid of them at just 50,000km. Offroad I think that they are awesome, on road I think that they are good (if you regularly rotate them and get wheel alignments), but they don't last long enough for my liking. I'd rather sacrafice my offroad ability and go with the ST's (still good offroad) and have a tyre that I can potentially get more than 100k from.

[tim's lux]

i havent found any problems with them, i got them about 2 years ago at $350 each on new sunnys couldnt go past them, driven a lot of mud, sand, and rock and the black stuff i have done 40000kms on them and not proud to say havnt been balanced or rotated i would say maybe half way throughthe tread.

[roverrat]

I currently run 35" cooper STT's as my daily driver on 16" ROH rims.

Positives:

- On road ride and handling is quite good for a tyre of this size, steering and braking and cornering rank right up there in the good range.

- Haven't suffered from the afore mentioned tram tracking.

- Off road I would say a good "compromise" tyre with fairly good manners over all types of terrain except clay type mud in which they tend to slick up far too easy for a "mud" type tyre. Surprisingly quite good in sand when aired down to around 12 psi.

- They air down quite well although be careful of the side walls as they are not as bullitproof as cooper likes us to believe. That being said I have yet to stake a tyre.

- I can forsee getting about 45000 Km's out of the tyre which I am quite pleased about considering my rig setup and weight.


Negatives

- They were a bitch to get balanced properly took about 2-3 tries each rim to seat in properly for balancing.

- The compound is fairly soft so all my shoulder lugs are rounding on the front (partly due to no sway bars so body rolls quite a bit more). I now rotate my tyres at home every 4-5000 km's to even out the wear.

- Tend to tear chucks out quite easily when giving it a bit on rocks (due to soft compound)

- As mentioned above crap in clay type mud situations.

Overall opinion

For a "compromise" tyre (and i cant stress this enough) i would rate them at 8/10. However for the price they are i would suggest a cheap crap 35" road tyre and shell out a few extra coins for a weekend warrior tyre.

Have done 10000km's on the set now and am generally happy with the overall picture of them but would I buy them again ..................

Honestly I dont know. I would rate them about the same as the BFG MT from earlier years before they went and f**ked them up.

[Wozza244]

9/10

I owned 32's on one of my cruisers, i treated them hard like i do with everything.
If you want a man to test out a set of tyres, its me, i've proven that with everything i own, basically its gotta be unbreakable.
They do chip a bit but other than that fantastic.

I got 45,000 out of them before i sold the truck and they were still 40/50%

$310 each i paid.

Cannot complain.

[ajsr]

Ive had one set of stt's and they were only ok in my eyes I got 60,000 out of them before you could say they were no good offroad any more.
they were reasonalbly quiet on road and the handling was ok.Ive since changed to Maxxis Bighorn and honestly I'd never run a cooper again the maxxis stick better they are a little louder but better on road and sooo much better off road its not funny and I get 55 - 60000 kms out of a set before they are no good off road and they are nearly $100 a tyre cheaper.

[ADAM 26]

on road they are good, in the dry they hold the road well, they struggle with gripping the road when its wet, espesially when trying to stop.

off road they are great in the dry stuff, as soon as its wet and/or sticky, they clag up and wont clear.

i think for what they are they are fairly noisy.

cant wait for them to wear out so i can get some different and bigger tyres.


off the topic a bit, but to compair them it might be helpfull:

i had a go at a set of maxxis bighorns on the weekend, they handel road and off road much better, and id say the road noise was less aswell. they are would win handsdown as a all round tyre against the cooper.

[chunks]

i had a go at a set of maxxis bighorns on the weekend, they handel road and off road much better, and id say the road noise was less aswell. they are would win handsdown as a all round tyre against the cooper.

Interesting you say that, I have had a lot of people say to me their car handles better with the Bighorns then the previous BFGs or Coopers they had. Pretty surprising really considering they are a cheaper tyre, though my last set of Bighorns were great, I will probably get another set in 285s for touring on my Patrol. I was considering the STTs but they don't sound that fantastic after reading this thread.

[NutterGQ]

I had these in 35x12.5x15 for about a year, there fairly quiet, handle good on dry road, slippery on wet I was able to spin them in 4th gear at 100 pretty easily, off road at really low pressures (8-10psi No beadlocks) and lots of wheel spin in second and 3rd gear i was able to get up most stuff but on clay and slush I had to spin them at 5000-6000 rpm otherwise they would not clean.

I heard they break lugs and blow sidewalls but even with the wheel spinning I did on rock and tree roots etc they never busted a lug, then again I never run road pressure in them even on dry days id run them on 18psi so i don't know what people do to bust them like that, in the end I used all 4 of them to do some doughies on road and spun them to the steel belts and they still held up well, really as a touring/medium play tyre there not bad but if you like clay and mud like me steer clear they need to be worked hard.

[MightyMouse]

THe old pattern clogged up VERY easily so very limited application in the sticky stuff.

Good on the road, sand and didn't mind rock.

But a friends set chipped badly on a heavier vehicle and were replaced with another brand by the supplier.

[whitemav]

I ran the same set of old style STT in 35x12.5 for 5 years on a GQ that was only used off-road.
At the time it was only them or BFG available readily in that size.
Never got a single puncture and performed better in the vic mud and clay than all my mates running BFG muddies.
Only problem was they started to get a bit hard by the end, But I cant hold that against them.
I still used them for the odd hwy trip for the next 2 years after that.
Cooper did themselves a dis-service by changing the design, I would still be running them now if I could get the old design.
New design is an all-terrain in my opinion.

[jabs]

ive had a set now for about 25,000 kms there mostly used on road for work and for camping trips in the drier seasons ,the et2s come on in the wet,wouldnt recomend for hardcore weekend warrior type stuff as they dont self clean in clay well .in most mud though there quiet good as long as ya get em spinnin .on the dirt there bloody great at road pressure and would be a great touring tyre . on road mine wander a tad but i think its because there a wide tyre (12.5) im happy with the wear and i think ill get 60,000 easy .would i buy again ?.............at the moment yes but time will tell ,i like the look of those new km2s

[4bdan]

I had the new style of STT's on my old patrol and on the road they handled fantastic in wet or dry conditions.

Off road, I found that they gripped really well in the dirt and weren't too bad in the mud. Never took them onto sand.

Compared to my current Bighorns, they were quite noisy on road though.

[-Scott-]

After more than 5 years (and more than 12months from the last post in this thread) my STTs are still going well. Only ever had one puncture (slow leak found a week after a trip) and still maybe 40% left. I've lost track of the km they've done (have it recorded, but not with me now - guesstimate 40k km.)

Now thinking it's only a matter of time before the age of the tyres starts to give me trouble, so I'm considering what to buy next. Given current usage patterns, I'll probably go STTs again. Anybody priced any recently?

[stilivn]

Have the new design pre 2011 when they introduced the softer compound, have several torn lugs and 2 completely ripped off, have done 60000km and will get 100,000km easy. Wont get them again though due to the lugs ripping off and the fact that the new compound will wear easier but is meant to be softer to reduce the chipping and tearing, but i only payed $1200 for 5 315/75/16's fitted so i cant really complain. Have heard good things of the new MTR's so nex time they have 4 for the price of 3 deal running.

[pipegod]

Ive got a set of the new pattern stt in 35: am very happy with the grip and road noise compared to my bfg,s but i dont think there as goodin clay,but at least theydont have the bfg rim gaurd which causes bead leaks

[pootrol]

i got 31s for my hilux. the truck is mainly for work but goes to lcmp / glasshouse and the beach as often as i can. i chose them cos they could offer more klm for the same price. ive done just over 40k and prob at 50%. havnt had any dramas but never had dramas with tyres in general. they balloon awesome and scared me a bit for the fact of rolling a tyre. i drop down to 15psi on the beach and never had any issues. i found the lux went alot of places once let down before i worried about turning a locker on. when i first put them on and drove down the road i thought WTF have i done as there loud as. let the first rotation go to 15k as i was lazy. rotated them and there as quite as a mouse now and prob over due for next rotation come to think.