Outer Limits 4x4 Board

considering going less aggressive from claws due to more road kms whats the pros cons of each or any other mt tyre that is long wearing

DEZ wrote:considering going less aggressive from claws due to more road kms whats the pros cons of each or any other mt tyre that is long wearing

Both of these tyres are old and don't have the same tyre technology as new 4x4 tyres do. Both these tyres don't have sipes all new 4x4 tyres have sipes because it makes the tyre quieter and grip better on wet roads. Both of these tyre don't have a cross ply that makes the side walls stronger. All of the Coopers tyres, Pro Comp tyres, Mickey Thompson tyres and the new BFG KM2 have a cross ply.

I have had the Mickey Thompson MTZs for only 1 month but this is the best 4x4 tyre I have ever owned. These grip heaps better in the wet than my BFG ATs . My ATs would give me either over steer or under steer when going through a wet round about. With the MTZs I get zero under or over steer. So far I can't fault this tyre it has been through sand stone, gravel, rain forest mud, wet sharp rocks and it just idled over everything with no wheel spin. Sand it the only terrain I haven't tried so far.

bfg all the way proven tyre

I had the mtzs on for a day ( they got it wrong ) herd there a softer rubber and therefore not lasting as long as say the wranglers which have a much harder rubber. I originaly wanted to go aggressive but relise i may be doing longer km trips.

mtr goodyear r better on road heaps beta and iv owned three sets of bfg muds mtz mickys are sposed to be good but the only people i know have them arnt that impressed and iv seen one side wall cut from arsehole to breakfast time on a little rock

yeah im not too worried about on road performance or noise. More the km factor seems a waste if you have a good aggressive tyre only to wear it out and loose the quality grip in alot less kms

Members from the 4wheel drive action are getting 80,000 to 100,000klm wear out of the MTZs.

i got 100,000 out of bfg muds but they were the old style. i wouldn't put mickey t's on my car if you gave them to me. i had them(rad claws) and took them off after about 20,000 because i hated them so much. they are still in a pile, might sell them one day.

Are the new BFG Muds available in Australia? Or is it still the old ones?

I don't know about the new ones, but the old BFG Muds are great mud tyres. Elsewhere, I reckon tyre technology has overtaken them, and I would say the MT/Rs were the first of the "new breed" (which I tend to think of as super-aggressive All-Terrains - they crap over traditional All-Terrains, but they're not optimised for mud.)

In terms of wear, I had 31" S/Ts which were easily going to make it past 80k km. But I sold them to go to 33s.

First 33s were a second-hand set of MT/Rs. Bought them at about 90%, and they were down to about 60% after 15k km. Took them out to Innamincka & Flinders (good tyre-shredding terrain) and got heaps of cuts and chips, but no chunks missing, no punctures, not even a slow leak.

Sold those and bought new STTs. Fraser Island, Cape York, Simpson Desert & Innamincka, northern Flinders. Excellent grip, no punctures/leaks, cuts & chips. I think I'll be lucky if they make it to 60k km, some blocks look like they're thinking about breaking off - but they had a bit of a hard time in the Flinders. The boys at Mt Dare swear by them (well, they did in September '06.)

I think I'll look at MTZs next.

I've run old Kumho AT's, then old skewl BFG's then MTRs then new BFG's on my old GQ.

When I got the GU, first thing I got was MTR's. Love them. Good on road, good offroad, had no issues anywhere I've been. High country, Robe, Flinders Ranges, Murray Sunset, all sorta crap from Flinders rocks, sand, mud, clay, never been a real problem. Well over 12mths of use, and they rock. I'll get another set without question.

If I could get old skewl BFG's they would possibly challenge the MTR's, but they only have the KM's now, which are soft compound (with the newer ones coming out probably softer), and squirm in roundabouts n corners, apart from that they are ok. Maybe the way I drive.

You will be happy with either

I love reading things like "This is the best tyre I have ever owned." in one month you would be hard pressed to give an great (for want of a better word) opinion on any tire (AT/HT/MT/Bogger etc) in all conditions.

Remembering the first 10-20,000klms of any tire are when they are at their best. Once the edge goes, they all start to suck.

The only thing puttin me off MTZ's is there were a couple of threads with some very unhappy campers that were using them. But you will never find anything that EVERYONE likes (Except Ryano at 4b's tires in Qld)...


YMMV

I've got MTR's which i've had on the jeep for 3 years, they're about 40k old and still going strong. Probably got another 20k at least in them. I drive a bit agressive onroad sometimes (small 4wd big 4.0L six ) but i rotate them every 4-5k and they have worn evenly. They are one of the most easy tyres to balance. In 40k, i've never had to balance them as they fit the rim exceptionally well and still after 40k without a single balance there are no vibes. My previous 2 sets were BFG AT's are they were woeful and needed balancing all the time.

The MTRs drive straight and true and are very grippy and comfy onroad but are a lot noisier than they were new but i can barely hear them above 70klm/hr due to the softtop wind.

Offroad they are simply awesome on dirt/gravel roads at speed, they were made for it. Dirt/rock/sandy hills and slow offroad work they are awesome. In sand/beach i need to go about 4-5psi lower than i did with the BFG's otherwise they sink easier. In the mud and clay and greasy stuff they are hopeless, definately not designed for mud. However on wet bitumen the powerslides are very controllable, not that i've done it on public roads of course.

I'm about to retire my 3 year old set to the campertrailor and get a new set on the jeep so they match all around.

I've never been impressed with the wear rate of mtrs. I've never run them , but have plety of friends that have, best kms was 60k, and he really looked after them - rotate/ballance/allign every 15K.

I currently have bfg mt kms, and have 60k on them, i will get atleast another 25 legally. I've had 1 ballance/rotation/allignment when the vibes got too bad, and the weights lasted 1 week then flew off. I should get some of that auto ballance bead stuff.....

Anyway, I'm very happy with my bfgs, and will replace them with the same when the time comes, if their still available.

Andy

DEZ wrote:yeah im not too worried about on road performance or noise. More the km factor seems a waste if you have a good aggressive tyre only to wear it out and loose the quality grip in alot less kms

Most MTs are 20% road use and 80% off road thats why they wear fast on road. If you want more Klm out your tyres you should be looking at an AT. An aggressive AT is 60% road use and 40% offroad and less aggressive ATs are 80% road use and 20% offroad.

Two of my BFG KO's (35's) that blew within a week of each other whenever it was last year both had around 57,000 on them (bought Oct 2004), still had at least a good 50+% tread on them. I was very impressed with their tread wear... Would have been the same as Andrew E - would have gotten another 25000+. it is just that their side walls are totally crap. They both blew their sidewalls out, along with four of their KO cousins throughout last year. Various pressures, both dirt and tar.
Ive got two on the rear at the moment, bought in June with around 15 to 17,000 on them, and still look brand new.
If you can still find the old school BFG muds, then grab them. Betcha that there is a warehouse somewhere filled to the roof of them. They were heaps better. 66,000 klicks, 10 years old in two months time, and still going fine on me other old girl (also 35's).

But for what it is worth am going radial claws for the next lot.

Only took pics of the last three tyres that blew. Missed grabbing pics of the first three. Was going to contact BF Goodrich/Mitchelin to see if they had a bad batch go through in 2004...

bushy555 wrote:Betcha that there is a warehouse somewhere filled to the roof of them. They were heaps better.

wouldnt that be nice... bt they would be gettin a bit hard now from sittin :(

Bfs for me, muddies on road krawlers off.
Denny

i reckon for a mud tyre the bfg are very low on tread and are useless offroad once half worn. Seen heaps of 4wders do sidewalls and i personally reckon they suck.

How many krawlers sidewalls u seen go??????????

i was talking bfg muds not bfg krawlers

-Scott- wrote:Are the new BFG Muds available in Australia? Or is it still the old ones?

i was told they are coming out next month..
im waiting for them

the older ones seem to be fine for me, i have done nearly 50k on them and treated them like shit and they still have about 50% left on them.

j-top paj wrote:

-Scott- wrote:Are the new BFG Muds available in Australia? Or is it still the old ones?

i was told they are coming out next month..
im waiting for them

I was told second half of yr by 2 dealers in last few weeks..

I'll believe it when Im touching a set.

bogged wrote:

j-top paj wrote:

-Scott- wrote:Are the new BFG Muds available in Australia? Or is it still the old ones?

i was told they are coming out next month..
im waiting for them

I was told second half of yr by 2 dealers in last few weeks..

I'll believe it when Im touching a set.

i heard this in november last year...

il have to go back and ask for an update

I've not run the BFG MT, but I have been running MTR's on my 2.4T Disco2 in 285/75-16 for years now, prob about 3-4 years and they just last and last and last. I'd do about 18,000km/year, but the hard stuff is done on Simex. The MTR as said above was the start of the new generation 4WD tyres, also in that it was probably the first Silica 4WD tyre - better traction and better wear at the same time. These are good stable tyres, grip well, bomb proof carcass - a lot stronger than my Simexs, no low speed vibrations which are typical of muddies.

Oh, for getting the BFG MT KM2, just get "TireRack" in the US to post them over if you're not keen to wait. There probably wont be much price difference.

Im running the buckshots in a 33x12.5x15 and i cant fault them great on wet roads at 32/34 psi gripis great they have been on just over 2 years and were about 8 months old when i got em in the bush there great havent had a puncher yet running at 20 psi rocks/mud/shale not a problem there also great on the beach with 8/12psi havent nocked one off the bead yet and for there price you could by nearly 2 sets compaired to the fancy stuff as for ks on em they have about 50k maby a bit more from me and im not sure how many they had done before i got em and id say il get another 50k from the back set tho ive had alignment probs and the fronts have chewd a bit tho only because ive been neglecting them and its a good excuse to buy 2 more

DEZ wrote:considering going less aggressive from claws due to more road kms whats the pros cons of each or any other mt tyre that is long wearing

Have a look at the Pro Comp Extreme mud terrains. We've found them to be magic to drive on both on and off road. As quiet as a mud terrian will be. Fantastic on rock and sand and better the BFG mud's in the mud.
During the known puncture stages at The Outback challenge and Cliffhanger we suffered the least amount of punctures with them.
Cheers Dan

pro comp ay. Havnt really considered them before seem to look alright how much $$ they go for in 33s, and rough kms out of them anyone know?

cheers dez

I have had both BFG Muds and Goodyear MTRs and I have to say Im not a big fan of the BFGs.
The MTRs work really well on road and general off road (sand, dirt, rock, bit of mud) the BFGs seem to work a little better in the mud but suck at everything else.
If you want good in the mud get some Simex Pedes but man are they crap on road and noisey!
I have had 3 sets of MTRs. A set of 33"s on my old lux that I then upped to a set of 35"s and a set of 30"s on my wifes Zook.
And I will not hesitate to fit another set when I eventually by a 4wd wagon for touring.

Slunnie wrote:
Oh, for getting the BFG MT KM2, just get "TireRack" in the US to post them over if you're not keen to wait. There probably wont be much price difference.

got a link?

The "how many kilometres wil i get out of them?" question is an open question.
How do you drive? remember cornering and braking wears tyres, not driving!
What sort of driving? Highway vs city vs off road.
Are you going to use them until they are worn down to the tread wear indicators or will you replace them half way so you still have decent off road tyres?
Do you tow?
what do you carry in your car?
As a rule of thumb i'd tell a customer to expect 60,000 of usable life.
Some have had 40 some have had more than 80.

its not my daily driver for now but mainly only use it for longer trips no short trips. Might keep the claws now they got me out of a really dodgy situation bonnet deep in like swap mud almost stopped but it just kept going. worth keeping just run another cheep set for daily dutties if it comes to that
thanx for the help cheers dez