Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Hi

Looking at getting a new set of Cooper Tyres and noticed that Cooper have the ST-C (Cut and Chip Compound.)

Haven't seen anything on the forums and was wondering if anyone out there has tried them out?

I've had the ST's and I've hadn't had an issue with chipping but have seen a few posts where this has been an issue.

I've done 70,000 they hsve a 10,000 - 20,000 on road left in them but starting to get a bit low for off road.

Hay should I keep the tyres and try and sell them? any market out there?

thanks for your help!

If you like the ones you have now i wouldnt think there would be THAT much of a difference. I have the st-c, honestly a waste of money and i hate them. Absolutely no grip on rocks becuase they are such a hard compound and the tread doesnt clean out rocks. It does seem to clean mud out ok though. For a tourer they would be my first choice though. Hardly any wear, only a slight noise on road and no flats...yet. Ive only had them 3 or less months though.

Tubby wrote:Hi
Looking at getting a new set of Cooper Tyres and noticed that Cooper have the ST-C (Cut and Chip Compound.)

Why would you want a tyre that is deisgned to cut and chip?

If you are happy with the ones you have now, get them again. If it aint broke don't fix it.

I dunno if being so low on tread you would have a market to sell them to? Maybe for the right price depending on condition.

This is of the Cooper web site.



IMPORTANT!
The Cooper ST-C is NOT a replacement for the ST. The Cooper ST-C is a specialty tyre that is best suited to high gravel mileage while the ST will provide better mileage on sealed roads.

SIM79 wrote:This is of the Cooper web site.



IMPORTANT!
The Cooper ST-C is NOT a replacement for the ST. The Cooper ST-C is a specialty tyre that is best suited to high gravel mileage while the ST will provide better mileage on sealed roads.

Yeh! I looked at that, but you have to wonder why they put out a tyre with a different (softer) compound, if there were no issues with the original compound, don’t you?

Anyway they seem to be in limited sizes at the present so I’m going to have to stick with the good old ST’s

Thanks guys,

EDIT: Yep it is a softer compound to reduce chipping etc. So they are likelly to wear quicker, right?

few threads on EO bout them

I thought the ST-C's were a softer compound to resist chipping

your better off buying the new tyres on a spare set of rims, use them for offroad work, and keep the current ones and run them til theyre totally flogged out.
saves you wearing out new tyres on the daily commute...

im running the STT armorteks on my zuk and theyre going great so far... done a ton of road driving in the wet and dry and theyre wearing really well - and theyre very quiet on the road!!!

Offroad they've chipped a little but nothing drastic, and the rocks were sharp.

i have cooper stc's on my troopy. they blow.
if u run them at under 21 psi theres a good chance they'l come off the rim when offroad. and they do cut and chip like anyother tire when trying to dirve up rocks.

i threw 2 tyres of the beed in a week running them at 22 psi in 4wd parks. They r good onroad if a lil noisy and grip well in the wet and wear very well, but i wont buy them again.

love ke70 wrote:your better off buying the new tyres on a spare set of rims, use them for offroad work, and keep the current ones and run them til theyre totally flogged out.
saves you wearing out new tyres on the daily commute...

Great idear, I was going to keep the old tyres and stick them in the shed in case I sild tubby in the next couple of years.

Changing tyres, god I'm lazy... I can do it but...

Tubby wrote:

love ke70 wrote:your better off buying the new tyres on a spare set of rims, use them for offroad work, and keep the current ones and run them til theyre totally flogged out.
saves you wearing out new tyres on the daily commute...

Great idear, I was going to keep the old tyres and stick them in the shed in case I sild tubby in the next couple of years.

Changing tyres, god I'm lazy... I can do it but...

still got that shed down the back?? I wouldnt be complaining!!! Can I borrow the shed?

bogged wrote:still got that shed down the back?? I wouldnt be complaining!!! Can I borrow the shed?

Not for long...
You can always buy the place, I can see you now..... in the big old shed..... Ah! heaven....... I'll even do ya mates rates

Tubby wrote:

bogged wrote:still got that shed down the back?? I wouldnt be complaining!!! Can I borrow the shed?

Not for long...
You can always buy the place, I can see you now..... in the big old shed..... Ah! heaven....... I'll even do ya mates rates

I have a set of 285' MTR's I'll swap for the shed house and land

SIM79 wrote:This is of the Cooper web site.



IMPORTANT!
The Cooper ST-C is NOT a replacement for the ST. The Cooper ST-C is a specialty tyre that is best suited to high gravel mileage while the ST will provide better mileage on sealed roads.

Thats crap despite them saying it. The ST-C was brought out as a stop gap fix to the problems they were having with the ST cracking and tearing the side lugs, which would even come off the carcass altogether. The ST-C was the solution that came from America to try to fix this problem, though really in my opinion the probably still layes within the basic design of the outerlugs. The outer lugs have a lot of tread depth, are sipped the wrong way and are short individual lugs, so there is a lot of leverage, and little area where each lug is attached to the carcass. The bottoms of the outerlugs where it meets the carcass also comes in at a good corner which acts as a stress raiser and when the lugs crack, the crack drives under the whole lug section until the lug seperates completely from the carcass. Not a problem if you never lose traction with these tyres, such as road use or desert touring - which is what they're marketed for, but go "4WDing" as such or tour the rocky parts of the high country and the damage will start to happen. Interestingly, I'm pretty sure that their advertising tyre boards in the stores now say that the ST is not for wheel slip situations.

Cooper America's most trusted 4x4 tyre is written on most of the Cooper tyre adds and its on their web site. To me this seem odd because I have been reading a few different American 4x4 magazines( 4Wheel Drive & Sport Utility Magazine, Four Wheeler and Petersen's 4Wheel & Off-Road) for at least 5 years now and I would have been lucky to only see 3 pics of 4x4s fitted with Coopers tyres. A large majority of the 4x4s in these magizines run Super Swampers and then the rest run BFGs, ProComps, Mickey Thompson, Dick Cepek, Good Year, Toyo and Nitto tyres. All of these magazines have zero adds for Cooper tyres most of the other tyres have some advertising. All the huge tyre stores that advertise in these magazines don't list Cooper tyres but stock Super Swampers,BFGs, ProComps, Mickey Thompson, Dick Cepek, Good Year, Toyo and Nitto tyres.
So it seems to me that Coopers is America's least trusted 4x4 tyre.

Yeah, sombody commented on Pirate to me that Aussies love Cooper tyres.


Ahhhh, yeah.

Correct me if Im wrong but if you damage a coopers in the bush and try to claim on damaged tyre
They wont fix under warranty
Whats with that
Ill stick with MTRs thanks

Drive out to Mt Dare station and have a look at what they run. When I was there, they swore by ST/Cs and STTs (same compound.) One of the employees told me that they haven't found anything else which lasts as well.

I had S/Ts (NOT ST/C) and now have STTs - the STTs are definitely wearing faster. Never took the S/Ts anywhere particularly harsh, so can't really comment on that.

Before the STTs I had MT/Rs - in terms of cutting and chipping on stone roads (Innamincka region/Northern Flinders with both) I don't think there's much in it.

FWIW, next time around I'll be looking closely at the MTZ - or may go back to S/Ts.

To balance that, at Arkaroola where it's rock, they swear by the Bridgestone Desert Dueller which they run until they're bald. Tour guides that are not sponsored by Cooper seem to run BFG MT's also and quite actively told me NOT to run Coopers because of problems. It's a bit hard to say that because 1 person runs something, that they're the best.

Slunnie wrote:It's a bit hard to say that because 1 person runs something, that they're the best.

Not one person. The organisation. Every station vehicle I saw was running Coopers - either ST/Cs or STTs.

I'm not suggesting other tyres aren't good - I'm suggesting Cooper tyres aren't as bad as some seem to suggest.

As for Arkaroola vs Mt Dare, I know Arkaroola well - visit regularly. Mt Dare station is over 10 times the size of Arkaroola, and much less rugged. Distances are greater, travel speeds are higher. Few tracks at Arkaroola will see the speeds which are reachable on Mt Dare. What's harder on tyres?

If Desert Duellers are doing the job at Arkaroola they'd be stupid to try anything different - I wouldn't read too much into that. I could mention that my brother runs Desert Duellers, and he regularly gets punctures - while I've yet to have one? Does that really mean anything?

-Scott- wrote:

Slunnie wrote:It's a bit hard to say that because 1 person runs something, that they're the best.

Not one person. The organisation. Every station vehicle I saw was running Coopers - either ST/Cs or STTs.

I'm not suggesting other tyres aren't good - I'm suggesting Cooper tyres aren't as bad as some seem to suggest.

As for Arkaroola vs Mt Dare, I know Arkaroola well - visit regularly. Mt Dare station is over 10 times the size of Arkaroola, and much less rugged. Distances are greater, travel speeds are higher. Few tracks at Arkaroola will see the speeds which are reachable on Mt Dare. What's harder on tyres?

If Desert Duellers are doing the job at Arkaroola they'd be stupid to try anything different - I wouldn't read too much into that. I could mention that my brother runs Desert Duellers, and he regularly gets punctures - while I've yet to have one? Does that really mean anything?

It tells me nothing in isolation, but it could tell me a lot of things. Arkaroola - the organisation is a different stress to Mt Dare, though overloaded 7.50's in rock in low range is still pretty harsh. The duellers at Arkaroola are not getting punctured either. Then again could the legal action and whistle blowing in the US with Coopers be telling me anything, or the numerous delaminations in hot weather (which is a seperate issue to lugs cracking off) with Cooper tires be telling me anything.

Slunnie wrote:though overloaded 7.50's in rock in low range

Overloaded? That's pretty careless of them.

And still they get no punctures? Even though they run until they're bald?

That's amazing.

-Scott- wrote:

Slunnie wrote:though overloaded 7.50's in rock in low range

Overloaded? That's pretty careless of them.

And still they get no punctures? Even though they run until they're bald?

That's amazing.

Actually, no I should withdraw that statement. I'm thinking of the Ridgetop tour trucks here. They do run them without puncture until they're bald, but the trucks would surely not be over loaded as far as the tyres are concerned. I was really surprised also that the tyres stood up to it, but they said they were really good.

Don't get me wrong here, the Desert duellers wouldn't be my choice of tyre either.