Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Hi guys and girls

I have 10 months ago, spent over $1650 on 6 coopers st's tyres. Now 10 months and about 19,000km later, I wanted to hear about other people using the same tyres. Since I have had them fitted, each of the tyres has worn at least half of the tread, yes we have just crossed the simpson, so expected a little wear. Whilst heading home from the Simpson on a dirt road, 1 St went bang, and i do not mean a little bang, it was a HUGE BANG, Kir went from crash position. All Tyres wereat 28psi at time of blow out and are always rotated etc.


Above is the ST that went bang, this is how is was, total blown apart. The tyre got rejected for warranty, several different reasons given. Which is not the point to this thread, they do not want to warranty it, fine, i will never buy another coopers again, spending heaps does not always give you the best.

I just wanted to see if anyone had similar experiences with a ST going bang or tread wearing, what i would consider fairly quickly.

cheers

Crazie

Good job Adam, last time I saw a catastrophic failure like that, it was my own fault... "One day I must get around to turning up the lip of those gaurds or pretty soon one of these tyres is gonna go bang" Two went bang together, then I put new gaurds on(no choice) and made sure they were modded before the install... I have however seen the ST's on your truck and from memory they didn't appear to have any sidewall scrubbing. I haven't heard any really bad reports on the Coopers but I must say Don from Widetread in Ferntree Gully told me "Don't go there" when I fronted him with the Cooper or BFG question... He didn't ellaborate and I didn't ask as I'd had the BFG's before and was happy to go with them again.

So in answering your question, I have failed miserably in answering your question... Boredom in the workplace will do that to a bloke...

Blue

If you have a look at the link in my signature 4wdlinks or some such there are a couple of pix of two Coopers that let go.
Both STT's, both on the rear, both brand spanking new. 1500k's city driving before leaving for Innnaminka etc. One let go on the track to the Dig Tree and the other on the Birdsville Track, big time. Dave at the Auto place at Copley in SA said he had had quite a few (5 or 6) like mine in the past 8 month's.

Oh I forgot to mention, the one that didn't go bang big time had started to delaminate in 3 places and would have gone the way of the other one if I hadn't caught it in time. Both tyres on the outside wall, one right rear one left rear.

I had the ST's that suffered from the side tread blocks seperating from the carcass. They denied the claim telling me that the tyre makes too much traction and that the pressure I was running was too high while off road. (25psi in a 2.3T Disco2) My instructions from the rep were that as soon as I hit dirt the pressures were to be dropped to 20psi. I did this and the lugs continued to break. I let them know the lugs were still breaking and suggested that since they told me that tyres that are missing lugs are still roadworthy and will pass rego, that I have an accident due to the tyres that they are going to be liable. This was met with an instruction to go into the tyre shop and have the tyres changed over to the STT prorata charged.

Cooper will try to dodge the claim, but try again and they may come to the party. If you were running 20psi+ you should be ok.

I have ST 315/75 16's on an 80 series, they have 15 - 20,000km on them, and are what I would consider unreasonably worn. they are also very very noisy on road, noisier than most muddies, chunks break off the tread, and the sidewalls are as strong as kraft cheese - one has been holed on the shouder by a stick about the size of a match, I kid you not. they are junk, and I will never buy them again. Their traction is also poor, in the dirt, on rock, and on the road - wet and dry. they are surprisingly good in mud, but I tend to stay out of mud when I can, so no real benefit there. too much traction eh Simon? must be some other kind of cooper you're talking about

cheers

Brian

I have worked in the tyre industry for a long time and I can tell you that cooper are one of the best tyres out there and can generally stand up to lot more punishment than most other brands and are very good with claims . They will claim things that no other tyre company would consider claiming and for them to reject a claim it would have to be very ovious that it isn’t. The thing to remember is that tyres regardless of make can be damaged. I have seen just about every make of tyre fail at some point. The pictures you have posted would indicate to me that the tyre was run at an extremely low pressure at speed for some time before it failed. Did it have a puncture or impact fracture. You were crossing the Simpson, impact damage would be the most likely cause. I have seen all brands fail when face with the same situation. As a side note any of the better quality brands out there in a mud pattern (MTR, STT, Mickey Thompson and BFG M/T) would be my choice as a heavy duty touring tyre.

Tyres had 28 psi in them, only been travelling for about 1 hour on a very well graded dirt road. Stopped about 15 mins before it blew to take some pics, tyres looked fine. The vehicle was not too heavy, Roof cage on, spare wheel and 10L of fuel up there, inside, nothing more than a normal weekend.

I was told a few different reasons, not what i would consider a straight answer. I firstly told it was a high impact that caused it, then i was told that the tyre was run flat for an extended period of time and then i was told that the tyre had an internal bruise from an earlier impact that caused it. I was then told not to worry about the wear as they are covered by a km warranty. They are regularly rotated etc and the front has about 6mm left, they start with about 14.7mm.

dumbdunce wrote:... too much traction eh Simon? must be some other kind of cooper you're talking about

cheers

Brian

You're not wrong.... reps words, definately not mine. I think that he really meant that the lug design was too piss poor to deal with the traction they give, and that instead of sliping on the rocks, they resist abrasion by snapping off. The outer lugs are just narrow, tall and the rubber hard.

crazie wrote:Hi guys and girls

I have 10 months ago, spent over $1650 on 6 coopers st's tyres. Now 10 months and about 19,000km later, I wanted to hear about other people using the same tyres. Since I have had them fitted, each of the tyres has worn at least half of the tread, yes we have just crossed the simpson, so expected a little wear. Whilst heading home from the Simpson on a dirt road, 1 St went bang, and i do not mean a little bang, it was a HUGE BANG, Kir went from crash position. All Tyres wereat 28psi at time of blow out and are always rotated etc.


Above is the ST that went bang, this is how is was, total blown apart. The tyre got rejected for warranty, several different reasons given. Which is not the point to this thread, they do not want to warranty it, fine, i will never buy another coopers again, spending heaps does not always give you the best.

I just wanted to see if anyone had similar experiences with a ST going bang or tread wearing, what i would consider fairly quickly.

cheers

Crazie

looking at the damaged tyre it seems to have had too much heat in the tyre causing failure, the side wall generates a lot of heat at lower pressures, this damage could have been caused some time earlier in the life of the tyre.

I've been considering what tyre to go to next as I'm due for new tyres.
Too be frank, beyond the marketing hype, the Coopers guarantee SUCKS!

You have to buy them and have them serviced at a metropoltian dealer, rotate tires,blah blah blah. (I live 5 hourts from Sydney so......)

Their guarantee is shite.

I'm not talking about driving across the simpson, I'm talking on driving on rural country roads, both bitumen and well graded.

I'll give a warranty to the biggest crap tyre, that if you have us charge you 2 times what they're worth, change and rotate and balance them, and only drive from Newtown to Broadway shopping centre (Sydney inner city towns) you'll get 60,000km (or what ever) and if you don't after meticulously following our stated guarantee condions, then I'll give you a few % discount of a grossly over inflated tyre price on your next set.

Thanks for coming back LOSER!!

Me thinks not, read their warranty conditions and you'll think the same.

If you buy a tyre for its warranty, then your a farken muppet anyway!

If a tyre blows, tough shit, cop it on the chin and get a new one. There not meant to last forever. If your cant understand that, get out n walk, its cheaper!

My brother runs the cooper st and there 70 per cent worn after 20000kms
so much for lasting 80000 and there bloody noisy

crazie wrote:Tyres had 28 psi in them, only been travelling for about 1 hour on a very well graded dirt road.

Out of curiosity what speed were you doing for that hour of driving.

I had 31x10.5 S/Ts on my Paj. After 30k km (I went to 33" MT/Rs) they're nowhere near half worn - still got them if anybody's interested.

Obviously, YMMV.

Scott

kingchevy wrote:My brother runs the cooper st and there 70 per cent worn after 20000kms
so much for lasting 80000 and there bloody noisy

10,000km kimberly trip on brand spanker STs and they wore about 20%, which i think is fantastic for that terrain, and they are quiet as all buggery, unless you listen for them, you wont hear them.

No one will ever agree on a tyre, its not human to do so... Your meant to work yourself up over it and want to struggle the fucker your talking to it about

On a more positive note: I'd like to voice my satisfaction with Coopers and their after sales service. I bought some A/T Discoverers with new rims and had terrible balance issues for six months. No matter how many times they were balanced the problem still remained.

I mentioned the problem on here and an interstate Cooper retailer contacted me and said he would make some enquiries for me. Shortly after the SA state rep contacted me and straight away wanted to inspect my vehicle and fix it. On taking a look and talking to my dealer he immediately ordered in a new set of tyres- no questions asked and said it wouldn't cost me a cent (even though they had covered around 8000km.)

In short the new tyres arrived and were fitted- but the problem remained. It was then isolated to the new rims I'd bought at the same time- they had a sideways wobble!?

The botttom line is the Cooper reseller and local distributor went out of their way to fix the problem for me- even though it turned out not to be the fault of their tyres.

I also pay only $44 for the regular 10000km balance/ rotation/ alignment which to me is very good value (and something that should be done anyway.....) BTW the price is fixed when you buy the tyres.

They are wearing very well after just over 20000km, but do spend most of their life on the bitumen (however I don't take it easy around corners )

dibbz wrote:

crazie wrote:Tyres had 28 psi in them, only been travelling for about 1 hour on a very well graded dirt road.

Out of curiosity what speed were you doing for that hour of driving.

We travelled about 80km/p, slow down lots due to kangaroos and emu's

cheers

crazie

Mate it sounds to me like you've been given shit advice or you haven't listened i agree with most of what's been said especially by Lowlux i've also been in the industry for a long time 22 yrs in fact and that to me looks like a classic failure due to overheating of the sidewall but there could have been other issues but due to the fact that you ran such low pressure for a long time i'd doubt it!!!!! Don't get me wrong i have no alliance to Cooper in fact the opposite i work for a company that sells BFG's but i have had enough to do with Cooper to know it's not a crap product and i know when i did work for Cooper i was told to do claims for customers that i didn't feel myself were really claims!!!!(it was more about keeping the customer happy) you will see this type of damage on any reputable brand of tyre in similar circumstances.I can tell you i drove my 80 series from landcruiser park with 25 psi in the tyres 3 hrs back to ipswich without a problem but i did take the chance of the same problem as yours.As for the people that complain about lugs coming off it may well be pretty common but it is also very common that people expect a lot of there tyres and should probly have chosen a different tyre for there needs, everything is a compromise ,you can't drag race a topfueller on street tyres and expect to run 5 sec 1/4 miles as you cant expect 1 offroad tyre to do everything equally as good remember if your trying to get a 3 ton 4wd drive up a vertical rock climb somethings got to give .i'm sure everyones broken an axle , CV wheel stud's or a uni does this make the vehicle a dud!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

South wrote:If you buy a tyre for its warranty, then your a farken muppet anyway!

If a tyre blows, tough shit, cop it on the chin and get a new one. There not meant to last forever. If your cant understand that, get out n walk, its cheaper!

after paying 1650 for 6 tyres and only getting 19000km out of them. id be pissed to

crazie wrote:

dibbz wrote:

crazie wrote:Tyres had 28 psi in them, only been travelling for about 1 hour on a very well graded dirt road.

Out of curiosity what speed were you doing for that hour of driving.

We travelled about 80km/p, slow down lots due to kangaroos and emu's

Yea 80kmh on a graded road is certainly the maximum extent of any conceivable interpretation of "80kmh is the maximum safe speed of driving on deflated tires"..

The guy at the Auto joint just west of the Kimberleys (I have the name just don't want to post it) told me that he had about 5 Rooted Coopers in over the past eight months and was not surprised at mine.
I got a credit from Cooper for my two brand new tyres, 75% pro rata for less than 5% wear. This gave me a rude shock when I wnet to get the new tyres and rims today as I hadn't been advised of the percentage by the retailer. So $294 later (I did by an extra rim $60) and the $270 I spent in the bush to get a Hankook 33" to carry as a spare has now left me out of pocket about $500 for buying Coopers. Pretty p!ssed I can tell you.
Obviously I didn't go for Coopers again, went MTR's and I'll see how I go.