Outer Limits 4x4 Board

This year in late July me and a few mates are going go on a trip to drive the Canning Stock Route ,

where i need some advice is regarding tyre choice ,

what do you blokes reckon the ideal tyre size would be , and the most appropriate tyre to suit the conditions which are harsh red sand and dunes, the trip will be about 3000 km's on sand and corragations , with about 6000 km's on the black top.

i know its a difference of opinion but some ideas through experience in desert touring and sand driving would be great .


Cheers.

Hey Charger.

Hey Charger,
Tyre choice and size is a personal choice IMHO, I have run BFG Muddies for years in all types of country, red gibber roads around Tibooburra, Sandy country on the Strezlecki Track, rock and shale in the outback. I run my pressures to suit what i am doing! If you are a town driver most times and do this kind of holiday occasionally then a good all terrain type tyre would be fine. Like i said, personal choice, the tyres offered today are comparable to each other for the type of country you are going over. I have just this minute watched a video on the canning stock route and didn't see anything to be frightened of in the tyre department.
I hope you all have a great trouble free trip and let us all know how you went with it...............Pete!

Good quality A/T's will be fine. One thing to remember is get a common size otherwise you will have trouble finding a replacement if/when you destroy one. 265/75R16 and 31"x10.5"x15 seem to be the standard size out there. 16" tyres are good because they generally have a straighter sidewall to avoid puntures.

I've recently done a trip through simpson/central aus and had 2 flats for 2 patrols but both were repairable. Watch you tyre pressures, the lower the better. I did about 7500klms with 90% of the time 20-25psi in the tyres and fully loaded. The main thing with the totally destroys tyres is heat buildup so play with your pressure to get the best performance. BTW, atleast half of these klms were gibber/dirt roads and rough tracks so we did pretty well.

What ever you do, if you destroy and change a tyre, make sure you take the spent carcass out with you, there are way to many on the side of the road out there already.

im doing an all over australia trip which will see me zigzag all through the country. im currently running mickey thompson claws and have been more than happy with them. they have worn quickly but i have driven them hard, i will definately be using them on my trip as i prefer to be over tyred than under.

you can usually run the more agressive tyres at lower than recomended pressures in sand as they are generally quite beefy in their construction.

but as already said its a personal choice and if nothing else be sure to take 2 spares and a good tyre repair kit to be sure to be sure.

good luck, may see you out there.

thats exactly the info i was after , cheers fella's !
a a/t up to a muddy is probably all that is needed , and a 31 is the most popular size , do you think something larger would be helpful ,

we will be buying 2 sets of tyres for two vehicles so that they are the same , and probably 2 spares each .

And the other thing is - tubes or tubeless ??



Guzzla what size claws are you running ???


what about 37" mtr's may need to carry 2,000 litres of fuel

radial35's. they are tubeless but i have 2 spare tubes also. the laws of probability would say you dont need them but if you have all your bad luck in 1 day regarding punctures they may just save you and besides they weigh bugger all.

bead breakers would help in this case and that cost could easily be shared between the group then bought out later by 1 of u.

31' is a standard size and available in most if not all outback towns. i believe 33s are also easy to get hold of. realistically u wouldnt have to wait more than 2-3 days if they had to order something in anyway but this is worst case cenario like you suggested its a good idea that both trucks have matching tyre size and even better if they have matching wheel stud patterns.

i may be a bit overboard on my tyres but i dont like my chances of finding a brand new spare 35' mt sitting round the shed of a town thats on the ass end of nowhere and without them the old faithful aint goin too far.

Cheers guzzla , regarding the tyre repair kit , i know of two good ones really but what is the better system 1 is the tyre pliers ,
and the other one i cant remember the name of it ,

but you hook one end of it in the centre of the rim and the then you hook the swinging long bolt or hook whatever you want to call it ,

on the orther side inside the centre of the rim and tighten it up , which when you tighten it it breaks the bead ,
once that is done you use it to put the tyre back on as a lever .

i reckon the second one is a easier system , can anybody shed some light on either of those please ??

I've changed tyres several times with tyrepliers and swear by em. tough equipment cant go wrong. take a wheel with tyre attached and a second tyre only to save weight, use pliers to change if need be. Practice at home!!! Spare tubes are good to keep Murphy at bay. We ran 28/25 rear/fr and sat on about 80-85kmh, not one flat between 3 cars over about 6000km across Simpson. Cooper st's on one, BFG at's on amother, and cant remember on next, but in general at's ok just go easy

I have tyre pliers as well and swear by them, dead easy to use but make sure you have good quality tyre levers and a rubber mallet, makes life much easier. I have a quick inflation technique for seating beads on tubeless tyres but i better not put it on here. If you're going down the canning you will have to arrange a fuel dump to get you through, i think it's about 2000k's all up.

Cheers................Pete!

I use tyrepliers and find them great. Exellent levers.
The other ones are um ar can't remember?
There're worth their weight in gold... still can't remember but they take longer I reckon, I can't even find an ad for them
Maybe Bead brakers

Tyre Pliers, big tick.

R&R Beadbreaker is the other one, they are SLOOOOOW!!

Be aware, if you run BIG tyres and need to order a replacement, you will wait days if not weeks. Servo/tyre joints up there are lucky if there get a delivery once a week if not longer. You can get one in a hurry if need it, but you better have some (read: heaps) of spare $$$!

running 37" Xterrain XTC's, done alot of desert, dont carry a 6th spare any more even these days, as out of the last 30 vehciles Ive taken on desert trips, 3 punctures, that could be fixed have been the worst we have seen.

And having used 17 plugs, fishing line stitching and radial patches to fix a massive hole, as long as you know the tyre is flat, it should be salvagable.

A 6th carcass, and being able to ring ahaed to order a tyre would be my safeguards on using an 'unusual" tyre size, but big certainly drives better, works better, rides better.