Thread: 70 series - what mod or what mod NOT to get

Originally Posted by Flyblown

You should therefore consider running LT tyres, 10 ply rating.

Yep, been there done that when it comes to sidewall damage. The worst (and last) occasion was driving out of the Okavango Delta in Botswana, we staked two tyre sidewalls in a couple of km on buried ironwood in the sand, so no spares left. It was still ~200km of sand track driving to get to Maun, inc several deep river crossings, a nerve wracking drive. Walking out was not an option (you'd get eaten) and we hadn't seen another vehicle in 2 weeks. Those were regular Hankook 31x10.5R15 4x4 tyres - soft as shite! Lesson learned.

In Maun I changed to 12 ply rated Dunlop Universal 7.00-16 on Toyota split rims, and have never run anything less than 10PR ever since. Those tyres were amazing, and two sets took us from Cape Town all the way to Eritrea (and back), zigzagging across Southern & Eastern Africa to the remotest places we could get to. Had one puncture in two years (piece of rusty iron hidden in sand). Since we left Africa, we've run Light Truck radials, done a big chunk of N America, the whole of Aus, and NZ several times over.

Have never had a staked sidewall again - will happily drop pressure down to 10psi in extreme circumstances, and normally run 18-20psi when properly off-road in variable mud / rock conditions.

(I ran Cooper MTs (STT Pro LT) for a while a few years ago for the Ruapehu farm - I killed them in less than a year driving the 350km from home to the farm and back. Binned them after 11,000km as the tread was so worn from the bitumen driving that they were farkin' dangerous in the papa mud, useless. Regretted that purchase ever since as I cannot fathom how I convinced myself to deviate from the proven LT/AT formula. Expensive mistake.)

@Cartman, your usage puts you firmly in the 5%, and you'll be in a very small minority of guys who fit MTs and actually use them according to the specified 80/20 off/on road usage (which is precisely why the Coopers I used failed me so badly - poor choice for the mileage I was doing.)

Yep, 100% if airing down - but one point with the LT's to be aware of is if you have a wide weight or loading range they can smash you for ride quality if you spend a lot of the time near empty but need them up to pick up full loads (side walls just don't flex). I haven't had the issue with AT's left at full pressure - the chains idea is a bloody good one too though. Was at one stage using the Hankook RF10 LT - bloody good and unfortunately seem to be a lot better than the RF11 (not sure why).