What 18" tires should I get?

[tommithy]

Man... decisions decisions decisions..

Just curious Nathan, if the BFG's are "probably the best all around tire..." how come you are not running them?

I'm grateful for everyones input on this.

 

[nwoods]

I wonder what Spiker or any of the other guys who did the Great Divide with the Coopers would say about their durability...?

One of the guys from that trip is on this forum and has posted very positively about them before. To my knowledge, no one had any problems on that trip, no flats, no traction issues, nothing. But a few thousand miles on one trip is not the kind of durabilty I am refering too.

I am talking about long lasting durablity. Do the treads chunck out due to sharp rocks? Do the sidewalls get cut and scraped? Does the bead flange over the rim and protect the rim and hold the bead tightly over time?

The Coopers are polyester sidewalls, whereas the BFG and Nittos have bands of steel in their sidewalls.

In the short term, this difference has changed my tire pressure settings. I used to run between 18-24 with the Nitto's, depending on conditions, now I run 28-30 with the Cooppers in those same conditions, and get the same degree of sidewall flex. They are a softer tire. I don't know what that means in terms of overall durablity. Time will tell I guess.

 

[nwoods]

Man... decisions decisions decisions..

Just curious Nathan, if the BFG's are "probably the best all around tire..." how come you are not running them?

I'm grateful for everyones input on this.

Same reason I don't drive an HSE. I was going to buy the BFG's when my Nittos wore out, but I got a irresistable deal on the Coopers, and I like them just fine, so I have no regrets at all.

 

[Houm_WA]

I have to think, just by looking at them, that the Coopers are going to provide better traction than the BFGs and that's why I bought them. The BFGs and Nittos probably have better sidewall strength, but I ALSO BOUGHT the road hazzard protection with the Coopers so that if I rupture one, at least I can get a free replacement ! ...I don't usually go out too far from home or at least from civilization so a good spare and I'm set.

 

[Cascade Rovers]

We run BFG A/T KO's on the Rangie and DII. IMHO they are the best all around tire for what we do in the NW and they wear like iron with regular rotations and front end alignments as needed. M/T's are great in the wet sloppy spring snow like we encountered last weekend and "Crisco" mud but suck on the road, especially on ice. They wear faster, are louder and cup to the point of being worthless in no time. Having said that they would be great as a second set strictly for offroading. All this is probably mute though as nothing in a true M/T is available for the LR3 stateside now anyway from what I've heard from Erek. If money is no object go with the BFG's. Discount Tire can get them.

 

[franklin]

I run the BFG AT's and they are great. Probably one of the most expensive options out there so not the first choice for folks. They are very durable and well suited for a heavy vehicle like the LR3. I have had them on my Defender as well as a Ford Explorer and they wore like iron-

 

[Houm_WA]

The way I look at it, tommity, ANYTHING is an upgrade from the Goodyear HPs !!!

I took a picture (on my phone, unfortunately otherwise I'd post it) of my Synchrone sitting next to my Zeon (angled to show the tread pattern) and it's incredible. It makes me excited to get out there and see where they can take me...

 

[Cascade Rovers]

Erek - When can you go out next?

 

[tommithy]

The way I look at it, tommity, ANYTHING is an upgrade from the Goodyear HPs !!!

I took a picture (on my phone, unfortunately otherwise I'd post it) of my Synchrone sitting next to my Zeon (angled to show the tread pattern) and it's incredible. It makes me excited to get out there and see where they can take me...

Well, we're currently running Synchrones. We dumped the Goodyears at 15k miles as they were getting noisy and had no traction. But yeah, no matter what it's still an upgrade from even the Synchrones.

 

[jimbiram]

I was one of the lucky Great Divide participants. I have an HSE and originally had the 19" rims, with Synchrones. As Nathan can attest, the Synchrones are a very versatile tire, but due to the narrow width and tread pattern, they are not nearly as good as my Zeon LTZ's. I did have to get some 18" rims, and even though I thought I might switch back and forth, I have been extremely pleased with the Zeon's. I now have around 12k miles on them and they still look new. As Nathan discussed, we have been watching out for sidewalls, chunking, etc. On Great Divide, we spent nearly all of our time on extremely rocky terrain, and as he said, we had no issues whatsoever. We usually aired down to 25-28 psi.

Yesterday we were with OffRoving in Hemet, and I had a chance to see how they did in mud. I have to say, they were really good, although Adam had another Cooper Tire on that was a mud tire and they did even better. His tires had huge lugs that just made the mud fall right off.

I have also used them in the snow and they do really well. On the road, they are really quiet for such an aggressive tire, and that is probably due to the polyester sidewalls.