Thread: Puma failure in Cape York!

Originally Posted by n plus one

Hey Deano, you weren't in FNQ in the last couple of weeks were you? I had a chat with two OKA owners at Lakelands on my way up the Cape.

Went up the Burke Developmental Road in early/mid July up to Karumba etc so it wasn't me. Was one of the OKA's towing an aeroplane and had a couple of minor drive train issues ?

Deano

If you go the balancing beads save yourself a lot of grief and do 2 things:

a) fit longer valve cores;

b) make sure you use the larger stainless beads for 4wds.

The finer beads have a habit (mine do) of getting caught in the valve when airing down and then you have to stuff around to connect the air compressor to force air in to clear the valve. Otherwise you can be left with a slow or fast leak depending on the amount of debris caught. When airing down I have to rotate my tyre so the valve is at 12 o'clock to minimise the risk of the beads getting caught in the valve.

Most products you find at tyre retailers are intended for trucks that once fitted won't see daylight until the next tyre change. The nature of 4wding and airing up and down can be a PITA when using non-specific beads.

Longer valve cores help with the above because it moves the stopper valve inwards of the internal rim surface. If you use a speedy deflator that removes the core then the longer valves make little difference.

The large beads don't tend to get caught in the draft of escaping air like the finer beads. Also the stainless beads don't break up into finer particles like the ceramic ones can (my ceramic ones are a mix of larger particles to fine gritty sized bits).

Not sure about BFG KM2's being difficult to balance. I had 2 sets of 255/85 and they were fine. Current set of 315/75 have a shimmer but i think the rim (Dynamic) is to blame. Just remember that larger the tyre or more aggressive the tyre pattern the larger variance in balancing.

MLD

Land Rover reliability is certainly an issue when you do long trips.

When I travelled 16,000 km from the south east corner of Australia through the geographical centre to the north west corner and back in my Series III, I suffered the inconvenience of the spring in the passenger's door latch breaking.

Wouldn't you think Land Rover could use a better quality spring!

The fact that it was the only thing that went wrong on a 26 year old vehicle is no excuse.

Get the dealer to take the tyre off the rim and see if it is the rim and if that is ok it must be the tyre. I had a BFG's fitted to my defer and one of the wheels had weights halfway round the rim. They said it was the rim. On my last trip I got so sick of it I took the tyre off and got the rim balanced and it was ok so put the tyre back on and took it to the dealer and they did the same thing, so they gave me a new tyre under warranty, they did discount a little for wear though.
Lindsay

I have fitted BFG mud tyres to all my 4x4's for the past 20 plus years and never had a problem with wheel balance. I had KM2's fitted to my 2007 Defender without drama. These were then transferred over to a new BT 50 in 2012 and still balanced perfectly. As the Mazda was so smooth and quiet, any balance problem would be evident big time.


I have just traded the Mazda on a low Km 2013 Defender 110 with Continental AT tyres. Will swap to KM2,s as soon as I can. The Continental tyres seem to trap every stone ever made in the treads.


Isn't front wheel shimmy a symptom of wrong swivel bearing pre-load /wear or similar?


I love being back in a Defender as I would trash the Mazda underbody off road but wow, the Defender now seems so old, loud and rough compared to the Mazda, bearing in mind I have previously owned a Defender. But may I say, way more fun!

Originally Posted by n plus one

Well the trusty Puma finally let me down - blew two low beams on the drive home from the Cape. I blame Nolans Brook - anyone know what type of trade-in I might get on a new Navara ?

In all seriousness, my total list of issues for three weeks up the Cape (plus a 6k commute) were:

* two low beams (on the drive home):
* a couple of new wind screen chips:
* reverse light is operating intermittently (pretty sure this kicked off before I left):
* minor oil leek from back of transfer case (drive flange nut needed half a turn - sorted over a beer at camp):
* bloody KM2s still won't balance:
* my Ashcroft diff appears to have a (very slight) porous weld on the pegging plate: and
* the ODS trailing arm to diff mounting bolt needed two turns (thought that one was a major! Mechanic fitted new ones before I left so I suspect a little settling occurred).

Bloody thing is a complete disaster, too scared to take it anywhere (except maybe the CSR solo next year)...

Don't let the Toyota faithful read that list, they will have a field day destroying the rep of the puma.


Lucky you made it home by the looks of that list.


Hope you managed to find time to enjoy yourself.


Cheers Ean

Might be best to lock them out of the rest of the forum though

Originally Posted by n plus one

Appears to be the tyres - six different mobs have had a go (including rolling balances, balancing specialists, etc).

Seems like plenty of guys in the States have had similar issues with KM2s too. Not a big deal, just makes the transport sections a bit tiresome...

I have/had the same issue, 4 places tried to balance them and they are shocking, worst tyre I ever had for driving distance, the 255/85 are full of wobble also on my car, they are sitting in my shed 50% worn, I put some cheap Hankook dynapro ATM RF10 on and they are a marvel to drive on compared to the KM2, they have done Fraser Island and my back yard so far and no issues, might put the KM2 on my spare wheels and use them on the next trip, but that depends out how good these Hankooks go.
Anyway just my 2c worth, I am glad they are not all bad as they are not cheap and I would hate for others to have wasted money also but it does appear that it is hit and miss if you get a good batch.