On-road wet weather tyres

As someone that lives in a country that gets the odd drop or two of rain... ;)

Michelin XPCs get my vote too.

TBH - most good quality tyre compounds will work in the wet. It's more about the compound and size than the tread pattern (though obviously the extreme stuff will make a difference).

The narrower tyres work better as they will cut through the water better where as you're more likely to aqua-plane with wide tyres. (similar principles to the pumping the tyre up comments as you're reducing the surface area.)

I find that even my XZLs aren't too bad in the wet. They're an aggressive mud tyre but they're narrow and a Michelin compound.

HTH

M

Just went through the hills and it was a tad wet on sunday morning, it took me by surprise and my Michelin XPC's just tracked through the corner, where the commodore was actually just putting its tale out in front of me.

I made a couple of calls and XPC's are no longer being made, you may be lucky enough to get some old stock though.
Mine lasted a long time. Truly one of the best tyres I have ever had.

What will I do next???

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Originally Posted by camel_landy

As someone that lives in a country that gets the odd drop or two of rain... ;)

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Drop or two is right compared to the rainfall Kuranda gets. About 2-3 METRES per year if I remember correctly - at intensities which would smash UK records.

Not far away is Bellenden Kerr - which gets 8-10m of rain a year!!!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by isuzurover

Kuranda gets. About 2-3 METRES per year if I remember correctly - at intensities which would smash UK records.

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Ahhh... Yes. I keep forgetting that the northern part of Oz is in the Tropics.

Mind you, we also get the fun & games of freezing conditions here. We had a foot of snow last week, I was out towing 40' trucks up the hills around my place with the Disco :D as the authorities have run out of salt & grit for the roads. When they did put the grit on the roads, we had a day of heavy rain, which promptly washed it all away and then went down to -4c over night. It was like a skating rink here yesterday!!! :eek:

M

Quote:

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Originally Posted by big guy

I made a couple of calls and XPC's are no longer being made, you may be lucky enough to get some old stock though.

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We still have XPCs over here. IIRC - Defenders still roll out of the factory with them fitted but usually on steel wheels (i.e. for hard tops, etc...)

I know it doesn't help you but... We get quite a few on the second hand market as people will ditch the XPC in favour for something more macho!

M

I was just thinking a similar thing. I have the General Grabbers on my 90 too. They still appear to have plenty of "meat" although lately I feel I am loosing grip. (We haven't had any rain for months down here to really test them!!!). They look as though they still have another 20,000km on them - at least

They are 5 years old.

Time for some new road tyres methinks!:angel:

Camel Landy
you have my vote.

here in OZ, I have been told several tims now that the XPC is no longer made, that may be wrong and if so I be very happy.
Totally agree on running skinny tyres rather than the macho type that are downright dangerous.
Drive safely.

Pure road tyre, ideal in the wet - have a look at Pirelli STRs.

Regards
Max P

Although I drive a different car, I can't say enough good words about Pirellis. I had the ATs which they have stopped making. I am now on Goodyear Wrangler Silent Armors (ATs) and they are also very good in the wet. I have used other Goodyears in the past and they [particularly OEM] were shocking.

I thought I would paste the tire rack link as each tyre with the default tyre size for Puma 110s can be compared. [235/85/16]. Some of these tyres might not be available here. Each have a score for wet weather traction and I think if the tyre was lousy, people will want to write about it

I tend to think ATs are probably a better choice for on road than a road-only tyre as the larger tread blocks can wash the water out faster. But then its just me.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/Compare1.jsp'sortValue=1&filterType=all&resultsNum berSelected=Y&displayResults=10&compare=true&compa reList=&RunFlat=All&goWhere=%252Ftires%252FCompare 1.jsp&sortCode=&width=235%2F&ratio=85&diameter=16& startIndex=0

Ended up buying a new set of General Grabbers, unfortunately they are attached to a nice new Defender 110... most expensive tyres ever! :o

Of course that still leaves me the problem of what to do about the tyres on the 90! Bugger! :angel: