Continental Cross Contact A/T

[DiscoWeb]

This is just a heads up for anyone running the Continental Cross Contact A/T 255/60/R18 on their vehicle.

I have, after putting a hole in another tyre over the weekend been trying to locate 2 new tyres, only to be advised that Continental are no longer bringing them into the country. After ringing around all of Sydney I can locate only 1 tyre.

The Conti's have been pretty good however I have holed 2 in the last 2 outings and with replacements looking almost impossible to get it looks like I will be making the switch to the new Bridgestone D697 LT's earlier than I had planned.

Regards,

George

[simoncs]

Did you try tyreright alexandria? Behind trivetts. That's where I got mine from

[TerryO]

I reckon the Bridgestones will be a good choice George, will you go up a size to 265x60/18's?

[Celtoid]

This is just a heads up for anyone running the Continental Cross Contact A/T 255/60/R18 on their vehicle.

I have, after putting a hole in another tyre over the weekend been trying to locate 2 new tyres, only to be advised that Continental are no longer bringing them into the country. After ringing around all of Sydney I can locate only 1 tyre.

The Conti's have been pretty good however I have holed 2 in the last 2 outings and with replacements looking almost impossible to get it looks like I will be making the switch to the new Bridgestone D697 LT's earlier than I had planned.

Regards,

George

Hi George,

My wife's car has Continental tyres fitted as standard...admittedly these are low profile performance tyres. They perform very well in my opinion but have sidewalls as soft as butter and wear very quickly.

Relevance....

Apparently Continental are very poor in inventory control and let countries completely run out of stock, even when there are plenty available. I got told Conti Sport 3s had been superseded, yet you can get them in lots of different sizes in Australia (Just not the one I needed) and the US still has them as fully available shelf stock in all sizes.

I had to buy one tyre for my wife's car from the US, to solve this issue (not such a hot option now the US and Oz $ are well out of parity).

However, after talking to Mercedes, LR and a few tyres places....none of them rate Continental tyres (especially for use in Australia). They all recon there are far better tyres out there for the money and just as good, cheaper.

Cheers,

Kev.

[Pickles2]

Hi George,

My wife's car has Continental tyres fitted as standard...admittedly these are low profile performance tyres. They perform very well in my opinion but have sidewalls as soft as butter and wear very quickly.

Relevance....

Apparently Continental are very poor in inventory control and let countries completely run out of stock, even when there are plenty available. I got told Conti Sport 3s had been superseded, yet you can get them in lots of different sizes in Australia (Just not the one I needed) and the US still has them as fully available shelf stock in all sizes.

I had to buy one tyre for my wife's car from the US, to solve this issue (not such a hot option now the US and Oz $ are well out of parity).

However, after talking to Mercedes, LR and a few tyres places....none of them rate Continental tyres (especially for use in Australia). They all recon there are far better tyres out there for the money and just as good, cheaper.

Cheers,

Kev.
Kev, are you talking just off road Land Rover type tyres here, or are you including normal road car tyres in your "rating" comment?
Cheers, Pickles.

[Celtoid]

Kev, are you talking just off road Land Rover type tyres here, or are you including normal road car tyres in your "rating" comment?
Cheers, Pickles.

Hi Pickles,

My own experience is with on road tyres but I had a conversation with LR regarding the tyres that are fitted as OEM on some LR badged cars...Freelander, RRS (?) and maybe others....I just saw the advertisement poster in the service department and that started the convo. It started off as a general brand discussion but got quite specific, as in the dealer didn't rate the Conti's well at all, based on what was currently fitted to LR products.

That has since rolled onto several other discussions in a generic sense with Bob Jane, my local tyre guy and MB. All came across the same way....designed for Euro conditions (mainly temps), soft side walls, puncture prone and wear very quickly. Two tyre places stated that they though a Pirelli or Yokohama of the same category would easily out-perform the Conti. Apparently, for the first time ever, MB are fitting Yokohamas to their cars at the factory.

So, if you were to ask me about a set of tyres for a powerful sedan....I'd say they (Conti) are not giving bang for buck. Off-road variants, I only have heresy....but certainly enough to initiate some decent research if I were in the market for a Continental off-road/multi-purpose replacement.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,

Kev.

[boofdtl]

I have 4 brand new ones at work cant get rid of them over priced for what they are.

[DiscoWeb]

Did you try tyreright alexandria? Behind trivetts. That's where I got mine from

simoncs,

Yep, assuming they were trading as Trivett Tyres?

Rang them as well as others.

Apparently they no longer see customers that are not part of services but they range Continental and advised me they were not being imported !!

George

[DiscoWeb]

I reckon the Bridgestones will be a good choice George, will you go up a size to 265x60/18's?

Terry,

Fitted the 265X60/18's LT them this morning!!

Can test them out properly on 7/8th Sept.

George

[DiscoWeb]

Hi Pickles,

Two tyre places stated that they though a Pirelli or Yokohama of the same category would easily out-perform the Conti. Apparently, for the first time ever, MB are fitting Yokohamas to their cars at the factory.

So, if you were to ask me about a set of tyres for a powerful sedan....I'd say they (Conti) are not giving bang for buck. Off-road variants, I only have heresy....but certainly enough to initiate some decent research if I were in the market for a Continental off-road/multi-purpose replacement.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,

Kev.

Kev,

I have had the Conti Cross Contact A/T on for about 70,000km and was pretty happy with them. I have commented a number of times on this forum about them but have always noted that I thought the side wall was soft for really tough work.

In saying that I have done a number of trips in the High country with them, lots of times at Lithgow and Zig Zag etc without any trouble.

However the last 2 times I have gone off road I ripped the side wall out of a tire, both just a bit unlucky but definitely proves my point that the side wall is soft.!

I have gone the D697 because they are LT construction and so far have had pretty good reviews but at $370/tire they want to be very good and very long lasting.

In general terms their road tyre is fitted to lots of high performance euro vehicles and interestingly I think the new HSV is now running continental. Now obviously there are lots of reasons tires are OEM fitment and not least is price but but not sure about the general comment about them no being bang for buck.

I guess my original post was more to notify people that there appears to be an issue with getting these now!

Regards,

George

[Pickles2]

Well, I asked the question about Continentals, because whilst I know next to nothing about off road tyres, I've had a lifetime of experience with high performance road car tyres..V8s being my passion.
We've had several HSVs, RS Focus, & currently our AMG C63.
I'd obviously heard about "Continental" for years, but we first encountered "Contis" fitted to one of our own cars, the RS Focus, a few years ago,& thought they were pretty good.
HSV have also fitted Continentals to their awesome new Supercharged GTS, the Continental proving to be significantly faster & grippier, than the Bridgestone item.
Our C63 was fitted with Yokohamas when we bought it in 2012, but we were advised by Mercedes to fit the Continentals, which we did last week. The tyres that we have fitted have an "M.O."rating (Mercedes Original) meaning of course that they comply with Mercedes Benz specs.
So whilst I can't comment on off road stuff, the on road/high performance opinions of Continental would appear to be very good.
Cheers, Pickles.

[mowog]

I will be putting some 20" Continentals on my 20" rims shortly I have only heard good things about them.

The 18" Cross Contacts on my D4 have given me no problems. I would use them again.

[Pickles2]

I will be putting some 20" Continentals on my 20" rims shortly I have only heard good things about them.

The 18" Cross Contacts on my D4 have given me no problems. I would use them again.
That is good to hear, because they will be on our "90" (factory fitment) when it is delivered, hopefully, in November.
Cheers, Pickles.

[Celtoid]

Hi All,

I guess it could be all about specifics and variables...which makes no sense until you break it down....as in specific model of tyre, car its fitted to, usage etc.

To George's comments:



About the AT sidewall strength..well I think that's a criticism of lots of AT/ & R tyres, not just Contis...they are supposedly all vulnerable, thus the preference of LTs. As I said earlier the LR guys in Brissy didn't rate what was being fitted as OEM....but I didn't ask any specific details (AT or just road orientated)...it was a general comment.


In my specific experience (Conti Sport 3) in my Merc...hit a slight break in the road surface at about 40kph, not even a pothole....huge egg appeared in the side wall (car and tyre had 10K on the clock). Wife drove it up a bevelled kerb reversing out of a driveway at about 5kph, where it clipped a Services Marker Stud (rounded metal screw) and tore a hole through the sidewall. These tyres are the best part of $500 each. Maybe that was just bad luck.


Fitment to Euro Performance cars....yes I know they are...but based on the comments I've heard the tyres do not fare well in Australian conditions. They get too hot, roads are too rough....supposedly.


OEM fitment....well, LR fitted Wranglers (@$500 a pop) to Discovery's didn't they....end of discussion...LOL....:)
To Pickles:



My C250 has way, way, way less power than your AMG C63, my wife drives it like an old woman to the kids school and shops ....I don't get to drive it too often...LOL!!!....and it chewed through the Conti Sport 3's in no time. The car has about 17K on the clock and the original tyres are very, very close to the wear bar. The car will do 0-100 in about 7 secs but it doesn't get driven that way and it isn't very big or heavy. Which Conti have you just fitted? I hope you have a better run than I did.
I know Contis are fitted to all sorts of vehicles...large, small, powerful and not so....but as George alluded to....OEM fitment is based on lots of stuff....which maybe aligned to why so many people complain that there new car has obsolete tyres fitted :mad:.

Maybe I have unrealistic expectations of these tyres, but it does make me wonder why I've heard so many comments....which would indicate that there are other owners out there that aren't happy too....but hey only reporting what I've heard.

Personally, even though they do stick on very well in both wet and dry, I wouldn't put them back on the Merc....but maybe I'll be moaning about the Pirelli or Yokohama this time next year :)...it will be interesting to see how they go.

Cheers,

Kev.

Oh ... and sorry George for high jacking the thread... :-(

[Pickles2]

Kev...No worries.
I think the tyres are contisport 5 or something like that. They are the latest edition, & I did specify that they are "M.O.", which they are.
Other tyres?....I've always been a Pirelli man going back to centuratos, CN36 etc etc....but on the GTO we had Pirelli P Zero Rosso on from new (HSV fitment)....BRILLIANT tyre....not much good for wear...25ks was the best I could do, but handling & comfort was A1.
Your "sidewall" comment?....I know very well what you mean....I'd just fitted a new set of Pirellis to the GTO $750 EACH, we were on our way to a W/E destination, in the dark, hit a piece of rock in the road....result....fractured sidewall!!...."throwaway tyre"..NOT a good start to the W/E.
I reckon that with tyres, it's like oils,....everybody's got an opinion?......I reckon that as long as one buys a recognized brand, ya should be OK.
Cheers, Pickles.

[Celtoid]

Kev...No worries.
I think the tyres are contisport 5 or something like that. They are the latest edition, & I did specify that they are "M.O.", which they are.
Other tyres?....I've always been a Pirelli man going back to centuratos, CN36 etc etc....but on the GTO we had Pirelli P Zero Rosso on from new (HSV fitment)....BRILLIANT tyre....not much good for wear...25ks was the best I could do, but handling & comfort was A1.
Your "sidewall" comment?....I know very well what you mean....I'd just fitted a new set of Pirellis to the GTO $750 EACH, we were on our way to a W/E destination, in the dark, hit a piece of rock in the road....result....fractured sidewall!!...."throwaway tyre"..NOT a good start to the W/E.
I reckon that with tyres, it's like oils,....everybody's got an opinion?......I reckon that as long as one buys a recognized brand, ya should be OK.
Cheers, Pickles.

Thanks Mate,

That's the good thing about this forum.....somebody has a bad run, hears a few rumours or reports....and they can come here and find out if there really is a problem with an item, etc because they can generally get several 'From The Horses Mouth' reports that help them form an opinion.

Yup Conti Sport 5 is what I was told is phasing out the threes...although there are a lot still around in certain sizes.

I've always run Yokohama and Pirelli on my road cars...was Very unimpressed with the OEM fitted Wranglers (three punctures in a week on gravel roads - 40-50% wear) on my D4 .....am pretty happy with the replacement Scorpions and I've just fitted Cooper LTZ to my new GOE wheels....so we'll see how that works out.

Cheers,

Kev.

[Graeme]

I wish the reports on the durability of the Conti Cross Contact AT were a little more positive as I've always liked the tread pattern and they're available in 265/65-17 that I'm considering changing to from 245/70-17. I also have a set of Duratracs so would like a tyre for everyday sealed and some gravel use that's a bit more comfortable than LI 119 but not slip around with the occasional shower. Maybe I'll decide to cross my fingers and give them a go, or maybe not.

[austeve01]

This is just a heads up for anyone running the Continental Cross Contact A/T 255/60/R18 on their vehicle.

I have, after putting a hole in another tyre over the weekend been trying to locate 2 new tyres, only to be advised that Continental are no longer bringing them into the country. After ringing around all of Sydney I can locate only 1 tyre.

The Conti's have been pretty good however I have holed 2 in the last 2 outings and with replacements looking almost impossible to get it looks like I will be making the switch to the new Bridgestone D697 LT's earlier than I had planned.

Regards,

George

Hi George,

Like you I have been very happy with these tyres having done 70000 kms so far on them with about another 20000 kms left. I've been fortunate that to date I've had no sidewalls compromised. I'd buy these tyres again if available when current ones are worn out.

Cheers
Steve

[LGM]

Continental Cross Contact 255/55/19 4X4 tyres were fitted to my D4 as OEM tyres.

They are not the AT tyre talked about but from my perspective give me an indication re the 'Brand' performance.

I can say that they were quiet, comfortable and quite grippy but only lasted 32,000k at highway (legal) speeds which is my normal travel mode. I did venture off road a few times in what would be described as a very mild environment and they were O.K. for a road biased tyre.

When they did wear out they did so evenly, albeit quickly.

The replacement cost was a concern as the price, from memory was bloody high.

High wear, High cost, is not a combination I hanker for!

[DiscoWeb]

Hi George,

Like you I have been very happy with these tyres having done 70000 kms so far on them with about another 20000 kms left. I've been fortunate that to date I've had no sidewalls compromised. I'd buy these tyres again if available when current ones are worn out.

Cheers
Steve

Steve,

As noted I did a lot of Km on the Cross Contact A/T's and generally they were very capable, and like Graeme I quite liked the tread pattern.

But my advice from a few different tyres places was that they were not being brought in to Australia and having had holed two in my last couple of 4wd outings I was pretty much forced to change.

So far the Bridgestone D697 LT have been fantastic, slightly less whine on the road and I similar grip levels to the A/T, certainly no worse.

But importantly having done a few day trips off road the tyres still look new. NO cutting of the tread, no slices in the side wall and no noticeable change in traction off road despite what appears to be a less aggressive tread pattern.

Very happy with my new choice in tyre.

George.

[Graeme]

I'll also be looking at the D697 in both LT245/70-17 (LI 114) & LT265/65-17 (LI 116). However as this set of tyres will be for general use rather than tough off-road work I will be favouring a softer non-LT ride than provided by the Yoko AT/S in LT245/70-17 (LI 119) with their 3 ply sidewalls. This set of tyres will be well and truly worn-out before the Duratracs so wont need to withstand any particularly rocky conditions.

I would expect the HT Contis to be high speed, high grip with a softer compound than their ATs so discount the high HT wear rate especially considering the kms others have done on their ATs.

Edit: The 265/65-17 Contis may be off my list because their max pressure is only 44 psi which is low compared with XL tyres with the same load rating.

[Owl]

I had Continental Cross Contact AT's 255/60R18 fitted in Oct 2010. I've done 80,000+ K's since and they still have plenty left. I must admit I change to a set of Muds if I intend any serious stuff, but they have been in the dirt many times.
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2013/12/672.jpg

They hum a little on the road - but not obtrusively. Good road manners especially in the wet. Good also in light to medium off roading - haven't tried them in the serious stuff.

I'd buy them again

[Graeme]

What's the max pressure on the sidewall?

[discotwinturbo]

What's the max pressure on the sidewall?
Might be pretty high with an aspect of 80.
And they are over 34".
What are they fitted to ?

Brett...

[Graeme]

I read what I expected to be written...

44 in the rear of a loaded D3/4 doesn't seem enough and although I've not had my current LT tyres that high, my loaded-up D2 did. I suspect the 255/60-18 will be 50/51 psi.

[Owl]

I read what I expected to be written...

44 in the rear of a loaded D3/4 doesn't seem enough and although I've not had my current LT tyres that high, my loaded-up D2 did. I suspect the 255/60-18 will be 50/51 psi.

You're right of course - they're the standard size 255/60R18. It'd be nice to be able to fit a tyre that tall on the D3. Typo corrected in original post!

Sidewall max pressure 350KPa / 51psi, max load 1120Kg / 2469lb

[Graeme]

I would like to know in what way a tyre rated at 1120 kg at 51 psi max pressure differs from one rated at 1120 kg at 44 psi max pressure. The XL rating that seems to go hand in hand with the higher max pressure but if both tyres are rated for the same load, is the lower pressure one less suitable or unsuitable for a D3/4? Perhaps the SL tyre wont like extended use near the max load whereas the XL one doesn't mind so much.

[Graeme]

I've decided to give these a go in 265/65-17. Max pressure on my D4's placard is 42 psi so 44 should be OK. This size is currently at a special price from certain outlets co-incidental with Continental having a 4 for 3 deal for a couple of other of their tyres. I may not fit them for a couple of months depending from where they come.

Edit: $217 ea delivered to local depot and $10 F&B local Kmart who can't get near the price, along with other local outlets.

[Graeme]

Time will tell if I've made the right decision going away from an LT tyre for everyday use. Today one Yoko LT was scrapped because a 100mm+ length of old fence wire had some time ago penetrated the edge of the tread and its free end has since been gouging away at the sidewall. With so much old fence wire lying about the P-rated Contis might get tested.

[Graeme]

I've never found skinny tyres to be wanting where I've been but these 265/65-17 Contis with only 15mm wider tread and 10mm greater section width than the current 245/70-17 certainly look better. Their tread width is on par with the 3/4 worn 255/55-19 Pirelli ATR stacked in the shed. The old tyres still have a bit more to give so don't have an opinion on these yet other than that the tops of the sidewalls are quite soft.
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2013/12/270.jpg

[BobD]

Graeme, how are you fitting 17 inch tyres on your 3l D4?

bob

[Graeme]

Somehow it got to wear the brakes from a 2.7 D4.

[discotwinturbo]

Somehow it got to wear the brakes from a 2.7 D4.

Graeme, does that reduce the effectiveness of the terrain response settings ?
Thinking smaller brakes not as effective, but maybe better tyres counteracts this ?

Brett....

[Graeme]

2.7 brakes can easily invoke wheel-slip to the point of ABS being triggerred so I cannot see why there should be any difference in TR settings. Wheel-slip has to be the trigger for centre and rear diff operation due to different surfaces, wet or dry and tyre tread patterns and compounds rather than any pre-programmed presumed extra ability of larger diameter discs to slow a wheel. Hard braking from 180 kph might be a little different though due to the heat generated.