BSM
12th July 2014, 04:48 PM
So after I fitted the spare (http://www.aulro.com/afvb/d3-d4-rrs/201318-30km-arkaroola-warnings-lights-mild-heart-infarct.html) we arrived at Arkaroola, and I set about getting the puncture fixed.
It's a very small place Arkaroola village and the workshop is just nearby reception. The other think to know about this place is that it is in the harsh Northern tip of the Flinders Ranges, and the the ground is literally littered with sharp shards of shale and quartzite. There are rocks everywhere. It is an unforgiving place.
One of the big attractions of this place is a tour called the Ridge-top tour where they take visitors along an old mining road that was built along the spine on the ridges to avoid the road getting washed away in the floods.
I figured these guys must know a bit about tyres, and what works in such a harsh environment.
With the tyre off the rim we inspected the puncture on my Toyo Open Country. Even though I'd been driving along the graded gravel road, a shard had penetrated the thickest part of the tread and severed one or two of the steel cables. It has resulted in a tear about 1.5cm in length. The tyre was shot.
I was curious what the guy doing the repair thought of my Toyo's since they rarely get a mention on these forums, and I was surprised that he said Toyo's are good. During this conversation the operator of their fleet of work vehicles wandered by and he confirmed that opinion. His explanation of my puncture was simple. "High velocity, high impact, concentrated force. You never see the rock that does it".
He explained that the life of a tyre in those parts was very short. I can't remember the numbers exactly but it was something like 9,000 km for your average road tyre.
He said Toyo's make great truck tyres and then we looked at the tread on my ATs and he explained that the tread pattern was well designed to eject rocks.
This was in contrast to some very expensive brands that I will not name, but which are heavily marketed in Australian 4x4 magazines (you know which ones they are if you read these forums). They used to joke with the customers that if you came in with a puncture in one of these branded tyres you could fix it yourself. He was dismissive of the cost, the marketing and sales methods and the useful life of these tyres.
I asked what that were running on their vehicles. They are currently running Bridgestone Desert Duellers LTs on their Ridge Top tour vehicles, and they were pretty good, but he was very enthusiastic about another quite unknown brand that was really demonstrating its ability to last in this harsh environment and that is Hercules. In his opinion Hercules are great and cheap too.
I asked what they though of BFG's, which many on this forum rave about - but they didn't really have an opinion (Sorry about that BFG fans).
Anyway, I had to buy a replacement tyre there and I was given a Maxxis which he said are much like the Toyo.
I suppose I should say that the Toyo was the rear passenger wheel when it got its puncture. It was at a pressure of 36psi, carrying the drawbar weight of a loaded trailer, and travelling at 80kmh along a graded gravel road when it met the shard. They typically run pressures no more than 28/30 psi around Arkaroola - However they acknowledge that you need more pressure with a heavy load. On leaving Arkaroola, I ran 33psi in the rear and drove maximum 70kmh - No problem.
I think my Toyo OC's performed well in the Flinders Ranges. They were great on the Skytrek earlier in the holiday, but then I was running 26psi and had no trailer. If I'd been a bit more patient in driving the gravel and kept the pressures and speed a bit lower I reckon I would not have had the puncture at all. - But whose to say? As the man said to me... "You never see the rock that gets you"
It's a very small place Arkaroola village and the workshop is just nearby reception. The other think to know about this place is that it is in the harsh Northern tip of the Flinders Ranges, and the the ground is literally littered with sharp shards of shale and quartzite. There are rocks everywhere. It is an unforgiving place.
One of the big attractions of this place is a tour called the Ridge-top tour where they take visitors along an old mining road that was built along the spine on the ridges to avoid the road getting washed away in the floods.
I figured these guys must know a bit about tyres, and what works in such a harsh environment.
With the tyre off the rim we inspected the puncture on my Toyo Open Country. Even though I'd been driving along the graded gravel road, a shard had penetrated the thickest part of the tread and severed one or two of the steel cables. It has resulted in a tear about 1.5cm in length. The tyre was shot.
I was curious what the guy doing the repair thought of my Toyo's since they rarely get a mention on these forums, and I was surprised that he said Toyo's are good. During this conversation the operator of their fleet of work vehicles wandered by and he confirmed that opinion. His explanation of my puncture was simple. "High velocity, high impact, concentrated force. You never see the rock that does it".
He explained that the life of a tyre in those parts was very short. I can't remember the numbers exactly but it was something like 9,000 km for your average road tyre.
He said Toyo's make great truck tyres and then we looked at the tread on my ATs and he explained that the tread pattern was well designed to eject rocks.
This was in contrast to some very expensive brands that I will not name, but which are heavily marketed in Australian 4x4 magazines (you know which ones they are if you read these forums). They used to joke with the customers that if you came in with a puncture in one of these branded tyres you could fix it yourself. He was dismissive of the cost, the marketing and sales methods and the useful life of these tyres.
I asked what that were running on their vehicles. They are currently running Bridgestone Desert Duellers LTs on their Ridge Top tour vehicles, and they were pretty good, but he was very enthusiastic about another quite unknown brand that was really demonstrating its ability to last in this harsh environment and that is Hercules. In his opinion Hercules are great and cheap too.
I asked what they though of BFG's, which many on this forum rave about - but they didn't really have an opinion (Sorry about that BFG fans).
Anyway, I had to buy a replacement tyre there and I was given a Maxxis which he said are much like the Toyo.
I suppose I should say that the Toyo was the rear passenger wheel when it got its puncture. It was at a pressure of 36psi, carrying the drawbar weight of a loaded trailer, and travelling at 80kmh along a graded gravel road when it met the shard. They typically run pressures no more than 28/30 psi around Arkaroola - However they acknowledge that you need more pressure with a heavy load. On leaving Arkaroola, I ran 33psi in the rear and drove maximum 70kmh - No problem.
I think my Toyo OC's performed well in the Flinders Ranges. They were great on the Skytrek earlier in the holiday, but then I was running 26psi and had no trailer. If I'd been a bit more patient in driving the gravel and kept the pressures and speed a bit lower I reckon I would not have had the puncture at all. - But whose to say? As the man said to me... "You never see the rock that gets you"