Thread: Help choosing a tyre please

I have just put the LT245/70r16 ATR Scorpions on the D2

So far they are great.
Better than the BFG......so far, (road, gravel and sand) Central oz country.
In that they are quieter on road and more positive on and off road.

I tried something new, because you never know without giving it a shot. Pirelli know rubber across all areas of industry and tyres across all types of motor sports etc, so figure they cannot be worse than any other quality tyre maker.

I dont think mud is something any ATR excels in so I have chains for those trips where I may encounter some serious issues.

But really, so long as your happy, who cares??

Originally Posted by barjop

<-kersnip->
You have a Td5 not as noisey as Tdi but still rattley so road noise shouldn't bother, although mate 4 D1 Tdi who had BFG's went back to Michies road tyre and was surprised at the handling difference.
We currently have the spare (a Cooper ATR 235/70R16) on the near side rear and it is noticeably more noisy in the wet than the nearly dead XPC's.
<-kersnip->
It all depends on what your usage is going to be.
Note BFG (dicks) don't bring 245/75/16's AT's into the country anymore which was going to be my upgrade tyre, not sure about your tyre size. So now I will have a dilema with my next tyre.
The BFG AT is still available in 245/70R16 (was in stock at Jax down the road today) but now I wonder for how long?
<-kersnip->
Rear Trutrac
What is Trutrac please?

Cheers
Peter [currently searching for truetrac]

Peter,
a trutrac is a stronger version of a LSD, it is made by detroit/eaton but rather than friction plates it uses helical gears to force drive from the spining wheel to the wheel on the other side of the vehicle that is not slipping. It is stronger than your standard diff, cheaper than a manual locker and more flexible than a detroit or Lokka style diff lock.
If you follow these links you will see a picture and some more info.

http://www.aulro.com/afvb/introducti...trac-info.html
Truetrac helical gear limited slip differential

Their are a couple of distributors on Aus but it's pretty dear to buy one here. There have been a couple of bulk orders organised by other members from this forum on a couple of occasions in the last 6 months. But it was inconvienient for me so I made some private enquiries to the US as mentioned in one of the links above and got one sent over from US.
Due to dollar falling not as beneficial at the moment but still a lot cheaper than buying in Aus.


Hope this helps
Regards
Barjop
98 Tdi Auto
2" Ridepro lift
Rear trutrac

Originally Posted by barjop

Peter,
a trutrac is a stronger version of a LSD, it is made by detroit/eaton but rather than friction plates it uses helical gears to force drive from the spining wheel to the wheel on the other side of the vehicle that is not slipping. It is stronger than your standard diff, cheaper than a manual locker and more flexible than a detroit or Lokka style diff lock.
If you follow these links you will see a picture and some more info.

True Trac info?
Truetrac helical gear limited slip differential

Their are a couple of distributors on Aus but it's pretty dear to buy one here. There have been a couple of bulk orders organised by other members from this forum on a couple of occasions in the last 6 months. But it was inconvienient for me so I made some private enquiries to the US as mentioned in one of the links above and got one sent over from US.
Due to dollar falling not as beneficial at the moment but still a lot cheaper than buying in Aus.


Hope this helps
Regards
Barjop
98 Tdi Auto
2" Ridepro lift
Rear trutrac

That's simply an amazing piece of gear. I'd buy one just to pull it apart and see how it works Thanks for the info.

I have the Pirelli scorpions and love them on-road. We used them on the trip to Darwin and back as well as daily driving for just over 12 months and I never felt they were an issue. I have only been off-road once (about 4 weeks ago) and I felt that once they filled up with clay/mud they never really cleared but it may have just been newbie nervs. I am planning on getting something more aggressive for off-roading.

I'm running the Pirelli ATR and can not speak highly enough of them. They have traction traction traction.

My ones are in 285/75-16 so may vary slightly to the 245/70-16 in some areas.

On the road, these tyres are almost as good as silent... I'm talking like wind down the window, stick your head out and listen to everything but the tyres. Something that strikes me while standing on the side of the road is the amount of noise that tyres make, even on road cars etc - they are about the noisest part of the car these days. The ATR is inaudible.

The traction is excellent in the dry and in the wet. Even when the tyres are new and skinned, they still have grip, which is in stark contrast to other tyres. The compound is silica based, something which not many other tyres are... the only other ones that come to mind are the Goodyear MTR and possibly the Silent Armour. This gives a nice soft rubber traction, but without the soft rubber wear rates that you would get with carbon black tyres. They are also well sipped for wet traction. Spin them up on rock and it's a different story though and they wear quickly. The carcass seems to be quite solid with a heavy load rating on them and this provides good lateral stability within the carcass, even at lower pressures.

The tread pattern in the marketting material appears to be quite mild, though in the flesh they are more aggressive than you may expect. The grooves are reasonably deep and wide, though the design of them allows the air to move through them quietly. I suspect they have designed the outer tread blocks for drive in soft terrain and the centre lugs to give lateral stability, though in practise I dont think that they will be much chop in greasy mud like clay etc. They just wont clear, much like any other all terrain. On dry surfaces though they provide a lot of traction, be it rock, dirt even down to damp sandstone clay which pushes the tyre a fair bit and ultimately clogs it. Definately on rock and dry dirt they provide better traction than muds in my opinion and are really impressive to drive on, not so in wet offroad conditions.

To be honest, I bought these as road tyres as they were as HT like as anything in this size came - and were not connected to Cooper Tyres. It just so happened that they really surprised me offroad. This said, they are not my touring or play tyres.

This is a comparison of a Pirelli AT which a lot of people talk about (left) and a Pirelli ATR (right)


And my finger as an indicator of tread groove size.

Nice write up Slunnie.

I have Pirelli 265/70/16s on my D2 (the ATs on the left of your photo) and they are nice tyres - no suspension lift and no rubbing. They add usable heights under the diffs which for me beach driving is handy. I have the same tyre in 245/70/16s on my D1 but in the 245 size they come in a light truck configuration. In the 265 they dont. Interestingly the 245s are lasting longer and when towing my 2 tonn boat the D1 does not squirm as much on the road which may come from lower sidewall height but my bet is that its the stiffer LT sidewalls that are responsible for the better towing ride - and I have tried both sets at all different and extreme pressures!

I am glad to hear that the new ATR is better than it looks on their website. On their site it looks far more h'way oriented than the AT, but your pic shows a tyre that really looks every bit as good tread wise as the AT. A mate of mine just replaced his on his D2 with General Grabbers AT2 in the 265/70/16 and got those rather than the ATs because the fitter said the ATs were no longer available and the ATR was the only one...dealer didnt have them on the rack and from the web site they didnt look as off road as the AT so he went with the aggressive looking GG which my brother sells and is a pretty good tyre also.

I havent driven his truck yet, but am keen to see what they are like because my Scorps 265 have only another 20k in them...total then of about 60k which isnt bad but is well less than the original XPCs which were very good for their size. I will probably go the ATR now.

Cheers

Slunnie - is the AT on the left smaller size than the ATR on the right...if so that would effect how the groove size compares and make the AT's look about the same or smaller than the ATR groove size.

Cheers

PS. Looks like you still cannot get the 265/70/16 in the ATR in light truck - 112T as opposed to the 113T in the 245 - ie the 245 is smaller but in the LT can carry more weight. Pity.