Thread: cooper tyre problems

I've seen 2 separate vehicles with crook Cooper S/T's in the last month.
On the weekend just gone I was checking a Tag a long customers Coopers and he told me an anecdote he had heard of a Cooper splitting longitudinally, right round the middle of the tread, so he was aware of a problem and keeping an eye on them.

Hi,
cracks in tyres, regardless of brand, are a safety issue. Any crack will will get bigger over time (how long is subjective) and can lead to catastrophic failure. The cracks you describe are often associated with age. Regardless of the cause of the crack, what you see is only part of the picture going on in the tyre carcass.

As for issues with Coopers..... plenty of threads here rubbishing and praising them, depending on the particular tyre design.

My two cents through personal experience with this brand on a family vehicle has ensured that I will never purchase any type of tyre currently made by Cooper.

But thats another issue.
Get them checked ASAP.

Same story, nice guy, no problems - just the finish cracking...Well why aren't the other 3 the same?

Different batch?

See if you can find the date stamp on them. Its a week/year format.

Regards
Max P

Originally Posted by Milton477

Same story, nice guy, no problems - just the finish cracking...Well why aren't the other 3 the same?

I am not a tyre expert, but in a previous life I was Toolmaker (making molds for plastic and rubber components)

IMO This picture indicates one of 2 things.
1/ The tyre has been run under pressure/ overloaded and sustained associated damage.
or
2/ The tyre compound, mold, temperatures were all wrong during manufacturing process and flaws have been "manufactured" into the tyre at the factory.

I did send this & other photos to Coopers. Apart from maybe 500km on the beach & a bit of dirt road, this tyre has been on the tarmac. On the beach, I always run pressures at 18psi - set by stauns & the little dirt road has been mostly at 35psi. The tread is still good although there does seem to be a bit of scrubbing on the edge. The strange thing is that the cracks are only on 1 face of the tyre.

Although I am quite fond of the Coopers, I do believe I read an article that the outside edge is prone to cracking as above due to UV rays hitting the tread and destabilising or something to that effect.
I read it in some waiting room and thought interesting.
The sidewall damage I have seen on tyres with incorrect tyre pressures before.

The old coopers saga once again.
I hope mine hold out as they are brand new.

Just on the subject of Cooper ST chipping, I was reading a Cooper brochure while waiting for a repair at my local tyre place.

In the brochure they claim that the chipping on ST is caused by the front wheels throwing up stones which hit the back wheels and knock off bits of tread.
My BFG AT KOs were badly chipped after my SA trip and it was the rears that were chipped. I put it down to the rears having most of the drive and load , but maybe they are right and chipping is caused by rocks from the front wheels. SO maybe a mud flap in front of the rears would cut it down.

Regards Philip A