Thread: best 17" AT for D3 ??

I'd be interested to know what sort of warranty Bridgestone are providing for their 697 AT.
The AT3 in LT have a 90,000 Klm warranty. Not too many tyre companies will offer that.

Cheers, Craig

Not so sure I'd get that excited about Cooper Tires amazing mega kilometre warranty Craig. Plenty on here will tell of their experiences trying to claim on it.

Originally Posted by Steve223

Hello David,

What tyre pressure are you running, I consistently run higher pressure then the rest of club members on road full loaded around 55 psi, of road around 32 in the back and 29 in the front ( if I go down to 24 PSI on the back like rest of guys it looks like I'm running flats) though in sand I have been down to 12 psi which was ok.

I have seen a couple of ST MAXX around the tracks and again never have seen the kind of wear in have on my tires. If it was only one tire I put it down to scraping a rock etc but all 4 seems strange.

Cheers

Steve

Hi Steve
I agree that 55 psi is abit high (is that hot or cold?)
I run the following pressures: 36 front & 40 rear (cold) fully loaded and towing camper- pretty much at GVM including camper ball weight.
Off road fast good quality gravel road I drop them to around 34-36 rear and 30-32 front (tyres now hot so that would be say 26 front & 30 rear cold).
For Offroad rough/sharp rocks 24-26 rear & 20-22 front "hot" (but dropped to 18psi all round for last tricky part of Billy Goat Bluff track in Vic HC). For sand I use 15psi (=11-12psi after a cold night!).

I agree the Bridgestone 697 is a very good tyre from all reports and I would consider them for 18" GOE rims on my future D4! However if your main concern is the risk of sidewall damage then I have no hesitation recommending the ST Maxx as it has the Armor-Tek3 technology (same 3 ply construction as for STT's and also "Powerply" in Micky Thompson MTZ).

Just as an aside during our trip to Vic HC last year the D4 travelling with us was on 265/65/18 BFG AT's and it had the rear e-diff (I do not-unfortunately!). He got chips in his sidewalls and I did not despite my TC working harder than his for the tough rocky bits- he had his tyres at 26-28psi & I had mine at 22-24psi. I still went everywhere he did though not as effortlessly! Regards, David

I have a set of STT's that I use off road on our D3, the 3 ply side walls have numerous cuts in them.

Originally Posted by TerryO

Not so sure I'd get that excited about Cooper Tires amazing mega kilometre warranty Craig. Plenty on here will tell of their experiences trying to claim on it.

According to my local Tyre guys, Cooper have a great record for backing up their tyres. With that in mind and the 90,000 Klm warranty, I am comfortable with my choice of the AT3's.
I do know that Gordon (GOE) has had good experiences with them.

Cheers, Craig

Thanks a lot for the tips, if Cooper is willing to replace I will go with he STMaxx and next time will put tyre pressure down to 24-25 on rocks and see what difference it makes it just looks so damm flat.

Just had a visit from Scott Roper from NTW and while he says it does not fall under the mileage warranty which only covers tyres thread (makes sense) and the tire itself is not faulty they offered me half price for a set of S/TMAXX and mentioned they probably would be better suited for the kind of driving I do which is nearly every second weekend somewhere in the Bush.

He is an friendly guy and I'm impressed by the service and outcome.

He mentioned though the S/T Maxx is officially not suited for the Discovery but David is running them.

David did you have to make any moods to have them on your Disco?

Originally Posted by Steve223

Just had a visit from Scott Roper from NTW and while he says it does not fall under the mileage warranty which only covers tyres thread (makes sense) and the tire itself is not faulty they offered me half price for a set of S/TMAXX and mentioned they probably would be better suited for the kind of driving I do which is nearly every second weekend somewhere in the Bush.

He is an friendly guy and I'm impressed by the service and outcome.

He mentioned though the S/T Maxx is officially not suited for the Discovery but David is running them.

David did you have to make any "moods" to have them on your Disco?

Thats a great offer on their part.
David was probably "Happy" when he fitted them.