D697 Tyre Damage on Road to Birdsville

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Originally Posted by morpheus

I wonder whether it's the 18s. My Cooper AT3s (which are smaller than yours at 265/60r18) started cracking, in between the tread, after 20-30k and after not much off road but quite a bit of long distance trips. I put it down to the Coopers not liking the weight of my car, but now I'm wondering if it's the 18 inch size. I know my mechanic didn't think the AT3s were suited to the Disco, because of the weight. I'm sure plenty on here can advise otherwise.

The only thing I don't know is how old the tyres are (they were on the car when I bought it and looked newish but could be old for all I know).

Might expedite my push towards 17s.

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The issue of rim size has nothing to do with the tyre damage. All down to how the actual tyre performs in the environment.. Not sure where your mechanic gets the idea an AT3 is not suited to a particular vehicle. If it complies with the placard and particularly load and speed ratings then it is legal. In regard to overall performance large and heavy cars like LC200, Disco and the like will always be harder on their tyres for those reasons alone. When you start adding the extra weight involved with towing for example that exacerbates rear tyre wear for the obvious reasons. I have seen similar issues with BfG on the same and other outback roads as well as pretty much most other tyres. But it is variable and greatly depends on road condition, speed, pressures, temperatures, load etc. Equally we drive that road regularly each year and I use 697's and have not had anything close to that sort of damage and we tow an Ultimate camper most of the time

Rob

Ozzy119, strange that.

I had Coopers on my Nissan Navara dual cab and got over 100,000k out of them.

Had a set on my Disco I and only got half of that, well a bit more than half but only just.

Mike

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Originally Posted by RobA

The issue of rim size has nothing to do with the tyre damage. All down to how the actual tyre performs in the environment.. Not sure where your mechanic gets the idea an AT3 is not suited to a particular vehicle. If it complies with the placard and particularly load and speed ratings then it is legal. In regard to overall performance large and heavy cars like LC200, Disco and the like will always be harder on their tyres for those reasons alone. When you start adding the extra weight involved with towing for example that exacerbates rear tyre wear for the obvious reasons. I have seen similar issues with BfG on the same and other outback roads as well as pretty much most other tyres. But it is variable and greatly depends on road condition, speed, pressures, temperatures, load etc. Equally we drive that road regularly each year and I use 697's and have not had anything close to that sort of damage and we tow an Ultimate camper most of the time

Rob

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The picture was one tyre, which was way worse than the other. Both rears had slight chipping and lots of small cuts between the treads but the left rear was the only one with the large chunk out of the tread and the big cut. It obviously hit a couple of big sharp stones that did that damage but still performed perfectly well all the way home. I think the sister tyre to the damaged one got a puncture at Mt Augustus the year before when a small stone pushed through the carcass between the treads which was easily fixed with a plug. If so, it was the most worn tyre on the car because I only replaced the one with a puncture after the Mt Augustus trip


As an aside, I was following my son in his D1 with mud tyres on the trip and he was throwing up the rocks for me to run over. I was trying to miss as many as possible of the worst ones but that is pretty impossible when the road is full of rocks.

Bob we know that road very well and I do understand how rocky it can be and even worse just after the grader as they kindly smooth the dirt and crack the rocks open leaving nice razor sharp edges. Give me smooth gibber every time.

We will be at Mt Augustus on our way to Perth from a couple of months in the Kimberley around mid July so I hope to not repeat your experience but about the only thing I can guarantee is there is no such thing as a puncture proof tyre.

Rob

It's only the rears that get that damage and the fronts are always perfect.

This is a pretty good summation for all vehicles - unless you run good front mud flaps

with no front flaps the rears will get a toasting compared to a set of well positioned front flaps.

I wonder if your front left flap is letting more stones fly than your right front?

s

Hi All,

I run D697, but for the first time. Just completed 10,000km and travelled with GVM load over 5,000km on dirt road heading south from Longreach and travelled on similar dirt roads to Tibbuburra, Cameron corner and further south. Although my tyres are fresh, I have noticed the huge contribution a decent set of front mud flaps make in buffering stones.

The amount of reduced wheel arch tumble of stones with the new set of mud flaps compared to OEM put flaps was amazing and I compared it with recordings from my dash cam.

In addition, the mud flaps also assisted in a massive reduction of stone chipping on my camper.

This May I will do another run with a modified stone stomper and a further reduction in stone chipping should result.

Regards

Gerald

My car has standard LR knock off Chinese mud flaps. One of the issues is that 285 tyres are way wider than the mud flaps. All the plastic on my sills, the flares and the Kaymar rear bar have been stone blasted where the stones come past the skinny mud flaps. Even the air hoses for the GOE emergency suspension height kit are stone blasted but that is from the inside of the tyres throwing stones up under the car.


I found the Stone Stomper on my camper trailer was too narrow and let stones past to hit the outer 50 to 100 mm of the trailer and the underside was completely stone blasted. I am now trying a Rock Tamer bar to try to reduce stone damage to the outer edges of the Kimberley Karavan but I don't expect any let up on the stones hitting the undercarriage.


When we came back through Birdsville I didn't have anything but the standard KK protection and everything exposed to stones from the car was badly stone blasted. The folding steps were the worst (apart from the suspension) and the alloy is pitted from the rocks hitting hit. The steel bolts look like they have been hit with a hammer and cold chissel.


I am putting more rubber flaps on the KK to try to reduce this but I guess wider mud flaps on the car would be the best solution. The Rock Tamers go some of the way as they extend well outside the D4 tyres but there is still plenty of gap between the Rock Tamer flaps for stones to hit the undercarriage of the KK.

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Originally Posted by nismine01

Ozzy119, strange that.

I had Coopers on my Nissan Navara dual cab and got over 100,000k out of them.

Had a set on my Disco I and only got half of that, well a bit more than half but only just.

Mike

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The Disco is way heavier than the Navara, and will cause tyre-wear faster.

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Originally Posted by RobA

The issue of rim size has nothing to do with the tyre damage. All down to how the actual tyre performs in the environment.. Not sure where your mechanic gets the idea an AT3 is not suited to a particular vehicle. If it complies with the placard and particularly load and speed ratings then it is legal. In regard to overall performance large and heavy cars like LC200, Disco and the like will always be harder on their tyres for those reasons alone. When you start adding the extra weight involved with towing for example that exacerbates rear tyre wear for the obvious reasons. I have seen similar issues with BfG on the same and other outback roads as well as pretty much most other tyres. But it is variable and greatly depends on road condition, speed, pressures, temperatures, load etc. Equally we drive that road regularly each year and I use 697's and have not had anything close to that sort of damage and we tow an Ultimate camper most of the time

Rob

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Well I can't speak for the mechanic - and I'm no longer in Canberra so I can't ask him - but I do recall him saying something about AT3's failing on D3/4s because they didn't like the weight of the car.

I don't mind the look of the D697 and they still are my number one consideration next.

I need to replace the two rear tyres for a big trip to Central and Northern Australia in May so I have decided to change four of the tyres to BFG K02 in the same size. I will keep the D697's for spares and probably put them back on after the trip to wear them out some more in less arduous conditions.


I will be doing the Birdsville Track and Great Central Road again and plenty of other NT rough roads north of Mt Isa towing the KK so I will see how they perform and report back. The new tyres go on on Wednesday next week.