Thread: 19" Maxxis AT Tyres

Originally Posted by SteveK

Just to confuse things a bit, new Coooper additions

Cooper Adds Courser CXT Tire to Mastercraft Line - Suppliers - Modern Tire Dealer

Thanks, just after I fitted a set of Cooper Xenons.

Originally Posted by FM231

Hi, Attached is as promised back in May.

Excellent report thanks. This is the tyre I'm recommending to Dad to replace the Hankooks, which have travelled well on bitumen and graded dirt but seem weak in the sidewall. I have pasted your report from the attachment below just for convenience of reading.

Regards,
Scott

Maxxis 980 255/55/R19 Report by "FM231"

Back in May I posted that I had purchased a set of Maxis 980 19inch tyres for my D4 for an upcoming caravan trip around the country and on return would report my comments on the tyres performance. This then is the follow up.

The trip was planned to also include dirt/rough roads and beach driving. My decision to select this tyre was based on them being an AT and equivalent 10Ply rating and a load spec. of 1215kg @ 80PSI, the tread pattern looked ok, they looked solid in the sidewall and the price was right.

Prior to this I would like to say that I have had a FWD (110 County V8, D1, Ford F250 and now the D4) continuously for 30 years and say 500,000 kilometres. During this period I have travelled many of the iconic tracks initially tenting, then with a slide on camper and more recently with a caravan (age catches up).

Some of the detail I will include in this post may raise comment from readers and that is their right however I am not prepared to defend anything I include, but I am prepared to evaluate others ideas.

I had the Maxxis fitted and a full wheel alignment carried out about two weeks before we left on our trip, my initial reaction on driving the 30 kilometres home was one of "I am now in a real FWD, there is tyre noise", this was at normal road pressures. The noise was not near the volume as mud tyres but they reminded me of the old BF Goodrich ATs that I had on my 110 County, I do find the Maxxis are noisy at all pressures I ran them at, I find them a little less noisy at highway speeds but not much but I am comfortable with the noise level. I have no explanation why others say they are not noisy

Prior to my trip I weighed the vehicle with a full tank of fuel and including myself, this equalled 2700 kilos, I then loaded my self made draw system and 40 ltr fridge in the rear compartment with all their contents plus an extra spare tyre (only tyre) on the roof rack and repeated the weighing exercise finding now 2930 kilos. Note, this puts the majority of the load behind the rear wheels. The only addition of significance after weighing was my wife at approx 55 kilos.

My caravan weighed in at a total 2700 kilos and had a ball weight was 245 kilos.

Our trip went for almost three months, high frequencies of rain; strong winds and cold temperatures down the WA coast had us home earlier than planned.

Travelling with the caravan I experimented with tyre pressures and finalised for the bitumen front tyres set at 45psi cold and the rears at 55psi cold, with the front tyres my range of experiment was between 35 - 55psi and the rear tyres between 45 - 65psi. At the selected settings I did find that the rear tyres were a little warmer to the touch than the fronts, which probably indicates the sidewalls were working a bit more. On the dirt corrugations I lowered the fronts to 30psi and the rear to 40psi., speed for the dirt roads never exceeding 65ks/hr. The decision to select the above pressures when towing the caravan was based on the highly technical evaluation of that it "felt right".

On corrugations without the caravan I ran the fronts at 30psi and the backs at 34 psi. and restricted speed to 80ks. On the beach I ran them at 16-18 psi (refer GOE handbook).

In total we travelled 17700klms, averaged 15.65 litres/100ks at an average fuel cost of $1.295 per litre of diesel.

When new the tyre tread depth was near as I could measure 10.2mm, when measured on return home the range over the four tyres was between 7.8 - 8.2 mm tread depth (my measuring to one decimal place on a tyre could be successfully questioned). Tyre were swapped front to back etc. after 12000ks, all four tyres visually look to be worn evenly across the tread, the sidewalls do not show any scuffing or damage. I think the noise level is similar now to before the trip.

We experienced high wind, torrential rain and some thick mud roads and never even including some emergency evasive "aw ...t" moments both with and without the caravan on did the tyres cause any concern, on one occasion they felt like they were actually tearing up the bitumen.

In summary I am very happy with these tyres and yes mine have some noise, they look to wear well, I feel safe with them, are not as expensive as some others and performed excellent on all the surfaces I travelled.