general grabber tyres

[VibeVillage]

I have a D3 and need a new set of tyres. Being 18" rims the options for All Terrain appears to be limited. Land Rover have suggested the General Grabber AT2 tyre. Does anyone have any experience with these tyres? Will an All Terrain tyre affect the road handling and fuel consumption negatively?? I would appreciate any comment. Perhaps someone has some advice as to another brand. I currently have Goodyear Wrangles 255/60/R18 on the vehicle. Thanks. William

[stevo68]

Mate this thread should answer all your questions

http://www.aulro.com/afvb/d3-zone/52...oad-tyres.html

Regards

Stevo

[VibeVillage]

Thanks Stevo,
New to this site and have not yet found my way around. Really appreciate you sending me the thread. Have got the information I need now. Thanks again

Mate this thread should answer all your questions

http://www.aulro.com/afvb/d3-zone/52...oad-tyres.html

Regards

Stevo

[Desert Traveller]

The AT2's are the best ATs I've had in the last dozen years but not perfect. Not as good as HTs on the road (to be expected) and not as heavy as MTs offroad. The following applies to all low profile tyres.

After travelling over 3000 kms offroad and 2000 kms on the black stuff (heavily loaded) on a recent Desert trip I had the tyres examined by the manufacturer. Following are the comments from their technical experts.


Quote:
Our Tyre engineer has found the following;

What has occured is called, swelling of the tread. It occurs due to a signifcant difference in temperature between the tread and sidewall. caused by low pressure usage over an extended time. it is also evident near the bead area of the tyre.

Our engineer has advised this is not uncommon in H, V and W rated tyres where the tyre is manufactured to meet very high speed requirements. This reduces its offroad ability, as the offroad ability is compromised to meet the high speed rating.

It is also magnified by the fact this tyre is of low profile design, so the sidewall height is significantly less than a normal LT or offroad style tyre. When used at low pressure heat build up will occur faster than a taller sidewall tyre.



I am not having a go at any tyre manufacturer as this will apply on all. All this highlights that if you intend to use your D3 with 18" and 19" tyres in long distance low pressure touring (i.e. the desert) you will experience premature failures. I have now fitted a TPMS to monitor pressures and temperatures and thereby adjusting the pressures to suit or to slow down a bit at times.

I like the AT2's, but would recommend 17" for long distance low pressure driving.

[pkenny]

I am running the 18 inch General Grabber AT2 on my Discovery 3 and they are great tyres, you don't notice and real increase in road noise and we have been through some pretty rough off-road use without any hitches.

[300+]

I have a D3 and need a new set of tyres. Being 18" rims the options for All Terrain appears to be limited. Land Rover have suggested the General Grabber AT2 tyre. Does anyone have any experience with these tyres? Will an All Terrain tyre affect the road handling and fuel consumption negatively?? I would appreciate any comment. Perhaps someone has some advice as to another brand. I currently have Goodyear Wrangles 255/60/R18 on the vehicle. Thanks. William

Dunno where you live, but AT2s are about the only legal 18" AT tyres in QLD. All the others I looked at were too large.

The other option I think is Yoko, which are expensive and there isn't any history with them. Lots of people, myself included have AT2s and I think I made the right choice.

Cheers, Steve

[WhiteD3]

The Continental ContiCrossContact AT is another choice and its legal.

ContiCrossContactAT

[smwilk]

Why aren't the Yokohama Geolanders ATS legal? Only 10mm wider than OEM

[Timj]

It isn't the width that is illegal it is the diameter. In Queensland we still have the maximum legal increase in diameter of 15mm. This means that with the standard ones being 763mm there is not much that comes under 778. The Yoko's at 265/60 may be legal I think but any of the 65 series are not strictly legal even if they don't rub. Other states have better rules as they have adopted the national code of practice.

The Grabbers are good tyres except for a vulnerable sidewall. In very rough conditions (Sundown National Park) I damaged two sidewalls on nearly new tyres so had a very expensive weekend. As soon as you lower the pressures the sidewall is very exposed.

There are quite a few threads if you search that have information.

Timj.

[inside]

Other states have better rules as they have adopted the national code of practice.

Don't be too quick to say that, the draft NCOP currently under review wont allow any deviation in tyre/rim size for DSC equipped vehicles such as the D3.