Thread: Buying Cooper tyres....Any suggestions?

Originally Posted by Wik

I've had 2 sets of cooper atr and wouldn't buy again. I got a good amount of wear but wet weather was a concern. Then put Mickey T ATZ 4 rib on. Happy with those until one completely disintegrated on the highway at 100km/h. Only had me in the car.
Currently running Mickey T STZ. Very happy so far. A genuine AT tyre I believe. I haven't given them too hard a time yet. E rating.
Other than that Toyo are very popular in the north in rocky country. Toyo MTR and M55 were the common models.
It's a never ending search though.

I have Cooper AT3s 265/60/18. Aquaplaning on the highway after moderate rain was a very bit surprise. They are terrible in the wet.

Originally Posted by trout1105

How much Bush/Paddock work have you done with them ?

50-60% of the km they do are not the black top.

Originally Posted by Eevo

its interesting.
why has my good experience with coopers been so different to everyone elses?

For some reason it seems that Cooper tyres are the tyres people love to hate. I've had a number of sets over the years HT's, AT's, ATR's, 2 sets of ST's and finally a set of STT's over a number of vehicles. I found them to be very good tyres, they cost a bit more but IMO were worth it. I don't know how many K's I did on them, but in the 100's of thousands and over all sorts of terrain particularly outback work. For general purpose and highway work I prefer Michelin, IMO the Rolls Royce of tyres but they usually cost even more than Cooper tyres.
I wrecked one 2000 km old ST by 'pinching' the sidewall running low pressures on the 'rock garden' between Mt Dare and Dalhousie Springs (should have taken the Bloods Ck road) and had a puncture running 'over inflated' (towing a caravan so couldn't deflate too much) into Mornington wilderness area off the GRR, (easy fix) and ran over a broken off star picket with a HT in my own driveway (just like Mario ), so not a bad result for 10 years or so of driving on Cooper tyres.

For the OP I'd suggest sticking with the 235/70 R16 factory size or the 255/65 R16 alternative (check rim size is OK) in a highway pattern as this will give him the best ride on road and be perfectly fine for any sand, dirt and loose gravel he is likely to encounter on his up coming (and other) trips. Low rolling resistance for better fuel economy, excellent handling and very quiet on those long bitumen stretches. Both these tyres have the same (factory spec'd) diameter and will be a good fit for a laden 300 TDi.

I've run Michelin XPC's, Latitude Tour and Latitude Cross tyres more recently and find them great for all but serious mud scrambling. I have a set of Michelin XML's for that.

Deano

BFG need to get on with it and bring this guy out:
BFG_KM3.jpg

Originally Posted by DeanoH

For general purpose and highway work I prefer Michelin, IMO the Rolls Royce of tyres but they usually cost even more than Cooper tyres.


Deano

Check out BFG's then, after you check out who owns BFG. ;-)

Originally Posted by rick130

Check out BFG's then, after you check out who owns BFG. ;-)

Haha since 1990 !!! Well there you go.

Originally Posted by rick130

Check out BFG's then, after you check out who owns BFG. ;-)

Yeah, well I suppose Michelin need to have an alternative tyre for the 'lower end of the market'. Toyotas, Nissans and such.

A mate of mine and his boys all run BFG at's on their 4WD's and reckon they're the greatest thing since sliced bread. That is the American built tyre and NOT the Thailand ? built tyre which my mate reckons is absolute crap.

Deano

Michelin XPC were a fantastic road and sand tyre,and long lasting.

They did get noisey when they were nearly worn out.

But way to soft for off road stuff.

They were the OEM tyre on the 16" D2 rims.