Hi I notice the Freelander has the same tyre size as my car and am interested if they are any good for occasional off road ( muddy fields ) Any other recommendations. Wanted an AT but not easy to find at reasonable price in this size. Have had Scorpion STR tyres for the last 3 years but want a change .
Always a difficult question to answer as it depends on the terrain you are going to tackle. I used to have BF Goodrich Track Edge tyres on my truck because people used to say that they were excellent off-road, but I found them to be almost useless and not very grippy at all. Switching to proper muds made one heck of a difference on the same bits of terrain that I used to get stuck on with the BFG track edges. People can say that they tackled "extremely muddy patches" on a tyre, but without seeing what they tackled it's hard to judge what they mean.
A muddy field can clog an AT tyre in no time at all, and can challenge a mud pattern if it's deep enough, or there's an incline, or if you're towing something, or are carrying a heavy load. It depends entirely on the field surface. I've seen a Unimog 404 on bar pattern muds with locked cross-axle diffs stuck on the flat, just slowly rotating its tyres and not getting anywhere, and it wasn't even sunk into the surface more than about 3 inches.
So in short, get as grippy tyres as you can justify, and expect to get stuck anyway and make sure you have a means of getting free, e.g. another truck, a winch (even a hand one) and ground anchor. If you are just going to places where there are likely to bo lots of other people and vehicles around then you can get away with no equipment other than tow ropes.
yes I understand the problem. Scorpion STR ,s are really a road tyre and I wanted something with a little more grip on farm tracks and soggy fields. The Synchron looks to be expensive and a road tyre and I wondered if anyone had a view! The Dueler may be worth considering
I have looked at some test results but nothing is that informative. Add that to what is fitted as standard and my head starts to spin. Discos or RR have Scorpion tyres apparently . I may have to invest in a set of steel wheels and some Colway AT's for the weekends but it is such a bother having to change all wheels for a days shooting.
If you drive mostly on the roads, then I'd suggest you go the above route. I don't know what muds fit a freelander but if you just use one set of wheels you have to compromise road safety against off-road ability. I have tubed muds on my Defender and if I go above 60MPH for sustained periods, bad things can happen. I had 5 tyre deflations in one month, and last weekend had a blowout. This is on £60 per tyre remoulds though, not much point spending £100 per tyre if they're going to get ripped up by stones etc.
With a spare set of wheels, you can get decent road tyres, then swap them for the muds in about half an hour, probably as little as 15 mins once you've done it a few times. Well worth the hassle if you do lots of on-road driving.
If you take that route though I wouldn't bother with ATs for the shooting days, go for proper muds and you'll have the edge over bigger off-roaders that are on AT tyres, and they'll stop cracking any jokes about freelanders ;-) If the muds are only for the shooting days, they'll last for ages. They are vastly better than AT tyres, the improvement in grip over the BF Goodrich Track Edges, a highly rated AT tyre, were stark, even on cheap muds.
The previous owner of my Frelander had managed to force 235/70R16s onto it, and my advice is DON'T DO IT! It handled like a bowl of soup, but I wanted to replace them anyway with something more meaty for the dreadful winter that was forecast for the UK (but which we didn't get!).
Trouble is there's not a great deal on offer for the (correct for my particular wheels) 215/65R16 size, as most of them seem to be decidedly road biased. Then my tyre supplier managed to find a Yokohama Geolandar A/T that I'm very pleased with.
It behaves very well on the road (although it can be a little noisy on some surfaces), and is excellent for the moderate mud that I need to tackle. For instance, in a few minutes I have to hitch up to our livestock trailer, which has been temporarily parked on a soft verge whilst our yard is being re-concreted. When I left it there the area was quite wet, but the car never faltered. Now the ruts will be baked hard, but I don't anticipate anything other than a joggly ride as I cross it.
Tyre life? No idea as yet as I've only done 4000 miles on them so far, but they still look good as new.
GRAEME ALDOUS Yorkshire
On or around Wed, 7 Jun 2006 22:47:14 +0100, "21565R16V" enlightened us thusly:
synchrones are bloody expensive, ISTR. had 'em in the disco here, wasn't that impressed. nice road tyre, not much grip offroad but OK for the occasional field, didn't last as long as the price ought to have indicated.
Mind you having re-read your original email, I get the impression that you're just going into *a* field, rather than driving around an owner's estate through lots of fields and tracks as I'd suspected. If that's the case then you won't need to go as far as muds.
I run Goodyear MT/R on my Disco 1 as well as my Wife's, which my son finally gave back when he bought his Ford F-250 SD. He also has the same tyres, different size of course.
--=20 Jeffrey S Austin Chesapeake VA
=E2=80=9CI fight what you fear, the Red Devil=E2=80=9D
On or around Thu, 08 Jun 2006 21:24:41 +0000, Jeffrey S Austin enlightened us thusly:
our disco is currently on goodyear GT+4s, which are nice on-road. not an off-road tyre though.
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