Landcruiser Tyres - have to compromise on price?

TrailerBob

Need to get 4 tyres for the landcruiser. The problem is that prices have gone crazy here in the last while. Bridgestones and Dunlops (or any of my preferred brands) that were €150 last year are almost €200 now!


So I have to work within my budget - max €150 per tyre - these are my options from ringing around. If anyone has experience of them please let me know your thoughts. (sorry don't have all the model no's)

General Grabber UHP
Avon Ranger
Hankook Dynapro
Matador mp71

Any other options? Have looked on camskill and eiretyres and no real saving when you add in fitting and balancing

101sean

General and Avon are well known makes (same company now I think) but the Avon Ranger is more suited to classic Land Rovers. Have a look at Cooper, may be in your range. BFGoodrich last forever but will probably outside your price range (paid €165 fitted for my BFG ATs). Hankook are also a known make but don't know any 4x4 owner using them.

If you do a lot of miles, skimping on tyres on a heavy 4x4 is false economy, I think Matador come in as a cheap brand.

Take your Camskill and Eiretyre prices to your local tyre places and see what they can do. We get our tyres from a small place in the middle of nowhere and they are are as cheap when you take in to account delivery,fitting costs etc

TrailerBob

Never skimp on tyres, have always bought the best for any vehicle I've had, but got a shock when ringing around today. Simply don't have the extra €200 odd for BFGs or the like. So looking for a compromise between quality and price - want the best I can afford.

I do galactic miles (30k miles a year) so tread wear is a biggy. Leaning towards the Generals I think, they come in at €580 for a set

As a matter of interest, where do you get yours? I'll be in that part of Tipp on Friday (Dundrum)... Just in case!!

Pottler

TrailerBob wrote: »

Never skimp on tyres, have always bought the best for any vehicle I've had, but got a shock when ringing around today. Simply don't have the extra €200 odd for BFGs or the like. So looking for a compromise between quality and price - want the best I can afford.

I do galactic miles (30k miles a year) so tread wear is a biggy. Leaning towards the Generals I think, they come in at €580 for a set

As a matter of interest, where do you get yours? I'll be in that part of Tipp on Friday (Dundrum)... Just in case!!

Any idea why tyres have gone up so much? I've a good mate with a tyre company and need a tyre mended tomorrow so will ask him what's the story. BTW, no, no you don't. 30k is not galactic, not even big, not even large, 200k+ is galactic, 100k is big, 30k is sight seeing!:D 60k in 6 months on the last yoke-windscreen time is large!

TrailerBob

Ha ha, fair enough , but for someone who doesn't drive for a living, 30k is high enough - especially feeding a 3L lump. (most people I know do less than 12k). It feels like I'm never out of it!

Chap in Portarlington Tyres said that a lot of the big makers are pulling distribution out of Ireland, so they have to buy direct from UK - so costs go up. Bought 2 Bridgestone Duelers for it last year (never again, pathetic treadwear) at €149 each, same tyre, same fitter, now €185.

Pottler

Same guy I mentioned only stocks ditchfinders last year or so. He reckons nobody will pay for good tyres, they just want somthing round and legal and cheap, so he stocks what sells. I have to order in decent tyres for our yokes when I want them and even then I get the whole "but Ditchfinders are great!" spiel as he doesn't want to spend the bobs or time geting in the good gear. Countrys gone to fcuk Joe! If I send the missus down with a yoke, she comes back convinced by them that it doesn't need new tyres, the old ones are still grand. I go myself and get newies fitted. Standards are dropping!

TrailerBob

Yeah I'm noticing a lot of cheap Asian rubber on various vehicles these days, I just refuse to take that risk with 2 ton+ of a vehicle, often with that again behind it.

Looking online, the General grabbers are getting decent reviews, as well as Toyo tyres, not so convinced by the matador, despite being told " they're a lovely tyre" - translation - "they'll do, but don't go trying to avoid an accident in the wet"

101sean

Dundrum is not far from me but the tyre place we use is in Cloneen, the far side of Fethard, he had to order them in.

Other lads I know use a tyre place in Abbeyfeale and there's a guy in Ennis that does 4x4 tyres.

CJhaughey

I have used Hankook Dynapro on my Landcruiser 90, I would rate them 1 step behind the BFG A/T in tread wear.
In the past I had fitted, Dunlop AT 20 and 21 (crap) Bridgestone Duelers (crap)
BFG Longtrail T/A very good but no longer made in the 265/70 size
No experience with Avon or Kumho
The General are supposed to be OK AFAIK.

TrailerBob

So went to an independent fitter for a bit more advice and ended up with a set of Michelin latitude cross terrains. Having seen them on the guy's own Navara after 20k miles I was impressed. Initial impressions after 60 miles -

Very low road noise at 120 kph, absorb the rumbles in the road well, and seem to hold very well in the corners. Hopefully they prove a decent buy. Paid €175 a corner, had to up the budget, but unless I wanted ditch finders, kinda had to!

101sean

That sounds like a good buy, they are a new tread pattern aren't they? Not seen them myself, Michelin 4x4 tyres used to be military biased and very expensive, new 255/100R16 XZLs for my 101 are around £350 each (I won't be buying!)

TrailerBob

Yeah they're pretty recent I believe. Quite aggressive for a 70% road tyre.



Not that the looks are a huge concern, but they look like a proper tyre.

CJhaughey

They look good and at that price its hard to look past them.

Top Dog

TrailerBob wrote: »

Bought 2 Bridgestone Duelers for it last year (never again, pathetic treadwear) at €149 each, same tyre, same fitter, now €185.

Are your sure your suspension is set up correctly?

Just ask as we've a pair of Duellers on the back of our yoke since we bought it (will be 2 years in October). Have done over 40k on them and there's still plenty of life left in them. In our case though its mainly tarmac driving with a lot of return journeys to Dublin so that may have helped. Have had to change the fronts though (Vredesteins) but they were fairly tired when we got it so that wasn't a surprise.

TrailerBob

Yeah suspension is bang on, I'm comparing them to vredestein wintracs that were on it before. Don't expect fronts to last great, being driven wheels, steering and a 3 litre lump sitting on top, but found the Bridgestones wore quicker than expected. Quite skittish in the wet too, especially standing water.

Bout 600 miles done on the michelins now. Pretty happy, even had them in the mud last weekend in Stradbally, did a solid job.

enricoh

oul lad put on a set of hankooks over a year ago on his cruiser, 130 each at the time, good as new still, had bridgesones on from new n got 65k outta them

E. Fudd

The Michelin latitude cross are a good tyre, I just changed from a set this week - 70,000kms up on them on my landcruiser and still technically legal! I changed to a set of BFG all terrains as I'm off road a bit during the shooting season and found the michelins not great off road when worn down a bit.

BTW, got the bfg's for €172 each fitted.

JohnBoy

have mentioned these before, but I have a set of hankook dyanpro RF10 AT-M tyres, had them on my frontera, and swapped them to my disco.

have around 20k on them so far and you wouldnt see it on them. they're cheap, but hard enough to come by, camskill seem to be the best option. I've yet to find them wanting, and I'd be similarly picky about my tyres, really saddens me to see so many places like you mentioned who now only sell linglongs and the like.

Yawlboy

Got a dunlop fitted for €150 in Cork last month.