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Home > Wheels & Tyres > The age old question - AT or MT?

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newhue

Member Since: 28 Apr 2014
Location: Brisbane
Posts: 351

I am bias as Ill be buying BFG again,

But you read reviews, or talk to people and 90% seem happy with BFG. However when it comes to Cooper its more like 50%. Down here Coopers are always doing promos at 4x4 parks, in magazines, accompany articles in magazine trips, puncture reviews and so on being very public. BFG advertise, but in a non aggressive almost low key way. Coopers promote a 50K mile warranty. However you have to have them rotated and balanced by them every 6K mile. Not many do or want to do this. Cost, time and for what ever reasons the people I have met felt hoodwinked by the marketing.
I have read on a forum a couple instances people who have been declined warranty on newish Coopers because the tyre was used on a dirt road, delimited or chunks were ripped off. I'm not sure if this is true and there are other many variants here, but the tyre rotation, balance, inspection was involved. Coopers always seem to be marketing and in the spot light good to bad. But BFG just keep plodding along doing there thing, I haven't yet read or heard of a warranty issues with them. Again maybe why 90% seem happy.

I also run 33" wheels. So I only have BFG, Maxxis, or Coopers to choose from. I would by them in that order if that was the options available to me. My Defender and travels

6th Aug 2014 7:44pm

CFB

Member Since: 13 Sep 2007
Location: Bradford, West Yorkshire
Posts: 803

I would never run MT's if 90%+ of my use was on-road. You only need muds if you spend a lot of time in the stuff and even then you wont go massively further than a vehicle on AT's. The Cooper ST MAXX or Hankook Dynapro RF10 (very underrated yet superb tyre) will give a better all round drive IMO and still do well on the occasional off road trip Andy

6th Aug 2014 7:52pm

ZeDefender

Member Since: 15 Sep 2011
Location: Munich
Posts: 4731

2011 Defender 110 Puma 2.4 SW Baltic Blue

Pam W wrote:
The Cooper ST Maxx (not the STTs) are a very good 'middle ground' between an MT and an AT. They are classed as an AT, but the tread pattern is more biased to off-road than a normal AT.

I've just done 15K miles on a set on my Defender around Australia - mixed surfaces - and have been very pleased with them. Not noisy at all, handle really well on wet and dry bitumen, gravel, soft sand and light mud. Oh and no punctures !

I absolutely agree - hardly anyone seems to mention these tyres much but they have done everything I asked of them for more than 40,000 km and they still have as much life in them again

Tell someone you love them today because life is short.
But shout it at them in German because life is also terrifying and confusing...

6th Aug 2014 8:06pm

custom90

Member Since: 21 Jan 2010
Location: South West, England.
Posts: 20292

A vote for KM2's from me.

6th Aug 2014 9:02pm

jomara

Member Since: 26 Oct 2009
Location: Lanarkshire
Posts: 1790

2014 Defender 110 Puma 2.2 XS CSW Santorini Black

I have recently gone back to BFG ATs from General Grabber ATs, the BFG is much quieter and a more reassuring drive in the wet. 2014 110 2.2TDCi XS Station wagon
1971 Bowler Tomcat 88 4.2 V8 Auto
2022 110 D250 XS Edition - Gone
2024 110 D250 X-Dynamic HSE

6th Aug 2014 9:29pm

PCA42

Member Since: 15 Jun 2014
Location: Church Stretton
Posts: 468

2008 Defender 110 Puma 2.4 DCPU Tonga Green

newhue wrote:
have been declined warranty on newish Coopers because the tyre was used on a dirt road, delimited or chunks were ripped off. I'm not sure if this is true and there are other many variants here, but the tyre rotation, balance, inspection was involved. Coopers always seem to be marketing and in the spot light good to bad. But BFG just keep plodding along doing there thing, I haven't yet read or heard of a warranty issues with them. Again maybe why 90% seem happy.

I have heard about this, but from what I have read it was the previous Discover ST tyre that the ST Maxx replaced, that had the problems with chunking. Cooper say the Maxxs are designed to resist chunking, apparently. I certainly haven't experienced this myself on my set, and have used them on some very harsh rocky Welsh greenlanes without any punctures etc. So hopefully it means they have sorted their quality issues out with the latest tyres.

BFG have certainly got an excellent reputation, I was very pleased with my set of A/Ts and got 60k miles from them (even if they were a bit dicey on wet tarmac). But the A/T is a very old design now, and BFG don't offer a 'middle' tyre between the A/T and KM2 I believe, which is a shame. Pete

2010 Discovery 4 GS TDV6
1972 Series III 88" 2.25P

6th Aug 2014 9:36pm

Lambley

Member Since: 20 Apr 2013
Location: Mid Devon
Posts: 1435

Have you thought about Goodyear Wrangler Duratrac's?
I've got them on mine and they're perfect on and off road, another middle ground tyre between an all out mud tyre and an A/T, they are very quiet on roads and are snow rated

Not that looks matter at all.... But they look good too!

6th Aug 2014 9:41pm

blackwolf

Member Since: 03 Nov 2009
Location: South West England
Posts: 17336

2007 Defender 110 Puma 2.4 DCPU Stornoway Grey

Grenadier wrote:
...

Black wolf, good name, I guess this is your vehicle:

Click image to enlarge

Not exactly!

The one thing you can always be sure on is that if you ask "which tyres should I fit" you will NEVER get any form of agreement! There are many excellent tyres to choose from, and all you can really do is pick one (based on the many opinions you'll get) and see how you get on. In thirty or so years time, when you've tried a few different types, you'll know which suit you best.

7th Aug 2014 8:17am

roel

Member Since: 08 Aug 2009
Location: Lelystad
Posts: 2039

But in 30 years tires have changed completely. My first mud tires were very dangerous on wet roads. My 2.5 NA 1984 90 had power enough to do a 4 wheel drift on wet roads.
Even the Simexes have a lot more grip on wet roads and they will be beaten everytime on the road by BFG's. Roel

1984 90 2.5 na Diesel - RR V8 (1994-2001)
1997 Camel Trophy Discovery 300TDI (2001-2009)
2005 G4 Discovery III 4.4 V8 (2008-2018) It's gone but it still hurts.
2003 90 Td5 (2009-now)

7th Aug 2014 10:00am

Grenadier

Member Since: 23 Jul 2014
Location: The foot of Mont Blanc...
Posts: 5804

2011 Defender 110 Puma 2.4 DCPU Corris Grey

blackwolf wrote:
Grenadier wrote:
...

Black wolf, good name, I guess this is your vehicle:

Click image to enlarge

Not exactly!

The one thing you can always be sure on is that if you ask "which tyres should I fit" you will NEVER get any form of agreement! There are many excellent tyres to choose from, and all you can really do is pick one (based on the many opinions you'll get) and see how you get on. In thirty or so years time, when you've tried a few different types, you'll know which suit you best.

Agreed. I did expect a variety of thoughts and answers. Ten tears in the forces and I let the MT worry about these decisions. Shame you can't road test them. I have always thought BFGs, it was just the idea that if a specialist dealer in 4x4 Alloys recommends them, and despite my asking for the more expensive option, there might be something in it....I will take a final view once the 110 is bought. Many thanks all.... Monsieur Le Grenadier

I've not been everywhere, but it's on my list.....

2011 Puma 110DC - Corris Grey

7th Aug 2014 12:13pm

Axel

Member Since: 22 Jun 2011
Location: Bochum
Posts: 107

2012 Defender 90 Puma 2.2 SW Keswick Green

Cooper ST Maxx

Best Regards,

Axel

9th Aug 2014 4:25pm

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