Tyre wear from the Cape

[Symon]

Thought this might be interesting to compare.  As some of you know I fitted a brand new set of Mickey Thompson 4-Rib ATZ 285/75R16 tyres on my truck days before heading up.

Now that I'm back I thought it would be interesting to see how much they have worn down from new, so I got the ruler out.

Brand new tread depth from centre of the tread at 40PSI - 15mm
Rear tyre tread depth from centre of the tread at 40PSI - 13.5mm
Front tyre tread depth from centre of the tread at 40PSI - 14mm

Odometer on tyres - 6,400km

Granted most of the distance is on the blacktop, but considering how heavily loaded the truck was in the rear (especially on the way back) I'm pretty happy with it.  How did everyone else go?

[GeoffA]

Hi Symon,

This is timely. I had mine balanced, rotated, and aligned today.

I bought 6 285/75x16 BFG KM2's at Easter, in preparation for the trip. The 2 on the rear carrier haven't been roaded yet.

Brand new tread depth from centre of the tread at 40PSI - 15mm
Rear tyre tread depth from centre of the tread at 40PSI - 12.5mm
Front tyre tread depth from centre of the tread at 40PSI - 13mm

Odometer on tyres - 13,650km (roughly 10,000km were towing the camper on the Cape trip)

Looks like the wear rates on mine are very similar to yours.

Cheers,
Geoff

[Symon]

Interesting figures Geoff, I would say you are doing slightly better than me since you would have been carrying more weight for longer too.  It was only on the way back when I was towing paulp's camper that the cruiser was really loaded up.

[GeoffA]

Interesting figures Geoff, I would say you are doing slightly better than me since you would have been carrying more weight for longer too.  It was only on the way back when I was towing paulp's camper that the cruiser was really loaded up.

I dunno Symon. You're carrying a fair bit of gear on your truck. Your storage lockers and bull bar are serious gear.

Our rolling weight was certainly up there, but there really wasn't that much weight on the Patrol. There was very little extra stuff in the back, as the trailer storage allows us to keep a lot of load out of the car. A small fridge, roller drawers, some spares and recovery gear, our clothes, and camera gear was all we had in the back. The camper puts 150-160kg on the tow bar......not a big deal.

[Symon]

That's a good thought Geoff, now that I think about it the 'cruiser is about 3200kg unloaded, so with all the stuff I had on the back would add about 400kg, and I also had 120L of water in the tanks.  So with Brendan and I in the cab the lot would probably tip the scales close to 4000kg....

[StephenKylie]

We put MT 4 Ribs on our patrol as well and went to the Cape towing an All Terrain Camper Trailer. (we caught up with the "My Swag" group along the way) I didn't actually measure the wear but was impressed that it was barely noticeable. We went home to Newcastle through Outback Queensland and traveled 9263kms. Possibly3500kms was on dirt roads. The tyres were fantastic, performing flawlessly. Glad we made this choice.

[jetcrew]

Symon,GeoffA

Seems you both had o.5mm difference from front to back ,shows the importance of rotating tyres when doing lots of towing,

Jet

[hunjy]

Symon and StephenKylie
I too have put the MT 4 ribs in 265's and they would be one of the better tyres I have had on my 4wds.
We have returned from a 6 week cape trip 4 weeks ago towing an Adventure camper and did 10,000kms from Newcastle and had the exact same wear as Symon.
The tyres were new for the trip. The fronts showed minimal cuts if any, where the rears showed light cuts and a few shallow chips.
Bad points about these tyres are they're a bit pricey but I guess you get what you pay for.
For my next set I would have these tyres at the top of the list.
Also had new BFG,s on the camper and they are showing next to no wear and tear for their toil.

Cheers
Mal