Which Tyre - HT or MT

[NowForThe5th]

HI, I am going away for 8 weeks towing my caravan, will be driving 95% on road 5% on sand, What tyres are best I dont go offroad any other time , may do a little on my trip.
Tyres are needed before I go.
Anyones thoughts appreciated

[coxy47]

Gday mate.

A set of HT tyres will be our best bet. They will handle the sand better then an AT or a muddy since the won't dig down as much. Just make sure to lower your pressures.

The only advantage i see for your case with an AT or muddy is their extra strength/ durability

[davebo]

reckon your right coxy - not much point in putting AT's or MT's on them if you're not going off road. save yourself the $$$ and stick with the road tyres!

[Homer]

There are plenty of threads on this barra. Have a search in the directory in my sig line if you want to find it

For what it's worth, Bridgestone D694 AT's and Cooper Zeon LTZ are about the best road tyre I've come across. Better than all HT's I've seen for these cars. I too was surprised and always used HT's for road and a bit of sand driving like you.

In sand they are at least 95% as good as the HT's IMO, and much better than the HT's for other off road use but I'm buying them again for the on road performance.

They do cost a bit more but for road grip - particularly wet road - you wont find better. They will last longer than your factoy Bridgestone HT's too if you rotate them.

[barra97]

Thanks Homer Coxey47 and Davebo, I,m not sure if I am any wiser, I have just priced the D694 at my local dealer at $330 each S&F, does that sound like its on the money?

[Homer]

To make it easy, the D694's or Cooper LTZ's are a better all round tyre including on road and wet weather if compared to the factory HT's.

You may find better HT's than the factory ones (I don't personally know of any but there may be some) but if yours are 17's the options are limited. It also makes any tyre more expensive.

The trade off in performance is probably cost of the HT's compared to the other two I mentioned and that is where you need to make up your own mind. Keep in mind the AT's 'should' give better mileage if rotated.

I've given you a reasonable rundown above as far as rating their performance. There may also be other very good AT's for on road but I can vouch that those two are definitely very good and better than the factory tyres - as tested by hoons.

Pick the tyre you want and shop them between dealers for pricing.

[Cowboy Dave]

Sounds about right depending on size. Make sure you get the LT construction if towing regularly. They'll ride a bid harder but they're a tougher tyre. The 694s tend to go on sale fairly frequently so it's well worth ringing around before proceeding further. Kmart auto were advertising some sort of $100 cashback on tyres this morning on the radio. Not where I'd usually go for tyres but every cent counts these days.

[davebo]

i generally get my tyres from payless tyres.. they seem to know what they are on about and will generally out-do any other quoted prices you get.. but that might just be my local guy.

don't really know much about road tyres... have always ran either BFG all terrains or mudders.... but thats a totally different ball game...

[barra97]

Thanks everyone, I think I will go with the D694 in the LT which means I go to 255.65.17 which gives me the correct load rating as the 245 load rating is less than the stock HT which is 111, the 245 are 107 and the 255 are 114

[Longranger1]

Thanks everyone, I think I will go with the D694 in the LT which means I go to 255.65.17 which gives me the correct load rating as the 245 load rating is less than the stock HT which is 111, the 245 are 107 and the 255 are 114

Good luck getting that size in D694LT's. Seem to be darned near impossible to find. That's why I went to 265/65-17's.

It is a far more common fitment i.e. prado's etc.

[thunderace]

Now before I get shot down, I've tried using the search function !!, I might just be crap at it !
I've got a MN GLX-R @ 45,000km on the original tyres that are finished. I do 95% tar road driving, triton is used to pull the boat and camping gear on dirt roads for the 5%. I can't seem to find any info on expected life for the original bridgestones or alternatives (I looked at the tyre survey thread but everyone is talking about AT's or MT's)

From what I've read I should go up to 265/65/R17 from 245/65/R17

Whats are people experience with good mileage HT tyres with good road characteristic, realise that most people here use there Triton for off-roading but seem pointless to get AT's when i don't need them (unless I can get better mileage from them)

Thanks

Stuart

[NowForThe5th]

Thunderace, using Search is an acquired skill, but having a go gets points. See here for the results of a search using the keywords "ht tyres", enclosed in quotation marks so the search engine looks for it as a phrase first, rather than ignoring the 'ht' as too short.

From that search I've moved your post to this thread where the OP asks almost the same question as yours.

In terms of life from the factory tyres, probably an average would be around 50,000km - depends very much on how you drive. There are much better quality highway tyres than the factory ones but, like anything, there's a trade off if you want long life. Coopers, for example will give warranty up to 80,000km but the compound is harder. This is common among the US brands while the Japanese brands tend to use a softer compound, so stickier and better in the wet, but not as long life.

Construction type makes a big difference, too. LTs will usually last much longer. Having said that, the same tyres that looked like going 80,000km on my Triton are almost down to the wear bars on my Pajero after 40,000km, despite being LTs. I had a similar problem on my MK where BFGs were shot after about 40,000km, too. I put this down to some tyres being better suited to some cars - weight and suspension type are crucial factors. With that in mind it's best to go on experiences from owners of the same vehicle as yours. What works on a Toyota may not work on a Mitsubishi.