The OE Wranglers showed their inadequacies in the mud and ruts around the Snowy Mountains in the rain last week, One has blown out the wall on both sides so I either need to buy one new Wrangler or replace 4 tyres with an all terrain tyre.

Has anyone any suggestion? I can find Michelin, Continental, Pirelli and Bridgestone in all terrain for the 17in rims. Dunlop and Goodyear only do road tyres in the right size.

I do regular good gravel roads and plenty of freeway and round town. I occasionally head for the out of the way fishing spots and need some off-road ability.

Thanks for your help.

I changed mine to a Bridgestone D694. A bit noisier but a lot stronger. Not the best in mud but good on rocks and dirt tracks for general strength. Work well in sand too. I've had mine for 30 000km and no chips or chunks missing, miles ahead of the Wranglers with their pathetic paper thin sidewalls.

I've got Geolander A/TS and they are excellent. A really good compromise for on and off road. The Geolander HT is crap though so don't fall for that.
Mike

Thanks for the advice. Further investiation has also found Cooper tyres with a recommendation.

The walls on the Wranglers are certainly paper thin. The stuffed tyre is cut on the outside and seems to have also split the wall on the inside 90 degrees away for the cut on the outside. I have no idea how I did it, it let go on the highway but was obviously damaged earlier.

The standard equipment jack makes changing a tyre hard work but at least it kept me warm in -3 degrees. It took about half an hour!

I do a lot of outback touring and I did 2 of the standard Wranglers out near Oodnadatta both in the sidewall. The Coopers are a decent tyre but I've heard the rocks chip the tread to bits, the rubber may be too hard? A guy in a Pajero at Mt Dare said you have to go the Cooper model 1 up from the AT (ST?) to get a tyre that can handle it. The Yoko Geolanders have been good and get a good wrap from anyone who has them. Another guy who goes to Bourke and beyond a lot has done about 14 trips on his Yoko's with no chipping.
Anyway, you can be unlucky with any tyre. Also I bought an exhaust jack that lifts the whole car up and its so much better than the standard. Works in mud and sand as well.
Really sucks the price we have to pay for the size....$300+ each when bigger tyres on smaller rims ie more rubber can be half the price.
Mike

Pirelli Scorpions ATR have the best reviews and I bought a set over a year ago. They have been used on Fraser island and in the Victorian high country: sand and rock, and performed well. So well, in fact, that I am putting on a new set to do the Simpson desert next month.

I certainly recommend them.

I´m happy with this tires:

https://www.freel2.com/gallery/displayimag...amp;pos=27 HSE TD4, Auto, alpaca, matt black&carbon fibre wrapping, 235/65 R17 Conti CrossContact AT, 60mm H&R wheel spacers, Matzker sump guard, self-build side protection tubes, tinted headlamps, smoked side repeaters, auxiliary head lamps, caliper unit matt black powder-coated, colour coated front grille (without LR badge), side vents, light housing, Kuda iPhone console, car cigar jack in boot, „Black Rope“ dash trim kit, …

I had coopers ATR. Fantastic tyre no problems at all and just made such a difference offroad.

Dorko

Hey RVG, How did the Simpson trip go? I was there a few weeks ago and a LOT of water especially in front of Big Red. How much fuel did you use? Mike

Hi all

The Simpson Desert trip was great. I went with a mate in a Landcruiser and we travelled from Canberra via the Flinders Ranges, where we did a quick circuit then on to Parachilna for the Feral Mixed Grill. had a paddle in Lake Eyre then on to Dalhousie - where it bucketed down with rain and flooded the Simpson. Before we left Dalhousie a group came in from the desert with a tale of woe. All three were towing large trailers. A Triton ended up in a banana hape and two of them had burned out their winches.

We gave things a day to dry out and then left for Birdsville. The first section, across to Purni Bore, had kilometre long flooded sections and long deep muddy sections. What was flooded turned out to be firm underneath, but the muddy sections needed to be bypassed.

Our trip across was via the scenic route: Dalhousie, Purni Bore, Rig Road, Airstrip, WAA line, Erebena Track, The Lone Gum, Rig Rd, Knolls Track, French Line, Poeppels Corner and on to Biordsville (taking the southern bypass at Eyre Creek).

I used Mud and Ruts extensively and never needed the sand setting. Near Poeppels Corner there were flooded claypans around which detours had to be made.

At one stage I overheard some "real" men talking about the Freelander and saying how surprised they were that it was keeping up with them.

When in tracks, the technique in the mud was, generally, to stay in the ruts and keep going with speed. About 25 km/hr was about right. On the big clay pans it paid to walk out first. Sometimes the ruts were too deep and one had to improvise.

On the dunes the Freelander went well. Again, the technique was to use some speed. The Freelander accelerates quickly so it did not need a long run up, but it did pay to keep moving. At times the car used the bumps and was able to bounce along the top of them. Perhaps the shorter wheelbase was a help.

At the top of many dunes the road did a sharp turn so it paid to get to the crest with just enough speed to get over it. Too much speed could lead to embarrassment.

At the end of the trip I had some minor damage. The brackets at the front of the fuel tank had bent backwards and one of them had hit the fuel tank in the region of the fuel sensor. This made the fuel gauge reading wrong. The tank was showing 3/4 full when in fact it was filled up.

This had an unfortunate side effect which I did not learn about until half way between Windorah and Quilpie. There was fuel in the tank but the meter, and therefore the computer, said there wasn't, so the computer shut the car down when the the range went down to zero. No matter how much I told it there really was fuel in the tank the computer told the car not to go anywhere. So I waited until a road train went past and I could buy some fuel off him. He had over 2,000 litres on board so 50 litres for me was neither here nor there, but I gave him $100 for stopping.

Great trip. The vehicle went well. The Pirellis handled the mud and the sand without problems.

The vegetatiobn was really good and I would recommend the trip to everyone.

Fuel wise, I used about 10.2 litres/100km on the highway. That would be the roof rack and spare tyres. In the desert I used a little over 16l/100km. The moral is to take plenty of fuel.

Robert

PS I pulled out the Landcruiser. (Not entirely his fault. He was the lead vehicle and the guinea pig.) I did not need to be pulled out of any mud, but I did have to dig myself out at one stage.

Thanks mate a good story. How many Jerry cans did you carry? Sounds like it would have been about 600kms Mt Dare to Birdsville so about 100 litres of fuel? Mike

A great trip log RVG; it should silence some of the doubters What we need is someone to come up with a minimal lift kit to improve clearance and the world is ours. (well some of it anyway )
Rob 2009 TD4 SE, Alaska White, Ebony Leather, Sun Roof.

I'm on for a lift kit. Mine has had parts of the exhaust cut out and replaced due to big dents from rocks. When it was on the hoist it looked like someone had belted the underside with a hammer. Fortunately I haven't relocated the fuel tank though. Mike

First time out I "re-profiled" the plastic fuel tank and brackets.
Very soon after fitted a Mantec tank guard, OK it robs you of even more precious ground clearance (about 20mm) but it is substantial. Being 100 miles from home and a ruptured fuel tank doesn't sound like a good way to finish a weekend off-road.
Would love a 2" lift but SWMBO is only 1.4m tall and would need a ladder to get in

RVG - loved the write up, very jealous. Tangiers Orange - gone, missing her
Replaced by Ewok what a mistake - now a happy Disco Sport owner

Thanks for the comments. It was a great trip.

Fuel consumption was

Canberra to Mt Dare 2,848.3 km at 10.2l/100km
Mt Dare to Birdsville 672 km at 15.3l/100km (Over 16l/100km in the desert)
Birdsville to Canberra 1933.5 km at 10.3l/100km


The highway consumption was just over 10l/100km. I had a Rhino roof rack on with jerry cans sticking up, and travelling at about 110kmh on the sealed outback roads, so that would account for the high fuel consumption.

An extra 60 litres of fuel was carried.

The damaged fuel sensor was a potential problem. Imagine if, with the tank full, the computer thought it was only 1/4 full. In that case after using quarter of a tank the computer would calculate the car as being out of fuel and stop the vehicle. That would mean that 45 litres of fuel in the tank was not accessible.

But apart from that the Freel went well.