Isuzu Trooper Owners Club UK™

ArgyBargy · * Joined: 26 May 2004 Posts: 16 Location: Herts

Had a chat with Colin at Scorpian Racing last week and thought you lot may be interested in his recommendations for my mk 2 LWB Bighorn.

I visited Scorpian looking for a good 'playday' tyre, thinking along the lines of Grabber AT2s. I'm after something good in mud but still acceptable on the road, ie. somewhere between an AT and an MT. I used to run Trac Edges on my Landrovers, which were a good compromise, but are no longer available.

Colin is of the opinion that ATs are not much use in UK mud as they clog up straight away, being more suited for the dry gravelly tracks found in Spain and the USA. The more extreme mud tyres are pretty hopeless on wet roads on particular, so not much good for a car that spends most of its time on the road. He recommended Goodyear Wrangler MT/R as being the closest equivalent to the Trac Edge and although it looks very aggressive he says it's road manners are better than many ATs. My other shortlisted tyre is the Discoverer ST - a more aggressive AT but not as capable as the Goodyear.

Also of interest was his size recomendation, one that no one on here seems to mention: 245/75/16. It's bigger diameter than the standard 245/70/16 for slightly improved axle clearance and would seem to be a better bet than the 235 size others have tried, whilst not giving any of the wheel arch clearance problems of the 265s. So his top choice was a 245/75/16 Goodyear Wrangler MT/R. He offered to fit one up for me to have a look at before I buy. All in all, he was very helpful and certainly knows his stuff. Definately worth a visit to their showroom in North London - loads of off road kit and not just for Landies.

Any thoughts to add before I decide?

Also worth a look at their website to see what Scorpian had to do to a BMW X5 to give it any chance of keeping up as a support vehicle to Charlie Boorman and co in the Dakar. See http://www.scorpionracing.co.uk/ Laughing

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Mick · Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 13:03 Post subject:

Hi ArgyBargy im looking for new tyres too but not sure about M/T over A/T id like the M/T (as I got stuck in a field the other week all 4 wheels spinning) im looking at bf goodridge, did they say anything about the M/T with regards to road nose or handling or extra fuel consumption.

Cheers

Mick

Philp · Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 14:24 Post subject:

Theres an article in this months landrover owner mag from one of their journalists and he reckons by changing from a set of (I think Goodyear) mud terrains to a set of General grabber AT2's he's getting another 2 to 3 mpg not an insignificant amount if you do a lot of road miles. Thats another 40 to 60 miles from a 20 gallon tank. He also said the grip in the wet was better and they are much quieter.
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Phil

96 or is it a 98 Isuzu Bighorn Lotus

ArgyBargy · * Joined: 26 May 2004 Posts: 16 Location: Herts

Mick - you've got it in one. MTs = more road noise & less road grip for braking in the wet. Handling not really affected unless you fit balloon size tyres, BUT can let go in wet corners if you go in too fast. Pretty hopeless on frosty lanes, but good in snow.

You have to ask yourself what you need your truck to do. If it spends most of its time going up the motorway, you need road tyres. If you only do a bit of mild greenlaning or playdays then ATs are perfectly acceptable. If, however, you want to go through the biggest bomb hole full of gooey mud, then only the best MT will do!

The problem comes when, like me, you do 99% of your miles, but still want to go for it in the mud. The best solution is to have 2 sets of wheels, 1 for the road and 1 with MTs for off road days. Personally, I don't want to change my wheels if I want to head for the mud so Im looking for that half way house solution that will be acceptable on road and not too bad off. As it's a LWB Trooper we're talking about, it's never going to do anything extreme as let's face it, it's not a 90. I don't want to knock the bumpers off, bust the gearbox cross member or dent the panels so do not really need full-on muds.

It's all down to what you want to do. MTs certainly look the business, but when they let go in the wet they can scare the hell out of you.

Philp · Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 15:09 Post subject:

Yep, as the man says, a set of cheap steel rims with maybe some remould mud terrains or even a more extreme pattern for weekend off road a,d either AT's or road biased tyres for day to day use is probably the best situation but obviously has costs, that said, a secondhand set of steel rims maybe froma breaker and something like a set of 4 colway remould muds shouldn't break the bank too much. I don't do anything extreme in mine and the Grabber AT2's do me niceley, they do clog in heavy mud but other than that are good all rounders.
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Phil

96 or is it a 98 Isuzu Bighorn Lotus

alwin · ** Joined: 15 Jun 2004 Posts: 93 Location: North Yorkshire

I am a big fan of Grabber AT2's I have 245/75x16 on my '99 SWB, they are a good compromise with reasonable road manners, and a good off road performance.
Definately recommended.
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Alwin

'99 3.0 Duty SWB " best 4x4 by far while it's running"

alwin · ** Joined: 15 Jun 2004 Posts: 93 Location: North Yorkshire

shinz · Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2006 2:15 Post subject:

We've just replaced the 245/70r16s that our Bighorn came with with a set of 245/75r16s in a tread pattern very similar to the BFG Tracedges. Here in NZ they go by the name variously of YKS & Compass, they're made in China, but are not a bad looking tyre, lots of siping so I'd imagine reasonable wet, icey grip. At around town speeds there is a slight thrum/ moan from them but at open road speeds (100kmh) they're not noisier than our previous tyres ( Hankook Dynapro AT) which I thought were quite a decent tyre. For what its worth, I think the 245/75 is an ideal size for the Bighorn without mucking gearing around too much, our speedo is if anything closer to the mark then it was. These tyres seem to drive well,& cost just over half the price of the above mentioned BFG & Goodyears. I don't expect to get more than about 40,000kms from them but then I'll have some new ones, not 1/2 worn BFGs. To date we've only done about 2500 km on them but they don't show any signs of wear yet. they balanced up well too.
What relevance has this to you guys in the UK?
I've seen the same tread pattern advertised as Westlake tyres by Eskay tyres in the UK, these links might be of use.
http://www.tyretradenews.co.uk/itma/page3.html
http://www.eskaytyres.com/
http://basic1.easily.co.uk/054027/022010/rad4x4wl.htm
The model is the CR857,
HTH, Cheers, Steve.
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95 Bighorn Fieldstar LS 3.1 TD