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Another tyre/tire question but please read!

Ilyak

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Feb 9, 2016
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13
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uk
I have a 5.7L lc200. Winter has just arrived in the UK and I plan to go skiing later in Europe. I also drive over muddy fields, sometimes towing something occasionally but most of the use is on tarmac. I live up a steep long private drive which gets leaf covered and I have towed my neighbour's BMW X6 out in winter with the 100 before so I need winter traction/braking. I have hangkook ventus a/s 285/60r18 which came with vehicle and despite not looking very aggressive they're really not bad, quietly coped with mud my 100 with much more aggressive tyres slid on (but electronic traction may have helped) - last winter skiing resort snowed in day we left, other cars sliding, just quietly drove out no fuss, handle pretty well on road. But despite that I was looking to upgrade and get something better for snow (expect a heavy winter here) and possibly try 285/65/r18 which apparently just fit. Problem is tyres should have an H (or V) speed rating (130mph) and a lot of all terrain or all season are lower R or S or even Q. Not academic as I will and do drive for hours across Europe with 7 or 8 and luggage at 120mph plus and that's asking for trouble on an under-rated tyre. Pirelli have all season verde, expensive, poor reviews and don't look like they'll be any good in mud. Can anyone suggest a magic tyre that will perform on snow/ice and mud and has an H rating, and available in UK. There is toyo open country u/t with some positive feedback. I'm looking at possibly just going for hangkook again.
 
If I remember correctly my BFG Ko2's I have on my 80 are H rated and while i really like them on snow and ice my experiance with the BFG Ko I had fitted before them in mud leads me to think they are not that good in mud, tread got clogged very easily, however if you believe the press release the Ko2 is supposed to be improved in mud.
 
Driving at 120mp/h is askingk for trouble at any season...especialy winter time...especialy not a sedan type of vecihle.:)
If you find that magic tire let me know.
If there was no mud reqirement I would sugges Bridgestone LM1

P.S. I'm sure you already know there are NO good tires for ice...just like there are no good drivers on ice:)
 
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Where you from llyak ? just so you know 120mph in Britain will get you arrested , I'm not sure about Europe but i can tell you that at 80mph i was traveling faster than most from UK to Romania and back .

120 kph = 75 mph , perhaps you have mixed these up ?
 
You know when I think of it Shayne in my youth I have regularly traveled at speeds that I cant now that I live in the UK and I am both older and wiser now, the roads are too congested in Europe for sustained high speed travel.

Come to think of it 120 mph is only 192 kph and many of the roads I used to drive I could cruise at 200 kph (indicated) of course there is a price to pay for such exuberance usually increased maintenance and certainly increased fuel consumption damage to the wallet :)
Back in the bad old days the penalty for speeding in RSA was usually monetary unless you were involved in an accident that involved loss of life, that could result in a custodial sentence.

But back to tyres now must stay on subject, I do not think there is such a AT that combines off road ability with formula 1 track standards ;)
 
General Grabber AT (not AT2) have a H speed rating.
I've seen them on newer Range Rovers, capable of cruising comfortably and safely at 120mph, as is a 5.7l LC 200 I would have thought?
 
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Thanks everyone. I did mean 120mph. We're heading across Germany where I like to keep up - we did trip in a Q7 Couple of years ago with sustained stretches at 130-140mph and (in a sportier car) I had the immense satisfaction of legally overtaking a police car which was itself doing about 140mph at about 150 on the autobahn up to garmisch. But anyway I am about to go for 5x 285/65r18 cooper discoverer at3 tyres. They have a 125S rating(112mph) and having spoken to a tyre expert I believe the speed rating is at full rated load so cruising well under tyre rated load for stretches at 110-120mph should be fine. They get rave reviews in US on web for snow performance as well as generally (albeit mainly by dodge ram drivers) and being slightly oversized still fit in spare well and without rubbing I believe. If anyone is interested I will let you know how I get on.
 
Driving at 120mp/h is askingk for trouble at any season...especialy winter time...especialy not a sedan type of vecihle.:)
If you find that magic tire let me know.
If there was no mud reqirement I would sugges Bridgestone LM1

P.S. I'm sure you already know there are NO good tires for ice...just like there are no good drivers on ice:)

Driving at 120 on German autobahn is actually fine and perfectly safe but totally agree re ice- if you get reasonable "ice traction" it rarely seems to translate in any vehicle into corresponding "ice braking" and physics means you just carry more kinetic energy into the accident! The 120mph and snow requirements were not meant to be simultaneously exercised!
 
If anyone is interested I will let you know how I get on.
Do please let us know. Also, where did you get them.

I chuckled at the overtaking story. Nothing quite as frustrating as overtaking the police in the UK at 70.5mph :)
 
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Here they are about to fit compared to the Hangkook ventus AS which is on the vehicle and the (brand new) Michelin latitude spare off and horizontal. They look big off the vehicle and compared to spare but they're only a little larger, I hope they fit ok, size calculator says only 3% or about an inch extra diameter...
 
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So they fit, just, two of them needed 230g to balance, I was helping the mobile fitter and we could feel his van shake when we first spun them up! Took them up to a little over 100mph and almost silent on road, grip seems ok, drove across a wet grassy field at about 30-40mph and felt reasonably good. Not blown away by grip, got it to break away on both wet tarmac and on grass but do seem reasonable and better than previous. Now eager to upgrade suspension to reduce nose diving on braking. Have them slightly overinflated, from US tyre tables should probably be 36-40psi (stock 33) - fitter set to 43 and I haven't yet reduced, surprised they got up to 47 very quickly, probably in a minute (almost straight from pub onto motorway) suggesting they heat up quickly but then stabilised. Now I just wait for snow...
 
Bf goodrich AT / KO 2 comes with M+S indication and snowflake on tyrewall.
Is accepted in germany, austria as a wintertyre.
If you have snowflake on your tyrewall, you never have a problem in these country's.
I have them on my car summer and winter, and next year before wintertime i am changing for the third time to te same tyre. They last over 100.000 km !!
 
So I was just going to say I was pretty impressed with wet grip/braking and then we just had a brief dusting of snow and town near me (Sevenoaks) came to a complete standstill as we were in car full of kids heading out for food undeterred. Luckily I had abandoned my attempt to swap shocks earlier today and asked garage to do it next week thinking I might need it tonight. Cars sliding everywhere. A RAV4 in front of me was sliding then abandoned, possibly in part because its driver was an idiot - she shouted at my partner "what are you going to do all these cars are stranded, how are you going to get past" when she politely asked her not to stand in the middle of the road after ditching her car and my partner said "don't worry, this car is awesome, it's not a problem" and we calmly drove past a load of abandoned cars, including having to mount a kerb to avoid one stranded car, with barely even a shimmy, uneventfully overtook a load of hesitant cars going through the messier stuff up a hill. Eventually got home and found my neighbour's BMW X6 abandoned on a corner half way up the drive and drove past without a fuss. Thought I might need to use crawl for steep virgin snow but no fuss. Of course it still slides a bit (experimentally tested braking limits frequently) particularly on icy patches, and I drove what I considered cautiously, particularly when carrying momentum towards corners or down slopes, but the tyres were pretty good by comparison to everything else on the road. Next trick Bilsteins all round and 354mm front brakes from 2016 model...

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The Discoverer is normally OK for the first winter season only, if Cooper hasn't made any big changes lately. By the second year they get too hard to get a good grip, so look out for that next year. KO2 seems to be superior, also when it comes to puncture resistance. None of these two are dedicated snow/ice/winter tyres tho'. Any Nokian or Yokohama Nordic type of studless winter tyre would be better on snow and ice, but no good at 120 mph on the Autobahn.
 
I didn't want to start YET another tyre thread so thought I would tag on here....
I have Michelin Latitude Tour HP tyres on Amazon 100. when changing them, I am not sure whether to stick with them or go for ATs or something a bit more chunky. Do people rate the Michelin Latitudes for tarmac use? Is there a noticeable difference in handling (and perhaps MPG) when swapping to something more like GG or BFG ATs?
I don't off road much but occasional shooting in fields, towing boat up slippery slope, a few tracks to out of reach (for most people!) fishing marks. Other than that it's all tarmac country roads. Anyone care to advise a new LC owner if its best to stick with road tyres until seriously going off road a lot, or if the cross purpose rubber is barely any different on the tarmac, in which case I would opt for something a bit more manly looking and manly behaving :)
 
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You got one then? Cant comment on road tyres only had bfg at's and muds on the 80
 
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