Tyre Topic: Bridgestone Dueller AT D697

[nj swb]

This Tyre Topic is for members to post about Bridgestone Dueller AT D697. Post your thoughts on grip, noise, wear, airing down, or anything else you consider of interest to other members.

Bridgestone Dueller AT D697.



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[rykiel575]

Got a new set of these the other day from Costco.

Costco had them for $215 each fitted. Then went to Jax for a wheel alignment.
(They also had K02s for $300 fitted, but i couldn't personally justify the difference).

Costco offer lifetime balancing (which saves me the hassle of having to do it).
Bridgestone are currently offering $100 off a set of 4, so it worked out pretty well.

My current rubbers are D697s as well but they are fairly worn. The worst one (passenger front) had about 1mm off from the wear markers. The others were about 2-2.5mm off.

The Pajero now is much quieter and also seems to be more comfortable.

[2bad4u]

I’m on my second set of 697s. My only complaint is the road noise when they start to wear.

[Dicko1]

Can people put their mileage up? Pretty useless topic without mileage figures. My 697,s are at 40,000klms. I tow a fair bit and rotate often. I reckon I will get about 70,000 out of them. Excellent on bitumen but use a different set of rims and tyre make for off road trips as my experience with them on dirt wasn't good. Chipped easily and weak side walls saw me stake 2 in just a few hundred klms. Cheap enough tyre and suits the climate and roads of around Cairns as a daily tyre . Fine in the wet as well. In the wet up here I always drive in 4wd High.

[Garc]

Had my set of 697s for 2.5 years and est 50K Kms incl lots of off-road. Just changed them as I want new rubber for some coming trips. Prob had 5 to 10K left in them. Never had staking or bits missing. Did get noisy after about 45K kms. Got the same again (partly because I have the spare and a second spare 697s)

[2bad4u]

To me, milage is somewhat irrelevant as it can vary so much depending on other factors. How often do you rotate and balance? How often do you have a wheel alignment? Do you only have 4 or do your rotate a 5th (spare tyre) into the mix? You get the idea..

Personally, I don't rotate my tyres and get them balanced maybe once or twice in their life time along with a wheel alignment at the same time. FWIW my rears lasted 45000km and fronts 65000km. I replaced the rears 45k and they are now on the front when they needed replacing at 65k.

When looking for new tyres I take no notice of claimed milage, what is important to me is price, handling & noise levels. The only reason I have the 697s is the price. If they cost more or I wasn't such a tight wad, I wouldn't be running them and would look for something better.

[p12345]

27k - been great up till last trip. Great dirt and road tyre, wet or dry... But a load road noise is now coming in from 80kmh to 100... LAst trip bacl along the newel 40 degrees -- air con blow full blast and road noise --- wife an I couldn't hear the radio! As I head into retirement I plan a lot more long trips... but the noise is unbearable ATM. no noise around town... Picked a Bolt through the middle of the tyre around Moree. around 10mm shank... nothing would have withstood that!!

[_jp_]

My last D697's lasted 55,000kms. This was with 5 wheel rotation about every 10,000km.
I could have got another 5-10,000km from them however I normally change tyres before they get too bad. I was happy with this and am currently on my 2nd set of D697's.

[MiteeWidge]

Have had no issues after 60,000k. Possibly another 20 k left in them but will change out well before then. Id rather loose 5 0r 10 k in a trade off for a little more assurance. Good in the wet and on dirt but can't comment on how they go in the mud. Other's have commented about the increased noise as they age but I think that would be the case for most A/T tyres. I reckon they are a good compromise for what you pay for them. The other factor that will sway me to purchase same again is the Bridgestone dealer here in Townsville [Garbutt]. Young fellow who seems to run the show is always courteous and good to deal with.

[Alex86]

After using the previous 694s on the Escape for 7 years/72,000km, spare untouched, and being extremely happy with them I decided to get the 697s. Overall I’m fairly happy with the 697s.

The 697s have been on the Escape since June 2015, and they’ve done approximately 42,000kms. Mostly highway including probably 4-5000km towing ~1100kg.; plenty of corrugations; bit of Pilbara rock, and a good bit of sand too. Real, proper mud is something I’ve not driven in with them.

Wearing evenly. No puntures or other issues.

Rotate all 5 generally every 5,000 (give or take a little; may have been lazy once or twice and done it at 10,000 instead).

Yes there’s a little road noise, but I’m also in an older car that’s a bit noisy anyway; especially with racks/bars/lights etc creating wind noise. Honestly most of the time I don’t hear the tyres, especially if the stereo is going (and not particularly loud either).

The only hint of disappointment for me is wet bitumen. Whilst the grip is pretty good, I have them unstick before the previous model 694s seemed to; I was incredibly impressed with the wet weather behaviour of those and that’s one reason I went the 697s hoping they’d be the same.
Mind you, I still have to make them unstick (ie drive harder/foot down harder round a corner; more than I do in the dry anyway). They haven’t surprised me unexpectedly though!


I also put a set of 697s straight onto the shorty soon after I purchased it (Nov 2015 if I recall, not sure right now how many Ks it’s done since). That’s only getting 4 wheel rotations at the mechanics unfortunately. But it’ll be an interesting comparison to see how long it compares to a 5 wheel rotation.

[carnut1100]

Near new set on the Paj when I bought it about 20,000km ago.

Drives nice.
Performs well off road.
I have staked a sidewall, and had some pretty severe chipping off road.
I’m not sure I’d buy them again, but I don’t hate them either.
Next set will probably be Falken Wildpeak or Hankook Dynapro.

[bennyb29]

I am on my second set of D697s. Previous set lasted me a little over 60k kms, and 0 punctures. Without a doubt I asked for the same for my second set. Lifetime rotation and balancing from the dealer continues to make this an easy decision for me.

Most of my use is on regular roads as a touring vehicle, and the remaining being beach off-roading, and trail driving once in a while. I surely don't engage in hardcore 4WDing like many others here, so my usage pattern would be different.

[Terryo]

Just put my third set on in November. First set did 55K which included a 16K trip to Kimberlys, Broome and back.
Second set did 60K which included a 5K trip to Camerons Corner, Bidsville etc.
As well as shorter weekend and trips up to a couple of weeks.
1 puncture in that time caused by something that looked like a metal golf Tee at Wolf Creek Crater.

Plenty of them on vehicles out and about. In Marree the tyre shop sells only them and 1 other brand when we were there last September. (Gettting a Cooper fixed on the Tvan.) So two Bridgestones must have run over what ever flattened the Cooper

Terry

[Skexis]

Thread necro but hey, why not.

I've a set on my NP that were fairly new when I bought it two years ago and they've still got around 50%tread left. Done about 25k in this time. Tbh I've found them noticeably noisier than the Maxxis 751's I had on my NK bit the Maxxis had a more highway than AT tread pattern.

Would I buy another set? Dunno. Depends what else is on offer at the time.

[old Jack]

The thread is not dead, it is purely trying to get an single location for people to post their experiences with a particular tyre.

There is a list of other threads at the bottom of the page which discuss this tyre but the largest thread on this tyre is not listed. At 362 post over 37 pages there is a lot of good and bad feedback about these tyres.

https://www2.pajeroclub.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=27966

An update on my post #312 of the above thread;
In June 2020 there was a group of 10 SA forumites exploring the tracks at Bendleby Ranges, this is steep, rocky, hard country similar to the Flinders Ranges, so all vehicles required reduced tyre pressures. We had 2 tyre failures amongst our group, all travelled the same tracks. M&M did a Mickey Thompson Deegan 38 which is a passenger construction lightweight AT tyre and Ticky did a shoulder on a D697 in a LT265/60R18 114.

The D697 is this size is meant to be LT construction but the 114 load index is equivalent to a extra load XL passenger construction tyre, so these tyres have soft sidewalls shoulders and tread and will fail if taken off road more often than other tyres. Of the 10 vehicles on this trip, 3 others have had D697 tyres before, all have had these tyres with non-repairable damage on group trips over the last few years. The other 8 vehicles were all fitted with 10ply rated LT heavy duty tyres of various brands and models.

OJ.