265/60 r18 LT tyres

[johnandcass]

I've read as many threads as I can find on this and want any opinions or latest advice on 265/60 R18's fitted to my NT. I am currently running Hankook RF10 and very happy with them 90,000 km done, and not yet time to replace with great noise, handling in dry and wet and gravel/dirt and pretty good on sand. I do probably 90% onroad or gravel and the rest dirt tracks & beach.



I am getting ready to take off on an extended trip through NW WA and NT, and back to SW WA via the Great Central Road towing a 1,000kg ATM jayco finch. I am not doing the Gibb River Road. I'll be replacing all 4 before I go as part of trip preparations. Load will be 2 adults, 2 kids, then 20L diesel, spare caravan 14" steel wheel and tyre and gazebo on the roof, plus a 40L fridge and 40 l water plus assorted bits and pieces including 2nd batery in the rear. Not a massive load, but not light either.



I am leaning towards replacing them with the hankook RF10 again which look to be around $280 per corner. or perhaps I should go LT. in my size AT options appear to be:

Mickey Thompson All Terrain 38 LT $380/corner

Cooper AT3 LT $420/corner.



So, given my expected usage including great central road, should I stump up the extra $400-500 when I have had such a great experience with the RF10's.

thanks



ps, although I wouldn't be able to change it myself, I plan on taking a spare carcass and tube for the trip given the unusual rim size. This should mean that I'm not stuck for a week or more getting another tyre if I shred two, but only a couple of days to get a lift to nearest mechanic to change the carcass.

[old Jack]

Hi John,


It is the Great Central Road which is the most concern for you and rightly so, 1100kms of corrugated dirt with very little support or exit points. I would be concerned with not only tyres on the Pajero but also the Jayco Finch with 14" rims, so is this the on road or the semi off road "outback" version?

You will not be that lightly loaded, start adding up your weights on the rear axle,
50% of the weight of the front seat passengers.
100% weight of the rear seat passengers.
Weight of Fridge loaded.
Weight of battery in rear cargo area.
Gazebo on the roof.
40 litres of water
20 litres of diesel.
Spare tyre carcass.
Towball weight + 40% (the weight transfer from the front axle)
Other stuff like that everyone "needs' in the car when they are traveling.

It all adds up really quickly!

This will come in around the 500kg mark so you will be very close to GVM.
Is rear suspension up to carrying these loads off the bitumen?

How set are you on going home via the great central road rather than the long bitumen way down through SA and back across the Nullarbor?
This decision will have the greatest influence on tyre selection!


OJ.

[johnandcass]

Hi John,


It is the Great Central Road which is the most concern for you and rightly so, 1100kms of corrugated dirt with very little support or exit points. I would be concerned with not only tyres on the Pajero but also the Jayco Finch with 14" rims, so is this the on road or the semi off road "outback" version?

You will not be that lightly loaded, start adding up your weights on the rear axle,
50% of the weight of the front seat passengers.
100% weight of the rear seat passengers.
Weight of Fridge loaded.
Weight of battery in rear cargo area.
Gazebo on the roof.
40 litres of water
20 litres of diesel.
Spare tyre carcass.
Towball weight + 40% (the weight transfer from the front axle)
Other stuff like that everyone "needs' in the car when they are traveling.

It all adds up really quickly!

This will come in around the 500kg mark so you will be very close to GVM.
Is rear suspension up to carrying these loads off the bitumen?

How set are you on going home via the great central road rather than the long bitumen way down through SA and back across the Nullarbor?
This decision will have the greatest influence on tyre selection!


OJ.

OJ, thanks for the detailed and thought out post.
I bought the jayco second hand and while it doesn't have the 'outback' sticker, it is also missing any model sticker apart from a tiny '20 year anniversary' decal so the lak of 'outback' may not mean much. The suspension is definitely higher than a standard jayco of that vintage and the cupboards are screwed in place rather than nailed which is apparently also a difference in vans of that vintage.
I've had the local 4WD shop have a good look at suspension and chassis and their advice is that for the Great Central Road and ones like it, if taken with some care it would be fine. The tyres on it are 195R14 C tyres, which I understand are a commercial/light truck tyre.
I also had a full (90,000km) service on the pajero including a suspension check and they know the van and trip details.
I will look at axle loadings, but was planning on putting most weight in the car as the van only has a label payload of 250kg. I need to weigh the ball weight which sounds like my next key step. I may well be leaving the car fridge behind if space or weight is an issue.
John

As far as being set on the Great Central Road - it would be great to take it as we'd like to spend as much time up in the Kimberley/NT as possible and do SA and the south coast of WA anotehr time - they're close to home in comparison, so could be a shorter stand alone trip.

[old Jack]

Hi John,

Back to your original tyre question.

The Hankook ATM RF10 in a 265/60-R18 is an extra load passenger construction tyre with a load index of 114 so it is a stronger tyre than the normal 110 load index passenger tyre. It has a good reputation as a mild AT tread pattern tyre.

Mickey Thompson AT38 in 265/60R18 is availble in 110 load index light duty passenger construction tyre and a 119 load index 10ply heavy duty tyre. Both have a similar tread pattern but the 119 will have a wider and deeper tread.

Cooper AT3 comes in 3 variants but there are only 2 in 265/60R-18 size, so care needs to be taken when selecting and specifying these tyres.
AT3 4S is a 110 load index light duty passenger construction tyre with a mild AT tread pattern.
AT3 LT is a 119 load index heavy duty Light Truck construction tyre with a mild AT tread pattern but the tread is wider and deeper than the AT3 4S.

For touring with heavy loads and off the bitumen, a LT construction tyre will have less problems as they have stronger tread and sidewalls so you are less likely to damage them off the bitumen.

Since you are fitting new tyre's then Instrongly recommend you consider fitting a Tyre Pressure Moniting System, these will give you early warning of a tyre problem so you can stop before the tyre is completely destroyed so hope fully it is repairable. I recently fitted a Digoption 4 tyre in tyre system and an extra sensor valve for the spare tyre, it was $220 delivered so it only has to save 1 half worn tyre and it has paid for itself.

https://www.digoptions.com.au/tyre-pressure-monitoring-system-lcd-tpms-4-interna

OJ.

[johnandcass]

Hi all, in the end I went for the Mickey Thompson Deegan 38's and so far have done around 15,000 km with them, a combination of sealed and unsealed. They've gone well but have picked up 2 bolt/screw punctures in that time including one that went in on the edge and damaged the sidewall requiring replacement. I also replaced both van tyres.
I reconsidered the packing and left behind the fridge, extra battery and gazebo reducing cargo weight by around 100kg.
Currently in Yulara and will be taking great central road from tomorrow. Condition reports from last week are variable with one description as a "like a highway", and one as "pretty bad, damaged trailer suspension" so have allowed 3 nights/4 days to travel the 1,200 odd km.

Will start with pressure at 30 psi and adjust from there.


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[old Jack]

Hi John and Cass,

Glad to here your trip so far has been mostly trouble free.

Did you end up with the the P or LT Deegans?

Did you fit a TPMS?

OJ.

[johnandcass]

Hi OJ, yep, very happy with no mechanical issues so far.
I went with the LT and was pleasantly surprised that the first tyre shop in Alice had spares in my size in stock. No TPMS.
So far have been running at around 40 psi in the rear and 38 in the front on bitumen with pressure rising around 4-7 psi depending on if the van is connected and ambient temperatures.


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[old Jack]

Hi OJ, yep, very happy with no mechanical issues so far.
I went with the LT and was pleasantly surprised that the first tyre shop in Alice had spares in my size in stock. No TPMS.
So far have been running at around 40 psi in the rear and 38 in the front on bitumen with pressure rising around 4-7 psi depending on if the van is connected and ambient temperatures.

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Tyre pressure that you have been running on bitumen a good since you are getting a 4 -7 psi.

The Toyo Load Inflation Tables which apply to tyre size and construction, of all tyres not just Toyo, state/calcualte the following.

LT265/60R-18R at 35psi will carry 772kg each at sustained bitumen speeds of the tyres speed ratings, so 30psi and even down to 26psi cols will be fine with reduced speeds. No problems for te front tyres but for the rear tyres there is not a lot of reserve capacitiy.

LT195/75R-14C, these have a load rating of only 507kg per tyre at 35psi at sustained bitumen speed to which the tyre is rated to. The Jayco Finch has a reported ATM of 1000kg so there is not a lot of reserve capacity on these tyre so 30psi and no more than 80kph on corrugated.

So 26psi to 30psi and keep the speed down should give you less problems than running 38psi to 40psi all round.

Hope you trip continues to be free of any major troubles.

OJ.

[johnandcass]

Hope you trip continues to be free of any major troubles.



OJ.

Well our good fortune literally came to a grinding halt late yesterday courtesy of a broken leaf on the finch about 100km down the gravel. The road was not crazy bad so waiting to hear back as to extent of damage which will then determine our next steps and pathway home.



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[old Jack]

Well our good fortune literally came to a grinding halt late yesterday courtesy of a broken leaf on the finch about 100km down the gravel. The road was not crazy bad so waiting to hear back as to extent of damage which will then determine our next steps and pathway home.

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As long as no one is hurt then it is just an unplanned inconvenience and expense.
Much better to happen close to assistance than half way across the Great Central Road.
Also highly likely that spring had fatigued over time and any short section of dirt road was going to hasten the failure.

OJ.

[redbruce]

Out of curiosity, does your Jayco have slipper or shackle (double eye) springs?

Where/what was failure?