Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

Please can I get some advice on the suitability of Bridgestone Dueler HT's on various surfaces. As this is the standard tyre for the new Patrol 4.8 Grx.

Rock?
Beach Sand?
Mud?

Can deflation of HT tyre in above scenarios make up for any deficiency in treadpattern versus other purpose designed tyres?

Get rid of them as soon as you can. They are exactly what they say they are HT - Highway Terrain. Quiet on tar with little grip off road and thin side walls which will puncture easily. They will actually perform well on sand if you lower tire pressures. Depending on where you want to go I would rather opt for an All-Terrain or Mud-Terrain tire

On most brands, mud terrain gives you much better grip in mud.
On most other surfaces I have not found better grip with MTs.
However I have a set of Dueller HTs and they do cut quite easily. I lost a tyre in Feb this way.
So, if you do lots of technical off road they are not suitable.
Otherwise they do just fine. Quiet on road, better consumption etc.

My two sents.....
Gerrit said a true thing ....best all terrain tires are mud terrain tires....
For me grip is very important. .....especially in wet weather
Also side walls must be strong like 3 ply steel or kevlar cooper .bf goodyear has some 3 ply steel models
again Cedric and some of the guys swear by the kumos , I havent tried them but what I have heard their grip is great just the km that you get out of a soft tire is not the best
Tires has a max life of about 6 years if you push it , after that they start cracking and breaking so for me its km versus what you use it for.
Imho
The cooper st max will be my choice for all terrain
And stt or km2 for muddies

Alex Roux wrote:On most brands, mud terrain gives you much better grip in mud.
On most other surfaces I have not found better grip with MTs.

I've been through quite a few sets of BFG MTs over the years. They're really not great on wet tar - your stopping distance is quite a bit longer than with an HT type tyre and on a heavy car that can be an important safety factor. That said, on a flooded road they aquaplane far less easily than a standard tyre design. In mud it depends upon what you're talking about - in heavy black cotton soil or clay, they clog just about as quickly as any other tyre and provide little real advantage over a road-biased tyre - in loose, non-clinging mud though they do give you quite a bit of advantage. In loose sand and when crossing rivers with sandy bottoms they can actually be a disadvantage because they dig in so much easier - so you have to be far more careful with your clutch and throttle. All in all, I have real doubts about their utility to people who do 90% of their mileage on tar - but they look pretty cool!

As in all things automotive , tyre choice is a compromise between good and bad properties of the product and type.

Mud terrain is brilliant for the 2% of the time you find yourself in mud , but noisy and sluggish on tar. Bad wear patterns and tread life as well as bad fuel consumption is also a negative.

Highway tyres are brilliant on good tar , are quiet , give good fuel consumption give good tread life and usually have a safe high speed rating. They are usually useless on most off road applications and will damage easily and offer poor traction.

I have equipment that is mostly used on public roads , but goes seriously off road often. I have the opportunity to compare most options and try to fit most of the options on my pickups and suv's.

My all time favourite with the best combination of off road ability and on road performance , awesome wet weather ability and more than 100k km per set was Michelin All terrain. They were so good that Michelin discontinued them and now offer a pityfull excuse of a replacement.


Two sets of tyres that are impressing me at the moment are 1) The Goodyear Duratrac on my red gq. they offer a very good compromise between aggressive tread , serious sidewall strength and very good on road performance. Have done about 40k km with minimal wear and no punctures or balancing issues.
Ask Cedric how well they performed at Berakah. I had control and grip where most mt's slipped.
2)Cooper ST fitted recently to one of my rigs. Early days on this set , but like the Goodyears , good compromise. The load rating on these also impress me.

I forgot to mention , those Goodyears are not cheap.

Consider that 30% of the enjoyment you get from your Patrol can be linked to a good tyre , and that the safety of your passengers depend on the four patches of rubber connecting you to the earth.

In eight years of off roading I have done little damage to any tyre, till three weeks ago I split open a HT that was donated to me just three days before. I had no grip the whole day and was sliding all over the place. I was also the only person they had to recover that day. Have to blame the tyres as another hardbody with less lift than mine got through the same place I had to be recovered.

HT's just don't offer the side wall protection a AT or MT will Personal experience is that MT's are the beesknees in any and especially unexpected terrain and circumstances, your trade off is they are fairly noisy and offer some additional rolling resistance on tar. I also got my best kilo's out of my MT's compared to any of my other tyres.

bogeyman wrote:I forgot to mention , those Goodyears are not cheap.

Consider that 30% of the enjoyment you get from your Patrol can be linked to a good tyre , and that the safety of your passengers depend on the four patches of rubber connecting you to the earth.

With the right tyre I would venture to say that it could be more than 30%. My MT's put me off a installing a difflock for five years. Now I am thinking about it again, but think MT's are way cheaper than a locker.

I guess my immediate application need for the vehicle is a trip down to Kosi bay. Plan to do the coastal sand roads, and then go on down to the Kosi mouth. My concern is whether the tyres will bring me back up the hill.

I did this a few years back with a Prado having Bridgestone Dueler AT's without problem. Will the HT tyres let me down, do you think?