Cooper STT tyres on sand - any experience?

[Jingjok]

Hi

Greetings from a new member.

I’m fitting out a 2006 110 TD5 Station wagon XS for Africa.

I’m not keen on the standard ‘Boost’ alloys with general grabbers (OK, and neither is my 4x4 obsessive teenage son :)), so will keep these as road spares, and replace with steel rims and probably Cooper STTs in standard 235/85 R16.

I have zero experience with this tyre not having even seen one. A lot of the review material on the web is ‘advertorial’ and so to be taken with a pinch of salt!

The tyre does look brilliant for mud & snow, and looks very rock-resistant, and is allegedly quiet on tarmac, but what is it like on soft sand with, say, 0.9 Bar?
Does anyone have experience of these tyres in sand please?

Also what about tyre size? Should I stay standard or go for slightly greater width, eg 255? Would this affect steering lock or otherwise muck up the geometry?

All my LR experience is with SIII's in the 80's so I know little of the new Defenders, plus this one is still at the UK dealer being prepped 6000 miles away from me. I'm speccing everything by remote control. Any assistance appreciated!

Cheers, Mark.

[grantc]

Hi Jongjoc, Introduce yourself on the "introduce Yourself" thread! From what I understand ( and I am by no means the most experienced offroader on this forum!) mud tyres (the STT being one of them) are designed to dig down to firmer ground. In Sand, you do not want to dig down and so most people who drive in Sand use a milder tyre such as an A/T as they will allow you to "float" on top of the sand (esp. with reduced pressures) Maybe someone on the forum has experience with Samd and can advise you better, but I think I would go for BFG A/T's , due to their low wear rate and they also get a good reputation for getting out of mud! Unfortunately all tyres are a compromise, you just need to decide which way you "lean"! ( and don't let your Son influence you because he wants a more aggressive "look"!)

[big ad]

not sure about on sand but i have just fitted a set of stt to my expendition defender for our trip to russia and back and will keep you posted!

[grantc]

not sure about on sand but i have just fitted a set of stt to my expendition defender for our trip to russia and back and will keep you posted!

Are you STILL HERE?:eek::p

[big ad]

Are you STILL HERE?:eek::p



Yes we sure are fella, due to the fact that the iranian embassy have taken our passports hostage for 5 weeks now and still we have no idea when we will get them back. so it has delayed our trip by around 4 weeks and thats not good as we are having to use our trip money to get by on while we are here!!!:(:(:(:(

[Mud-Bud]

From what i've heard, STT's are awesome off road (mud, sand unknown) but drum like **** on the road:p

Land Rover apparently recommend Michelin XS tyres for sand driving acording to this (http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.dborc.co.uk/goodwinch/images/173525.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.dborc.co.uk/goodwinch/knowhow%25201h.htm&usg=__vXAeBgAyTevQsAmgE8uwe8c-jKU=&h=137&w=266&sz=6&hl=en&start=10&um=1&tbnid=Y_yW9PW6Z-9mXM:&tbnh=58&tbnw=113&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dxcl%2Btyre%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26s a%3DN%26um%3D1). Military always used to use XCL's from memory for everything from desert to snow to mud? Someone else will no doubt come and put me right now:D

Finally, as to going wider. We fitted a set of 255's to a customers Puma 2.4 Defender, and there is negligble side effects from doing this to any defender as long as you drop the ratio to keep the rolling road radius the same. Obviously if you go significantly wider, there will be more of an effect.

Hope that helps,
Oli

[grantc]

Yes we sure are fella, due to the fact that the iranian embassy have taken our passports hostage for 5 weeks now and still we have no idea when we will get them back. so it has delayed our trip by around 4 weeks and thats not good as we are having to use our trip money to get by on while we are here!!!:(:(:(:(


Thats no good :( There is no ways that the British authorities can encourage them to speed up things?
We'll soon have to pass the hat round:eek::D

[sasha2001]

Hi

Greetings from a new member.

I’m fitting out a 2006 110 TD5 Station wagon XS for Africa.

I’m not keen on the standard ‘Boost’ alloys with general grabbers (OK, and neither is my 4x4 obsessive teenage son :)), so will keep these as road spares, and replace with steel rims and probably Cooper STTs in standard 235/85 R16.

I have zero experience with this tyre not having even seen one. A lot of the review material on the web is ‘advertorial’ and so to be taken with a pinch of salt!

The tyre does look brilliant for mud & snow, and looks very rock-resistant, and is allegedly quiet on tarmac, but what is it like on soft sand with, say, 0.9 Bar?
Does anyone have experience of these tyres in sand please?

Also what about tyre size? Should I stay standard or go for slightly greater width, eg 255? Would this affect steering lock or otherwise muck up the geometry?

All my LR experience is with SIII's in the 80's so I know little of the new Defenders, plus this one is still at the UK dealer being prepped 6000 miles away from me. I'm speccing everything by remote control. Any assistance appreciated!

Cheers, Mark.
depending where you are going but Iwould get michellin xzl or different michellin depending on what pattern you want
ie MT ,AT etc I was in africa two years , east and west north to south, if you go in the desert near the thorns you will get punctures from thorns through the sides
no problem with michellin in that score, we got 3 a day with goodyears, fellow travellers had michellin,not ONE puncture,very robust, will take extra load weights etc, worth their weight in gold miles from anywhere
Hope this helps

[sasha2001]

depending where you are going but Iwould get michellin xzl or different michellin depending on what pattern you want
ie MT ,AT etc I was in africa two years , east and west north to south, if you go in the desert near the thorns you will get punctures from thorns through the sides
no problem with michellin in that score, we got 3 a day with goodyears, fellow travellers had michellin,not ONE puncture,very robust, will take extra load weights etc, worth their weight in gold miles from anywhere
Hope this helps

see this link
http://www.exploroz.com/Forum/Topic/44739/Cooper_STT_or_Mickey_Thompson_MTZ.aspx

[big ad]

Thats no good :( There is no ways that the British authorities can encourage them to speed up things?
We'll soon have to pass the hat round:eek::D


see my other post about depatring on our trip!!!!

[Abu]

Stt's will be rubbish on sand. They're not really that noisy on the road. The wear rate is brilliant. I would expect to have gotten 30000 out of mine.

Adam

[big ad]

Stt's will be rubbish on sand. They're not really that noisy on the road. The wear rate is brilliant. I would expect to have gotten 30000 out of mine.

Adam


I dint think they would be good on sand but i have heard good things about them on mud and rocks!

[Abu]

ahhh in that case they are pretty good in the mud! I couldn't complain at least.:) Never had a blast at rocks.

[big ad]

ahhh in that case they are pretty good in the mud! I couldn't complain at least.:) Never had a blast at rocks.


will let you know in about 3 weeks when we get to kazakhstan and then mongolia!!!:D

[PapaLazarou]

Hi

I’m fitting out a 2006 110 TD5 Station wagon XS for Africa.

I’m not keen on the standard ‘Boost’ alloys with general grabbers (OK, and neither is my 4x4 obsessive teenage son :)), so will keep these as road spares, and replace with steel rims and probably Cooper STTs in standard 235/85 R16.



Follow this link http://www.discoeverywhere.com and read their opinions of the Coopers - I think they liked them...

[Marc Lurie]

I’m fitting out a 2006 110 TD5 Station wagon XS for Africa.

Whereabouts in Africa? Africa is a large continent with 53 countries, and is nearly 6000 miles long and 4000 miles wide. ;)

Each region in Africa has it's own climatic and environmental challenges for an overlander, and you will never be able to settle on one tyre that will cope well with all conditions.

In equatorial Africa you don't need to worry aboput soft sand tyres. You will find soft sand, but only rarely. In Botswana you need tyres with strong side walls, and are good in sand.

Also, depending on where you will be going, the noise factor on tar is a non-issue in most countries.

A) You're seldom going fast enough to make much noise
B) You're seldom on tar for long enough to matter
C) Most tarred surfaces will be potholed and damaged along the way, so you need hardy tyres that can survive a pothole.

But, as I said, it depends on where you will be.

[White110]

Follow this link http://www.discoeverywhere.com and read their opinions of the Coopers - I think they liked them...

They are sponsored by Cooper Tires!

[big ad]

hi

greetings from russia. we have done about 20000kms over asia the stans and mongolia and the tyres are still going strong, they do dig in a little when you go through soft sand but on the corigated roads of mongolia they were brilliant and no punctures so far ( touch wood)

hope this helps ;)

[Jingjok]

Gentlemen
Apologies for the lack of response - and many thanks for the helpful, if conflicting (!) replies. We did go for the STTs in the end.
Althought the vehicle proved to be uncontrollable and was crashed on its first trip out yesteday. (See my other thread). All very strange, and certainly nothing to do with the tyres.