Disco 2 tyre advice

[Big Red]

Hi all,

Here is my situation.
I ran BF Goodridge Trac Edge on my 300tdi Discovery and found them excellent on and off road.
Now I am going to need to replace 2 rear tyres on my series 2 td5, currently on pirelli scorpions, and the disco is very tail happy so I am not to impressed with these so would like to go back to trac edges but they are no longer made.

My other problem is my Disco is on the 18" alloys with 255x55x18 tyres.

I am looking to replace all 4 tyres, but I am unsure what replaced the trac edges from BF Goodridge.
Does anyone know the replacement, and if BF Goodridge do them in this size??

All recomendations welcome :D

Gordon

[shanno_2k]

Hi Gordon 18" alloys what a pain Bf Goodridge prices are about £2500 m8 pretty steep

im running 18" Goodyear Hp wranglers £400 for the 4 and arnt that bad off road to

i think the pirelli scorpions arnt that good in the wet bit slippery

Graham might be able to give you a bit more info on them as he does a fair few miles in a year

but afraid you dont get alot of options for 18" tyres

Geoff

[Big Red]

Thanks for the reply Geoff

I am really not impressed with the Pirelli's, the tail end coming around to meet me when driving away from traffic lights and turning right, all uphill is just crap grip.
My 300 disco never did this with the trac edges in the 4 yrs i owned it so when the td5 did it, it was quite a shock :eek:

The td5 has 2 new hankooks on the front, and I can buy another 2 the same for around £80 each, but I was hoping to go back to the BF Goodridge.

Still open to any other suggestions, but I may just have to stick a couple of Hankooks on to match the fronts.

Gordon

[shanno_2k]

Gordon waht are the hankooks like any good


Geoff

[Big Red]

Gordon waht are the hankooks like any good


Geoff

The Hankooks actually feel ok, as the front has stayed exactly where I have put it.
They are very quiet as well so cannot really say much against them.
Just been for a look on BFG web site, looks like I cannot even get the all terrains in the 18" size I need.

There seems to be a much bigger choice in 16", but I like the look of the 18" alloys and do not really want to buy another set of wheels.
Just have to keep looking around, probably end up with the Hankooks :(

Gordon

[JohnW]

Aha - A fellow 18" wheeled Td5 owner!
I did the trawl of the available tyres over Xmas - Wifey's tidied my final shortlist away some place.
From memory, the choices are BFG road tyres - Curses, I wanted the ATs too :rolleyes:

Michelin have a couple of passable looking offerings - Synchrone and Diamaris or sthg. like that. Anyone tried them?

I think Avon may have sthg. too - Again, no idea how good though.

Good to hear your experiences of the Pirellis, as I had committed them to memory for the next purchase.

I'll prob. stick with the Goodyears now - unless anyone can volunteer reviews of alternatives?

[Big Red]

Aha - A fellow 18" wheeled Td5 owner!
I did the trawl of the available tyres over Xmas - Wifey's tidied my final shortlist away some place.
From memory, the choices are BFG road tyres - Curses, I wanted the ATs too :rolleyes:

Michelin have a couple of passable looking offerings - Synchrone and Diamaris or sthg. like that. Anyone tried them?

I think Avon may have sthg. too - Again, no idea how good though.

Good to hear your experiences of the Pirellis, as I had committed them to memory for the next purchase.

I'll prob. stick with the Goodyears now - unless anyone can volunteer reviews of alternatives?


Hi John and thanks for the reply.
I would definately NOT recommend the Pirelli Scorpions.
I did a bit of phoning around today and was told various things :confused:
One interesting thing was I was told thet BF Goodridge will be introducing the All Terrain around the end of March in 255x55x18 :D
Then I was told from another supplier that NO-ONE made a partly on/off road tyre in this size, only road tyres :tearRolls

A bit confusing, so not really any better of.
I did get a price on the 16" BFG all terrains though, £128 each :eek: :eek: :eek:

So, not really any further forward and I have been left a little confused.
Looks like I need to do a bit more homework.
Will post here my findings etc.

Regards,

Gordon

[JohnW]

....BF Goodridge will be introducing the All Terrain around the end of March in 255x55x18 :D.....Will post here my findings etc.

Yippee! :D BFGs by March - I think mine will stretch 'till then.

Thanks for the info. Let me know what you come up with.
I thought the 18" was the std. size for the prev. RR? I guess BFG's argument is that it's not a great off-road profile.

[madmole]

I found the Pirrellis to be excellent on the road, no problems driving London to Edinburgh each week for a year, and amazingly not too bad off road either

PS if you managed to get the back to come round on a D2 either your ABS or ETC aint working or you really need to slow down for corners. I cant get mine to do that even now its chipped and on BFG muds!!!!

[Big Red]

I found the Pirrellis to be excellent on the road, no problems driving London to Edinburgh each week for a year, and amazingly not too bad off road either

PS if you managed to get the back to come round on a D2 either your ABS or ETC aint working or you really need to slow down for corners. I cant get mine to do that even now its chipped and on BFG muds!!!!


I do not think the speed has anything to do with it, as the few times it has done it I have been going around corners from a stop, travelling 20mph if lucky.
It slid quite easily, and the first time it went, I got caught by surprise.

I have never had my 300 disco slid on the rear, and I have driven it a lot harder than this.

The traction control will not stop a slide, it will only come into action if it senses a wheel spin, where it will apply the brake to the spinning wheel to switch traction to the other side of the axle.

The sliding is definately down to poor traction from the Pirelli's.
After speeking to my mate about the pirelli's a few weeks ago,(he is a paramedic) he told me the ambulance service had removed pirelli scorpoins from a few of there 4x4 response vehicles because of them sliding about the road.

regards,

Gordon

[16JJR]

Got to agree with madmole on this one. I have had a set of 235 x 75 x 16 Pirelli Scorpion S/T's fitted to my Disco 300 tdi for the last 12 months and have found them to be more than capable in all on road situations. During the heavy snow of last week they performed well. They have done some off road work where I did not get let down. Granted as this is my first Land rover, perhaps I am not the most qualified person to offer an opinion.
Cheers

[JohnW]

Interesting.
Could tyre pressures (front/rear and overall), or purchase date (i.e. change to compound / tread pattern) account for this?

[madmole]

Well mine were Sept 2004 tyres (18") and were run at 28/36 F/R. They liked being low

I found BFG AT's needed 32/40 and BFG Muds need 36/46 (both 16", so bigger sidewalls hence higher pressures to control flex)

[16JJR]

Perhaps over inflation gives a tendancy to sliding round the corners. I run my Pirelli Scorpians at 28 front and 34 rear, and have had no problems with it being tail happy. Christ it even takes the 300tdi disco a gigantic amount of nose out nose in to get it sliding in the snow. !! :D

[shanno_2k]

i haved e-mailed various tyre manufactures regarding 18"MT's


heres couple of the replys
Good Afternoon,

At the moment there are no plans to bring the A/T Geolander tyre in 18", the only Yokohama 4x4 tyre available in that size is the V801 which is mainly designed for road going SUV's rather than off road

Regards

Russell @ Yokohama


Thank you for this information, i can forward this to the managing director who can speak to Yokohama Japan and see if it is a option they are willing to consider

thanks again

Russell

[JohnW]

...A/T Geolander...Yokohama...[/size]
How do you rate Yokos for AT / Off road work?
My only experience of Yokos is on a Golf GTi, where they made a superb set of sticky road tyres - No idea what their reputation for AT tyres is like - Are they as reputable as the big brands, in this department?

[shanno_2k]

John i have never tryed them m8 had a look @ there site 4 MT'S but they dont do 18" only 16" they look good tho


Geoff

[TravisD]

Thats to bad. Im running the geolanders in the 16" size and have hadgreat success with them. For a mud and snow tire they have lastedfairly well. I also run the pressure lower than some of you guys run.There was a thread on discoweb a while back about tire pressures andmost thought running the tire pressure a bit lower helped the disco'son road ride.

[seehatch]

Hi,
I have just replaced a tyre on my Disco. (!8" wheels) I am running Goodyear Wrangler H P Mud and Snow 255/55/18 Excellent tyre although pricey (£127)
I have run Michellin and Pirelli Scorpion in the past but think the Goodyear is a superior tyre. Better wear and preformance.
Good luck with your choice!

[Gulliver]

:rolleyes: I also run my S2 Discovery on the Goodyear Wrangler HP Mud and Snow 255/55/R18 but do think that although classed as M&S they are more road biased than other types of M&S. We run the firms S2 Disco on 235/70 R16 Michelin 4x4 XPC, also classed as M&S but (I think) with an all terrain bias. Both handle fine. I know you said you did not want to buy new wheels but this may be the only way around this. I spent ages trying to source All Terrains in 255/55 R18 and drew a blank. I ended up buying 16 inch steel wheels and (When Iv'e got the money saved up) plan to fit 235/70 R16 BFG All Terrains. The idea is to have one set for normal use and the BFG's for winter and playing. Saves scratching up the alloys ? I got lucky and picked up a set of 5 new wheels for £41 on Ebay from a chap who bought a new S2 Discovery and instantly upgraded to alloys. It's worth giving ebay a look.

Gulliver.

[Roger_Needham]

I have 18ins wheels on my Series 2 TD5. Used to run Pirelli Scorpions but when they wore out I decided not to refit them. Reasons? Too pricey; high wear rate; noisy; poor traction. I fitted £80.00 Kuhmo Esctas and they are doing fine. Not a block tread pattern so they run more quietly. They are designed more like a performance vehicle tyre than other patterns I've seen for SUV's. Not sure what they are like off road though. I use vehicle for local and motorway trips. Towing and solo. Hope this feedback helps all.