Goodyear Wrangler AT/R Expedtion Report

First off - thanks to all those from these forums who answered my
calls for help from strange, faraway places, it's great to be part of
a community!

I'm now back in London, and I'd like to share this report with you -
it may warn people off what I found to be a particularly disappointing
tyre.

Cheers,

Peter

============================================
Camelworld Round-Africa Expedition Report

Equipment/Tyres:

Brand: Goodyear Wrangler AT/R

Description:
235 X 70 R16
Tread: 2 x polyester cord, 2 x steel cord, 2 x nylon cord
Sidewall: 2 x polyester cord
Manufactured: South Africa

Summary:
I bought a set of six of the above tyres in Namibia after retiring the
Michelin Synchrones, keeping three from the old set a emergency spares
(a good move as it later turned out).

The cost in local currency was about £100 per tyre.

On the easier East African Roads the tyres fared well, and handled
they handled the more rugged of the Lesotho passes with ease. My
concern at an early stage was that the side walls of these tyres were
prone to thorn punctures in terrain that I hadn't expected to
challenge their integrity.

As part of my planned strategy I saved two new tyres for the Ethiopian
Roads North of Addis Abeba. By this time the vehicle was carrying it's
lightest load of the expedition as I was travelling alone, and did not
need to maintain fuel and water reserves, but even so the Wranglers
were woefully inadequate for the road surface, which is sharp stone.
In two days both rear tyres were replaced with the standby Michelins,
and inspection revealed a total of nine tears along the centre-line of
the tyres, where stones had simply pushed through the tread. The
inside surface of the tyre seemed remarkably spongy for an
all-terrain, and some of the tears were more than three centimetres
long, although the softness of the tyre meant that they were able to
seal themselves to an extent (i.e. they did not rapidly decompress,
even with multiple holes).

By contrast the Michelin Synchrones, which had seen between 10,000 and
35,000km of hard all-terrain driving, never caused any problems at
all, despite not being classified as AT tyres.

In Khartoum, Sudan I inspected the remaining Wranglers and discarded
three of the original six, despite their total mileage being between
400km (the two new ones) and from the third 20,000km, of which more
than half was on good asphalt. The remaining three Synchrones, by
contrast, are still in good condition, and are road legal after taking
me a further 20,000 km back to London.

Post Expedition:
I spoke to Peter Wayte of Goodyear (UK) who apologised for my poor
experience with these tyres but would not consider compensating me for
their poor performance, as I had discarded the damaged tyres. This is
a shame as other suppliers have accepted the reality of this sort of
travel and have taken my word for such failures. Peter stated that
these tyres were designed to take into account the comfort of
asphalt-road drivers who represented the majority of the, and
therefore their off-road performance was bound to be compromised. I
might read this as an admission that labelling the tyres as AT is a
move motivated by their marketing department.

Conclusion:
I would not recommend these tyres of off-road use. The tyres are
simply too soft to cope with stone penetration, and the sidewalls
offer surprisingly little resistance to thorn brush. Mud performance
was poor, but not unduly so for an AT tyre. Despite 6 ply tread
construction compared to the Synchrone's 5 ply, these tyres
significantly underperformed the Michelins. I suspect that they have
been designed to appeal to the 4x4 driver who want a tyre that looks
right, rather than to cope with genuine AT conditions. I will shortly
be replacing these tyres with BFG Mud Terrains which were the original
Camel Trophy specification tyres for the vehicle.

Related Pages:
http://www.camelworld.com/diary_ethiopia.htm
http://www.camelworld.com/vehicle_tyres.htm

Thank you, the site was very informative and interesting. Great
pictures!

Carl

"Peter Strong" > wrote in message
om...
> First off - thanks to all those from these forums who answered my
> calls for help from strange, faraway places, it's great to be part of
> a community!
>
> I'm now back in London, and I'd like to share this report with you -
> it may warn people off what I found to be a particularly disappointing
> tyre.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Peter
>
> ============================================
> Camelworld Round-Africa Expedition Report
>
> Equipment/Tyres:
>
> Brand: Goodyear Wrangler AT/R
>
> Description:
> 235 X 70 R16
> Tread: 2 x polyester cord, 2 x steel cord, 2 x nylon cord
> Sidewall: 2 x polyester cord
> Manufactured: South Africa
>
> Summary:
> I bought a set of six of the above tyres in Namibia after retiring the
> Michelin Synchrones, keeping three from the old set a emergency spares
> (a good move as it later turned out).
>
> The cost in local currency was about £100 per tyre.
>
> On the easier East African Roads the tyres fared well, and handled
> they handled the more rugged of the Lesotho passes with ease. My
> concern at an early stage was that the side walls of these tyres were
> prone to thorn punctures in terrain that I hadn't expected to
> challenge their integrity.
>
> As part of my planned strategy I saved two new tyres for the Ethiopian
> Roads North of Addis Abeba. By this time the vehicle was carrying it's
> lightest load of the expedition as I was travelling alone, and did not
> need to maintain fuel and water reserves, but even so the Wranglers
> were woefully inadequate for the road surface, which is sharp stone.
> In two days both rear tyres were replaced with the standby Michelins,
> and inspection revealed a total of nine tears along the centre-line of
> the tyres, where stones had simply pushed through the tread. The
> inside surface of the tyre seemed remarkably spongy for an
> all-terrain, and some of the tears were more than three centimetres
> long, although the softness of the tyre meant that they were able to
> seal themselves to an extent (i.e. they did not rapidly decompress,
> even with multiple holes).
>
> By contrast the Michelin Synchrones, which had seen between 10,000 and
> 35,000km of hard all-terrain driving, never caused any problems at
> all, despite not being classified as AT tyres.
>
> In Khartoum, Sudan I inspected the remaining Wranglers and discarded
> three of the original six, despite their total mileage being between
> 400km (the two new ones) and from the third 20,000km, of which more
> than half was on good asphalt. The remaining three Synchrones, by
> contrast, are still in good condition, and are road legal after taking
> me a further 20,000 km back to London.
>
> Post Expedition:
> I spoke to Peter Wayte of Goodyear (UK) who apologised for my poor
> experience with these tyres but would not consider compensating me for
> their poor performance, as I had discarded the damaged tyres. This is
> a shame as other suppliers have accepted the reality of this sort of
> travel and have taken my word for such failures. Peter stated that
> these tyres were designed to take into account the comfort of
> asphalt-road drivers who represented the majority of the, and
> therefore their off-road performance was bound to be compromised. I
> might read this as an admission that labelling the tyres as AT is a
> move motivated by their marketing department.
>
> Conclusion:
> I would not recommend these tyres of off-road use. The tyres are
> simply too soft to cope with stone penetration, and the sidewalls
> offer surprisingly little resistance to thorn brush. Mud performance
> was poor, but not unduly so for an AT tyre. Despite 6 ply tread
> construction compared to the Synchrone's 5 ply, these tyres
> significantly underperformed the Michelins. I suspect that they have
> been designed to appeal to the 4x4 driver who want a tyre that looks
> right, rather than to cope with genuine AT conditions. I will shortly
> be replacing these tyres with BFG Mud Terrains which were the original
> Camel Trophy specification tyres for the vehicle.
>
> Related Pages:
> http://www.camelworld.com/diary_ethiopia.htm
> http://www.camelworld.com/vehicle_tyres.htm

In article >, Peter
Strong > writes
>First off - thanks to all those from these forums who answered my
>calls for help from strange, faraway places, it's great to be part of
>a community!



Big snip.



Interesting

I have a customer in Nigeria who has just specifically ordered that tyre
(in a different size). Infact they have ordered 80 of them. I am sure
they will tell me if they are not up to scratch.

The price you paid seems very steep considering they are of "local"
manufacture. I know what I would be selling them for in the UK and after
sending them back to Africa. They would be cheaper than that.
--
Marc Draper

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