Complicated tyre scenario

Hi

Firstly forgive me my lack of landy savvy and mechanical savvy.

I live in Southern Spain and have a Defender TDI300 which used to have stock Avon Rangemaster 7.50 R 16 8 ply tyres. Recently 2 of the tyres needed replacement and my local garage replaced them with Deestone Extra Traction tyres ( apparently the Avons are unavailable in Spain ) which looked substantially more "off-road" than the Rangemasters. Initially they were on the front of the car but I found that in damp conditions they had almost no traction on the road and were actually bloody dangerous. I swapped the rather worn remaining Rangemasters to the front axle and the Deestones to the rear and things were much safer, although the Deestones continued to be incredibly noisy.

I then came into 4 second hand heavy duty and usually really expensive snow chains from Rudmatic which were labelled "215/75 - 17.5". They fitted the Rangemasters but not the Deestones which were slightly too big to allow the chains over them.

I now want to replace ALL the tyres as I am unhappy with the Deestones and the remaining Rangemsaters are at end of life. However I want my snow chains to fit all 4 corners, and I preferably want to be able to buy the tyres in Spain so a well know brand would be a great idea. I was perfectly happy with the Rangemasters, but it seems crazy to ship them over from the UK. An AT tyre would seem an obvious choice as I do often go off-road, although in non-muddy conditions.

All and any advice would be appreciated.

Cheers

Dave

fill yer boots...
Centauto. Car audio - Alarmas - Navegacion - Llantas

hi dave, marcus here.i have a defender 90 tdi with bf-goodridge a/t tyres.
these look good, grips very well and lasts long. just went off-roading on a rocky
area yesterday and knew the tyres would do their bit.you would have to get tubeless rims if you have tube type rims, i have 265/75x16 and would say
235/85x16's are a good bet for any defender.try to get rims and tyres from a disco as these have possibly a size to fit in your snow chains.

Guys

An update. Life is complicated here in Andalucia When I go into a tyre place and ask for 7.50R16 tyres for a Defender they look at me as though they have never ever seen such a tyre spec before, and I have bully them to examine all their catalogues for non-metric sizes.

Anyway I have given up trying to source Avon Rangemasters ( just generates blank looks ! ) and today was quoted for Michelin XPC 4x4s, Bridgestone Dueler D693, and Pirelli Scorpions. All were within 50 euros for a fully fitted set of 5 at between 800 and 850 euros ( about £560 ).

I now have a couple more questions which I would appreciate any advice on :

1> Will my stock steel wheels which previously hosted the tubed Avon Rangemasters fit the above tubeless tyres ? ( the numnuts at the tyre depot seemed to know nothing about this )

2> What are the relative merits of tubed and tubeless tyres ?

3> Having done a bit of research the Bridgestone Duelers look most suited to my needs. Any feedback ?

Cheers

Dave

so yer saying the link i gave you to a spanish supplier of range masters int good enough fer you!

why do we bother???

Slob

Whoooooah. I didn't understand your comment "Fill yer boots" as I didn't realise the link below wasn't part of your signature ..... I'm new here. A retrospective thanks is therefore due.

Only problem now is that this company is that this company is nearly at the opposite end of Spain to me, and Spain is a big place ! I'll see if they will ship 'em to my local garage.

I am still interested in comments to my queries above re: tyres and rims if anyone feels inclined ?

Cheers

Dave

avon no longer make rangemasters the only ones in circulation are ones from there warehouse so it is advisable to get them while you can, i run them on me 109" and trying to get them in at me local trade tyre place is a nightmare

G-man

Cheers. I did wonder as the Rangemaster is hidden away now on the Avon website. I'm definitely not goning to buy a set of tyres that are probably going to be impossible to buy again in a year or two.

Therefore my revised questions to the forum is will the tyres suggested above ( Michelin XPC 4x4s / Bridgestone Dueler D693 / and Pirelli Scorpions ) run tubeless on my stock steel Defender wheels ( 1995 ) ? Or should I change the wheels or run them with tubes ? Or something else ?

Cheers again,

Dave

Insa Turbo remoulds are made in Spain... the Sahara MT is cheap, cheerful and grips nicely on or off road. Available in 235/85/16 too.

Yip, I run the Insa turbo's Same as Adz & the Saharas we run are excellent. Prob a bit aggressive for what you want, but they have a good AT pattern too. They must be fairly readily available, can't see that they're 'export only'?

get insa turbo special track tyres in 265/75R16 and put them on 7x16 rims

You dont say what size you were quoted on, If they were 235/85R16 then they are about as close as you can get in metric , the chains will probably fit ok if you are looking at an AT type tread which is what you need i.e. not deep mud, but sand and rock. Take the chains with you and try it on tyre before you buy. The main advantage on tubeless is more miles due running cooler, dont go flat as quick when punctured, so if you have pump can delay having to change wheel. Easier to repair small punctures, without having to demount tyre if you have the kit. You can generally run tubless on most rims obviously not split rims, although rims for tubeless have a small hump to help retain the bead aginst the outer lip of the rim, mind you never had any problems and thats tubeless on f/c rims as well. Duellers work well in Australia and thats similar terrain and temps. The michs are a good tyre as well, or the pirellis, its just a matter of personal choice really. JMHO hope thats a help?

tyry reading this.

hi to all, tubeless tyres are so much better construction wise, can handle minor
punctures 100% better and mostly punctures repaired without taking off the wheel.bridgestone's duelers are very nice on-road and not bad off-road, had them on , but bf's a/t are now on, even better off-road.tubeless rims for tubeless tyres only(sorry)
regards
marcus(south africa)