P38A Tyre advice needed

Another tyre thread...

Looking for new tyres for my p38. Mostly on road use, toeing etc. But occasional wet grass or slightly muddy tracks. When looking through the forums I find that the General Grabber AT3 is the most recommended tyre but when looking at tyre tests this is really poor with wet grip, dry grip, aquaplaning etc. I have found good reviews of the Yokohama Geolandar g015 but also that it has a high rolling resistance --> high fuel consumption.

Thinking somewhat out of the box: what about the Goodyear Vector 4Seasons SUV? Not an AT tyre bur apparently quite good for the occasional off road situation.

I am also still not decided on 16 inch wheels, or 18 inch wheels.

Buy the tyres LR recomend on the wheel size they built the car on...

That will be 20 years out of date!!

I had GG AT3, never had a problem with them. Mostly on road

For road use, Nexen Roadian are great, good wet grip and quiet too. Got them on both my P38's.

ar1g3 said:

Another tyre thread...

Looking for new tyres for my p38. Mostly on road use, toeing etc. But occasional wet grass or slightly muddy tracks. When looking through the forums I find that the General Grabber AT3 is the most recommended tyre but when looking at tyre tests this is really poor with wet grip, dry grip, aquaplaning etc. I have found good reviews of the Yokohama Geolandar g015 but also that it has a high rolling resistance --> high fuel consumption.

Thinking somewhat out of the box: what about the Goodyear Vector 4Seasons SUV? Not an AT tyre bur apparently quite good for the occasional off road situation.

I am also still not decided on 16 inch wheels, or 18 inch wheels.

Click to expand...

The tyre rating system doesn't really work with any sort of 4x4 or off road tyre. Personally I would completely ignore it. It is a stupid system designed to be used by stupid people and generally has no relevance.

Ultimately it comes down to a balanced choice. On road biased tyres are nicer on road, in terms of ride, refinement, handling and wet & dry tarmac performance. But you very quickly get out of their depth off road. So you have to weigh up how often you will be on grass or muddy tracks. An all terrain tyre will out perform a road tyre on both of these, but will come at the sacrifice of slightly less good road manners and tarmac performance.

The reality however is. Something like 1,000,000 + new 4x4's must be sold globally every year, with millions more already on the roads. 99.99% of them manage fine on whatever rubber they are fitted with. Plenty are factory equipped with AT's or MT's or light truck/utility style tyres. If it was an issue, they simply wouldn't be.

Think about it a bit like footware. A pair of walking boots or working boots have less flex and weigh more than a pair of trainers. The boots will cause more fatigue (worse mpg) and be less good on wet or dry tarmac footpaths. But much better if walking across a field. Ultimately though, in this situation, would you care about the tarmac grip and weight of the boot compared to a trainer when making your decision?

Shippers said:

Buy the tyres LR recomend on the wheel size they built the car on...

Click to expand...

Yeah I won't be able to get those anymore I'm afraid.. But I will stick to the original sizes: 255/65R16 or 255/55R18.

Datatek said:

For road use, Nexen Roadian are great, good wet grip and quiet too. Got them on both my P38's.

Click to expand...

I was thinking about those but kind of apprehensive because I have Nexen N'Blue S's on my Seat Leon and they are really quite terrible. I will put them back on the list.

300bhp/ton said:

The tyre rating system doesn't really work with any sort of 4x4 or off road tyre. Personally I would completely ignore it. It is a stupid system designed to be used by stupid people and generally has no relevance.

Ultimately it comes down to a balanced choice. On road biased tyres are nicer on road, in terms of ride, refinement, handling and wet & dry tarmac performance. But you very quickly get out of their depth off road. So you have to weigh up how often you will be on grass or muddy tracks. An all terrain tyre will out perform a road tyre on both of these, but will come at the sacrifice of slightly less good road manners and tarmac performance.

The reality however is. Something like 1,000,000 + new 4x4's must be sold globally every year, with millions more already on the roads. 99.99% of them manage fine on whatever rubber they are fitted with. Plenty are factory equipped with AT's or MT's or light truck/utility style tyres. If it was an issue, they simply wouldn't be.

Think about it a bit like footware. A pair of walking boots or working boots have less flex and weigh more than a pair of trainers. The boots will cause more fatigue (worse mpg) and be less good on wet or dry tarmac footpaths. But much better if walking across a field. Ultimately though, in this situation, would you care about the tarmac grip and weight of the boot compared to a trainer when making your decision?

Click to expand...

I agree that the tyre tests are irrelevant when it comes to things like 'gravel grip' etc, when they test this they do it full blast. There are limited tests for slow crawling offroad. But I think wet and dry braking and cornering, as well as aquaplaning, are important things to take into account even for a RR. But you need to compare AT tyres with AT tyres, and not with standard road tyres. And that's what is difficult..

My current list is:
- GG AT3
- Yokohama Geolander
- BF Goodridge Urban Terrain AT
- Goodyear Wrangler HP AW
- Firestone Destination AT2 (can't find them though)
- Bridgestone Dueler AT 002
- Pirelli Scorpion All Season SF2
- Nexen Roadian
- Kumho Solus 4s HA32 SUV
- Vredestein Quatrac PRO
- Goodyear Vector 4Seasons SUV G3

Currently for me the GG AT3, Yokohama Geolander and Firestone Destination AT2 jump out when it comes to AT tyres. When it comes to road tyres the Vredestein Quatrac PRO and Goodyear 4Seasons SUV G3 jump out. I am looking at 80% on road, 20% off road which is why I'm considering the road tyres as well. I prefer to go for an all seasons tyre. With regards to road tyres I'm looking at all seasons with more aggressive thread pattern.

I had 40k out of my last gg at3's, I've now got Hankook at2's. Not so bad in the wet, dry and off road. (nothing too aggressive). Although the gg at3's have mega strong side walls if you go adventuring

ar1g3 said:

Another tyre thread...

Looking for new tyres for my p38. Mostly on road use, toeing etc. But occasional wet grass or slightly muddy tracks. When looking through the forums I find that the General Grabber AT3 is the most recommended tyre but when looking at tyre tests this is really poor with wet grip, dry grip, aquaplaning etc. I have found good reviews of the Yokohama Geolandar g015 but also that it has a high rolling resistance --> high fuel consumption.

Thinking somewhat out of the box: what about the Goodyear Vector 4Seasons SUV? Not an AT tyre bur apparently quite good for the occasional off road situation.

I am also still not decided on 16 inch wheels, or 18 inch wheels.

Click to expand...

Not tried the AT3 but my AT2 are awesome. Scorpions are the recommended tyre.

Grrrrrr said:

Not tried the AT3 but my AT2 are awesome. Scorpions are the recommended tyre.

Click to expand...

I had AT2s on mine excellent tyre but, they don't seem to be available in 255/55/18 anymore.

I liked the at3 but a bit noisy at 65 mph.. dunno if that was just my car or the tyres in general

I went from worn Goodyear road tyres to Avon AX7s on 18" found them surprisingly good and good value too. Had AT2 on my previous P38 on 16" but found them a bit noisy.

BF Goodridge AT2 (made by Michelin) just fitted to my 90, very quiet, all good never looked back

After some research I have narrowed down the list to two tyres. Based on reviews, test reports, youtube videos and forum advice.

I now need to choose between all season road tyres or mild AT tyres. Since offroading and greenlaning is in most places illegal here in Belgium, I expect my use to be max. 80/20 on/off but most likely even more on road. Off road use would be the occasional dirt track or lawn/grass.

As AT tyre I have selected the Geolandar g015. Reviews and testing learned me that it is slightly better on wet tarmac, for aquaplaning and for rolling resistance than the General Grabber AT3. It is also less expensive. So it is better suited to my use I think.

I still leave the door open for an aggressive threaded on-road all season. I think it may even be the best choice. I am looking at the Michelin Cross Climate 2, which gets very good reviews and test results for on road performance. I did not find any proper off road tests, other than some high speed testing on snow which is not relevant. But the thread looks really quite aggressive, it looks like it may actually be half decent on soggy grass and on dirt tracks. It is not available in my current wheelsize, 255/65R15 seems to be a bit of an oddball size. So I would need to get 18 inch wheels and the tyres will also cost about 50 euros / corner more.

I think I'll run the car on its old tyres for a while, or on some cheapo 2nd hand ones. If I'm assured the car is worth the money (its a project car which has not been on the road yet) I will decide on the tyres.

Thanks for the advice everyone!

If I wanted some more road biased tyres, I'd go for these.

300bhp/ton said:

If I wanted some more road biased tyres, I'd go for these.

Bravo Series AT-771

The Bravo AT-771 tyres truly perform on all terrains. With incredible wet and dry grip on the road, and on gravel, grass, mud and snow.

www.maxxis.com

Click to expand...

Had a brief look into them earlier but discarded them on the basis that for the p38 on 16" rims these would come at 180€ per corner, which is incredibly expensive. And since I found no reviews or tests to suggest it was better than the Yokohama g015 I didn't look further into them.

I actually want the General Grabber HTS60 tyres, but unfortunately they're not available in the p38 sizes in the EU it seems...

ar1g3 said:

After some research I have narrowed down the list to two tyres. Based on reviews, test reports, youtube videos and forum advice.

I now need to choose between all season road tyres or mild AT tyres. Since offroading and greenlaning is in most places illegal here in Belgium, I expect my use to be max. 80/20 on/off but most likely even more on road. Off road use would be the occasional dirt track or lawn/grass.

As AT tyre I have selected the Geolandar g015. Reviews and testing learned me that it is slightly better on wet tarmac, for aquaplaning and for rolling resistance than the General Grabber AT3. It is also less expensive. So it is better suited to my use I think.

I still leave the door open for an aggressive threaded on-road all season. I think it may even be the best choice. I am looking at the Michelin Cross Climate 2, which gets very good reviews and test results for on road performance. I did not find any proper off road tests, other than some high speed testing on snow which is not relevant. But the thread looks really quite aggressive, it looks like it may actually be half decent on soggy grass and on dirt tracks. It is not available in my current wheelsize, 255/65R15 seems to be a bit of an oddball size. So I would need to get 18 inch wheels and the tyres will also cost about 50 euros / corner more.

I think I'll run the car on its old tyres for a while, or on some cheapo 2nd hand ones. If I'm assured the car is worth the money (its a project car which has not been on the road yet) I will decide on the tyres.

Thanks for the advice everyone!

Click to expand...

I don't know what the rules are for winter tyres in Belgium but you might find the AT better in the white stuff.

With mud it needs to have an open pattern to thrown the mud off to get the grip. Sometimes that means a noisy ride on tarmac though. Obviously you need a decent depth for mud but again, that means the tyre will have loads of wear before the legal limit is reached so could be a long term saving there.

Michelin Pilot P275/65R18 114H MICHELIN PILOT LTX M+S
if you can find them!