cherren, if the ladies had short skirts I'd get rid of the sidesteps in a flash so they would have to stretch further to get in!!! I probably wouldn't have them except it was part of the deal with my WH, I got mine when Jeep had the Navigator deal going. One good thing about it is it stops stone chips along the side of the car. I was talking to a guy in the Pilbara during my recent trip and even though his vehicle had front mud flaps a few stones had got under the radar and had chipped the side of his vehicle.
I have had nothing but trouble with Cooper tyres, punctures, tread chipping and even a tread parting from the tyre. I gave them another go this year, brand new on my WH, wouldn't have done anymore than 600k on gravel and a puncture with that particular tyre suffering bad tread chipping yet the others were fine. Cooper wouldn't replace, the best they would do was sell me another ATR at half price. Cooper tyres do not have a good reputation in the west. Bridgestone is the favoured tyre over there. I spoke with a guy during my recent trip that had punctured 2 at once along the Gibb River in fact every guy I spoke with who had Coopers had some story to tell. Mainly punctures and very dissappointed because of the claim that the tyres are suppose to be very resistant to punctures. Newman tyres showed me many destroyed Cooper STs, ST-Cs STTs and ATRs. The owner of the business told me they do not handle the heat or the iron country. All the mines use nothing but Bridgestone and that is all he sells to the public as well. Cooper say to air down the locals over there say that's crap and that you should air up hard so that the rocks deflect and not get grabbed and held by a deflated tyre. I have told Cooper tyres about this and I notice in the latest 4x4 Aust mag at page 99-102 Cooper Aust did some tests joined by a head guy from USA and ran one of the vehicles with over-inflated tyres cold 50psi, no problems; a shame they didn't do the testing in the Pilbara or along Gibb River!! On paper they sound good and I like the tread but I have like many people been very disappointed. The STs are not 10 ply as claimed if you have a look on the sidewall it states 2ply steel and 2 ply ployester, sidewall 2 ply polyester. I have a spare ST case for my off road camper and if you can get hold of one have a feel where the tread meets the sidewall it is thin as. This is where most of the damage is being caused by sharp sticks and stones they penetrate straight through there. I have challenged Cooper about their claim and the response was that the reinforcing thread is twice as thick as their competitors so they multiply everything by 2. And it's actually the tread that's allegedly 10ply NOT the sidewall. If you get a chance go to the OzExplorer site, go to their forum and enter the cooper tyre forum, they are the most complained about tyre.
So with the issues I have had with them when you have to spend $420 over in the west to replace a destroyed tyre (so that you still have 2 spares) that has cost you $300 in the first place and only lasted 600k on gravel, I'm looking elsewhere. They are suppose to be the tyre that you trust, afraid I don't trust them anymore. I want something I can trust when I'm in the middle of nowhere!!!
Last edited by roscoea26; 15-12-2007 at 06:34 AM.
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