Anyone used Bridgestone D693 tyres?

[jcubed]

Hi guys, me again.

I am also very keen to know about road noise from the Pirellis, as this is what I plan to put on the LR2 next. Not that you have much of a choice if you are looking for an AT/R tyre on an 18" rim locally. It's either this, a Goodyear Wrangler derivative, and maybe a Dueler. It seems as if manufacturers regard an 18" rim as not suitable for off-road use, hence the lack of choice. I wonder where they get that idea from ....?

You are correct about a Dueler being good on sand. I now have my 5th set of HTs on the Forester, and did that Namib Desert trip with them. They flatten out well when deflated to 0.6 bar and stay on the rim (70 profile) due to good flex in the side walls.

That same flex unfortunately made them extremely vulnerable to sidewall punctures from low-growing thorn bushes and rocks. Mileage about average for any car/tyre combination I've ever owned - not much more than 40,000km.

What is your Scorpion ATR price over there? Here they trade in the narrow band between the platinum and gold prices - between AUD 500 - 550.

That's per tyre, not for the set, in case you were wondering.

[jimbomort]

jcubed - good to see you here. Arctra can advise us on what he paid, but I would have thought closer to half what you quoted - ie more like 250-270 AUD per tyre.

on the pirelli scorpions yes they are on my list too, Arctra great to see you found some in 16's from my quick look I thought I'd have to go 17's to maintain the same load and speed rating.

Arctra are the tyres you got the same load rating etc as originals? If so per tyre calc they should be 35.5 mm larger diameter, which is a fair increase and enough to make a meaningful difference to clearance (about 18mm). Great to hear they fit as of much interest to me, though strictly speaking they are not roadworthy without an enginerring certificate. Pointy end of that though is your insurer - how have they treated this mod?

For all its worth, you may notice a slight drop in fuel economy. Nothing I can be sure of, but I think my fuel economy at hwy speeds has lost a slight edge since I increased my ride height. Could make sense as ride height does make a difference to air flow around the car - for eg the Golf blue motion has been dropped about 15mm compared with the standard golf ti improve fuel economy. So could get that regardless of how the rolling resistance compares. Again that may be poorer I'd be interested to hear on your impressions on any impact on fuel economy as well after some experience with them.

cheers

[Arctra]

...Arctra can advise us on what he paid, but I would have thought closer to half what you quoted - ie more like 250-270 AUD per tyre.

Correct! They set me back A$255 each which included fitting and balancing. Thought that was pretty decent.

...Arctra are the tyres you got the same load rating etc as originals? If so per tyre calc they should be 35.5 mm larger diameter, which is a fair increase and enough to make a meaningful difference to clearance (about 18mm)....

I believe the Dueler H/T's are 98T rated whereas the Scorpion's I have are 102T rated. Really not sure what the difference there is?

... Great to hear they fit as of much interest to me, though strictly speaking they are not roadworthy without an enginerring certificate. Pointy end of that though is your insurer - how have they treated this mod?

I thought these fell with the 5% rule so they were legal

As for road noise, thus far I have found them to be fine. I really cannot tell if they are any more noisy/quieter than the Dueler H/T's that were on before. The vehicle feels just a little higher (hardly noticable IMO) and takes bumps/cracks in the road a little better. Haven't actually been off the blacktop with it yet so cannot comment on that.

So far I am happy with my choice. I guess the long term fuel efficiency and performance of the vehicle remains to be seen though.

[Arctra]

Well, yesterday my girlfriend picked up a big piece of metal in the rear tyre which rendered it useless. So I took the jump to a new set of tyres early (well, about 10000km's earlier than I hoped anyway). I decided to go with the Pirelli Scorpion ATR 225/70R16. They are definitely visually bigger tyres as you can see in the pics below. The guys that changed them (Jax Quickfit in Haberfield) checked that there was sufficient clearance all around with 1 tyre before they changed the other 3 for me. The clearance is pretty good IMO.
...

I thought I'd do something of a long-term update on these tyres.

After 104,000km on them I finally replaced them today. That is a pretty damned impressive milage in my books! I made sure I rotated them every service (Rear tyres to the front on the same side, front tyres to the back on opposite sides) which might have helped a bit, but really the tyres lasted well.

I tended to run 40PSI up front, and 38PSI in the rears unless I was carrying a heavier load in which case I bumped it up 1 or 2 PSI. The shoulders were showing slightly more wear than the centre tread, so I don't feel those pressures were too high. They are dated to a max of 44PSI if that helps.

Overall I was really impressed with how they travelled with no noticable cabin noise as a result of them. The biggest think I noticed is they made the speedo nearly perfectly accurate when comparing to the speed on the GPS, rather than slightly under-reading the speed that cars normally do. Offroad the tyres were great and the extra clearance I got from them was worth it. Not once do I recall hearing the tyre hit the mudguard because of bottoming out, so they were not too big by any stretch.