195 80 15 tyre options?

[djc]

Experience of various available please? Note the brief is mixed terrain plus some road - snow and mus, winter, but not extreme off-road only. I have a good set of wheels with Falkens on for proper road use, and want a set of wheels with winter/deep tread. I looked at various Insa but am concerned about retreads, maybe unfairly. Found Kingpin Tracker, look about right, any good?
These are a good example of the degree of tread I have in mind:

$_57.jpg (88.61 KiB) Viewed 9630 times

Jason's wheels are in the powder coat place at the mo. Found a good colour match to the old cream... going to look fairly ace I think. The powder coating man is Curtis in Borough Green, does some very nice work, lots of old classic and bike bits around - and sensible money I thought (under £200 for 5 wheels).

[ROBBIE]

I never had any troubles with Insa Turbo remoulds, I ran a set of 195s for about 5 years in all conditions.
I never ran the pattern pictured but still have one that was my spare and never used, not sure of make.

[andyrew]

Myself personally. Id steer clear of remoulds.
From the experiance ive had they start to perish very quickly compared to a "new" better quality tyre. I was put off from "amazons" after they started to show aging after 3 months!
They can also be Pretty rubbish to balance. My old colway 195s had around a quarter of the rim in weights but lasted years.

Its really down to preference and cost but from what ive seen
Decent brand rubber will last untill its worn out, but remoulds
Tend to start cracking between the treads or on the sidewalls.

Its just the quality of cheap rubber now. Exhaust hangers are very
Similar. All the new hangers i put on the carlton 5months ago are
Failing badly. I fitted a track rod end on a pug 206 and that failed the mot 3 months later with a perished ball joint boot on the TRE id fitted.

Its the old principle of " buy cheap, buy twice"

[Jordi]

Kumho KL71s.

Decent price. I've never used them but know people who rate them very well in various sizes.

[djc]

Thanks for the knowledge. The Khumos look and sound good, found excellent reviews here

http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Tyre/Kumho ... T-KL71.htm

Seem to be around £72 each and I was planning up to £400 (all 5) so these could be the choice. Sadly not going anywhere til I get that SU44 fitted... and a servo swap.

[SherwoodNash]

I did all the homework on this too, the Technic Trackers have the best price and nice 'chunky' look new.

Unfortunately, many online reviewers have reported, as soon as only 3 months average use the blocks patterns start to round off and other degradation issues can show quickly.

I'm 80/20 road/mud so went for 5x Kumho KL78's, over KL71's plus £20 a tyre cheaper, so far very happy with the A/T decision.

[ScottieJ]

Get some maxxis MTs if you can.......do any other tyres come with a lifetime guarantee against punctures....pretty sure they don't. That in itself is a good reason to go for them.

They also last ages and work well in the mud and snow and drive just as well as an AT tyre on road, just a bit noisier but not noisy enough to bother you.

[twiss]

My vote is either with the Kumho KL71s or Malatesta Kobras (remoulds)

I've run the malatestas in 31" for about 2 years now and they are still looking quite good for perishing and wear wise...
especially considering the sharp nature of the rocks in malta. found them to be pretty good in mud in the UK and on rocks here
good on road handling too and not very much tyre noise. probably done about 10,000 miles on them now too.

I also had the same pattern (Insa Turbo Saharas) in 195 when I first got the truck (picked up a set of 5 for £90!!!) and they were pretty good. Beaten in deep mud by the special tracks, but much better for road use as well. I found that the Insa Turbo ones ended up wearing down faster than my current Malatestas, but they were part worn when i got them

Had the Kumho KL71 in between in 235x80r15 and they were very good to use on the road and almost as good as the Saharas/Kobras in mud. Even though i prefer a slightly more aggressive tyre I would definitely think about buying them again

I had the colway 195 version (same as andy) of the picture you put up, and they were terrible for me as well.
Noisy on the road with poor handling, I found they used to tram line a lot and follow grooves in the road, and they were always out of balance and I had loads of wheel weights on.

My other remoulds, the sarahas and kobras I haven't had any balancing problems with at all.
I think buying remoulds really depends on the manufacturer. I've been lucky with insa turbo and malatesta and not had any problem with them, but I do definitely think the malatestas are slower to wear than the insa turbos

[ROBBIE]

Yeah no complaints on KL71 its whats on the Jimny

[Matt]

I had kl71s before, then I changed to Maxxis bighorn mt764 and I've never looked back!! What an epic tyre!! Saw that a few guys were running Maxxis on here and decided that was the way to go...oh and they have white writing on the sidewalls