MPG and all terrain tyres

[itchy trigger]

hi all

 

looking to change tyres on my motor, I am thinking to put all terrain on, I have Dunlop sp5000 m&s 255/60/17 on at the minute, on the motor when I got it (perminent 4wd), 36000 mile ago, these are great on tarmac and I had no problems on the snow last winter, even up the hills in the lakes on packed snow! but think I need something a little more aggresive as I will be moving to Northumberland in the new year, was thinking of BFG or General AT2's, but I am sure I read somewhere that you can expect a drop of up 5 mpg, thats a huge 18-20% drop, can anyone confirm this as correct as 75-85% of my miles are on tarmac the rest off road fishing and shooting

thanks

supersport

Edited November 1, 2010 by supersport

[al4x]

depends on the vehicle with the BFG AT's or grabber AT2's it won't be too bad but put mud terrains on and watch the MPG drop fast. I'm in the same quandry at the moment and wondering whether to go for ones that are slightly narrower as 265's are pretty monstrous p.s bet you go for the grabbers rather then the BFG's their prices have been hiked massively recently

[J@mes]

I lost 3MPG which is 10% when I fitted grabber AT2.

 

there is a new grabber out though called the AT which has a less aggressive tread pattern but which claims to have the same performance as the AT2, that could be worth looking at.

[steve_b_wales]

I've just fitted two KUHMO 265/65/17 tyres on my Freelander. I do 75% onroad, so wanted tyres that would'nt be noisy, but still have enough tread/grip offroad. So far, I'm impressed with them.

[Tim Kelly]

I put some Grabber AT2 tyres on my land cruiser Colorado in the spring, replacing the previous much more road style tyres. I might have dropped one or two mpg, but on a mid twenty mile to a gallon vehicle one or two miles per gallon is barely relevant. Love the tyres, cost £500 for a set of 4 fitted and balanced, which was about £100 less than the BFG equivelants.

[Billy.]

...And there was me thinking the fuel consumption would be countered by larger tyres, becuase of the increased distance they'll cover on one rotation, thus countering the weight and off road tread pattern

[Andy75]

You mean just through higher gearing? All that means is that you're going to rev it more to get the same performance = less mpg.

I saw a 12% drop in mpg when I moved to Insa Sahara Turbo's (80/20 off road / on road) on my last motor.

[Dougy]

Yes a big drop in MPG for me. was 34MPG now down to about 27MPG

Next purchase, a set of steel rims for the MT's and road tyres on the alloys.

[John_R]

I dropped 2 or 3 MPG when I put Grabber AT/2 on my Disco. Great tyres though, and as I have neither time nor space for second sets of tyres/rims I think the compromise is a good one.

[stuey]

Grabber at2 on my Nissan pathfinder only dropped the mpg by 2. Just back from touring the lakes and tank to tank it worked out at 33.5 mpg.

 

Cheers

 

Stu

[955i]

I've just fitted two KUHMO 265/65/17 tyres on my Freelander. I do 75% onroad, so wanted tyres that would'nt be noisy, but still have enough tread/grip offroad. So far, I'm impressed with them.

 

Glad to hear that, I have just brought 2 of these (partworn but with 5mm of tread left) as my front tyres were knacked and had no idea what they would be like but figured £75 for the pair fitted and balanced couldn't be sniffed at with MOT time looming

[Beno]

Got a set of BFG MTs on my wagon and to tell the truth its not that much of drop I am getting about 300 miles to 350 miles to a tank, and that lots off-roading 4L but on the road there no noise from them. I know of a lot of people that have two set of wheels and change them all the time but I couldent be bothered with that.

[itchy trigger]

depends on the vehicle with the BFG AT's or grabber AT2's it won't be too bad but put mud terrains on and watch the MPG drop fast. I'm in the same quandry at the moment and wondering whether to go for ones that are slightly narrower as 265's are pretty monstrous p.s bet you go for the grabbers rather then the BFG's their prices have been hiked massively recently

 

your right in your assumption al4x,

I am going for the grabber AT2's, I am fed up of trawling the net looking at what to buy, was considering buying another set of smaller wheels and putting RF10s on, but thats daft, then theres storing the spare wheels and the changing of them, stuff that, AT2's it is.

thanks for the replies folks

supersport

[Chally2]

Bought my set of At2s last week. They look great, not noisy and can't tell any different on road handling. I will be watching the MPG, just did 300 miles on motorway yesterday so I can do a good check on the next refuel. It was a big investment and I know you always wonder if you made the right decision, so far I am not regreting it.

[ProteuS]

At the start of this year I put vredestein wintrac 4 tyres on the landcruiser (on reccomendation from a farming friend) and I've been very impressed with them. They are nearly as quiet as the dueler ht's on beforehand. very good in the wet and excellent in the snow. They are even quite reasonable in the mud. although definatley not MT standard. For a mostly on road tyre I'm really a fan. and I have mt's on the 90 if I need anything a bit more serious. Fuel economy seems to have been unaffected. averaging 26.9 over 11'300 miles.

[Bradders]

I have got AT/2 on my x-trail (2.2dci engine)....had them a year now and to be honest around town I regularily get 30. When I do a motorway run I can achieve 35/36. No noticable difference maybe 1 or 2 mpg......They dont appear notably noisier either.....

Edited November 3, 2010 by Bradders

[Seamus]

When I bought my D3 in '07 the first thing I bought were Pirelli Scorpion ATRs to replace the standard road version. On previous 4x4s I've used BFG ATRs and they're simply great tyres, however choice is limited for 19" wheels and unfortunately BFG don't make them in this size. The ATRs aren't a lot different to the standard road version of the Scorpion tyres so fuel consumption change was negligible, and to be honest they were only slightly better than the standard tyres off road. Not cheap either.

 

Early this year I swapped them to Goodyear MTRs (same as used on the G4 cars), these made a big difference to the MPG (down to about 22-23mpg) and the road noise was a lot worse than I expected, especially on motorways (much to my wife's displeasure). Off road though, brilliant tyres, shame that only accounts for about 2% of my driving....

[masterzone2]

If I may when I got my Hilux it gave me about 28-30 MPG then I fitted alloys with BFGs'

and got better MPG on them than I did on the road tyres.

My fellow car nuts and myself are 90% sure it was because the rolling radius was greater

with the taller tyres per hub revolution.

Example I done a 37 mile trip (one way) but my clock said I had only done 30 miles (had 2 sat navs confirming it was 37 ish miles)

so based on what I have just said and how I have been driving my truck for the last 2odd years you really shouldn't lose out really.

[chrispti]

My Jimny will do 250 odd miles on £40 with BFG AT's, thats 90% urban driving, could squeeze a bit more out of her if I took the lead out of my boots too

[itchy trigger]

just to give y'all an update, its been driving me crazy looking at all the tyre options, so have eventualy ordered 4 x 255/65/17 h110 general at2's yesterday, had to go up to the 65% profile as needed the h rating, ordered from camskill yesterday on reputation and got change from £500, best quote I got locally was £139 each but that was not for the at2 tyre I wanted, (not H rated)so will have them fitted next week, think that will cost between £40-£60, certainly hope it doesn't cost more

supersport

[itchy trigger]

the grabber AT2's were brilliant today, last night we got stuck in the snow halfway up the hill to my friends yard in my friends ml 4x4 with a two horse trailer on the back, he's got the dunlops sp5000's on, they just couldn't get a grip, so this morning drove down put a tow rope from my ml to his, put it low range and pulled his car and trailer up, virtualy no wheel spin, top performance from the tyres, they are quiet to, just a bit of hum noticable at 30-40 no difference at 70

supersport

Edited November 29, 2010 by supersport

[itchy trigger]

got a drop of 3mpg, down to 27mpg, will be interesting to see if this drop remains stable as with the bad weather and doing mainly urban/city this last month it has not been normal.

supersport

[masterzone2]

Update

 

After 1st posting this I had gone from BFG 245/75/16 mud tyres getting 33-36 MPG

 

Now gone back to the 205/80/16 tyres and am DOWN to 25-26 MPG I'll be going back to bigger tyres ASAP.

[gixer1]

Supersport - what vehicle was this on?? Why the 110 rating?

 

Edited to say do you mean a speed or load rating?? Eg my disco 2 AT2's are H109 which is I think 130mph and 1030kgs per tyre load... Do you mean a 110mph speed rating?

 

Regards

 

Gixer

Edited January 2, 2011 by gixer1

[Billy.]

Update

 

After 1st posting this I had gone from BFG 245/75/16 mud tyres getting 33-36 MPG

 

Now gone back to the 205/80/16 tyres and am DOWN to 25-26 MPG I'll be going back to bigger tyres ASAP.

 

I'm going to check mine pronto, as I went from 205/80/16 to the same BFGs you've got. Sounds like it could get better