Andy, thanks for that. Feedback would be welcome from anyone who has any of the tyres on my shortlist:
Cooper Discoverer ATR, new pattern General Grabber AT or Goodyear Wrangler AT/SA......
.....from farmers to hairdressers or anyone in between

Many thanks for the replies so far.
Anyone else have any comments especially about the performance of these tyres in mud vs on road compromises when compared with OEM Wrangler HP's?.....
Cooper Discoverer ATR, new pattern General Grabber AT or Goodyear Wrangler AT/SA

sorry running standard type tyres here At work
At home

"I can't always believe facts I read on the web" - Charles Dickens

winner by default of the tractor vs caravan race

OK thanks CG. Do you use your FL2 round the farm? If so, how gloopy is the mud on a scale of 1 - 10? Mine's about 7 and on an incline in one area. If yours is similar or worse I'd be interested in your technique. I find the problem with the HP's is they simply don't clear well enough and I end up with slicks Feet off everything and all 4 wheels turnng happlily, just no forward motion - traction control thinks everything is fine

1957 Series 1 with Avon traction milage mud tyres works fine as does Kubota with turf tyres. Trouble is they're not on road and I want to avoid having to hitch/unhitch to go up the field with the trailer. Also trying to avoid buying replacement tyres and ending up with the same problem.

cheers.

Try to increase rotational speed of your wheels in order to throw out the mud from the "slicks".
Therefore select Mud & Roots and disable DSC before climbing the hill.
Also, when you feel that you loose grip and seems to loose speed, turn the steering wheel continuously with energic moves from left to right and back in order for the soulder of the wheel to dig up the mud and gain grip again. Of course, the soulder of the tire should have a decent towards agressive profile in order to do that.
And one more thing: Always you need to be aware of where your wheels are pointing at all times.

Thanks Alex-P. Sadly I have tried the recommended techniques both regarding speed and traction control setting. Soon established that mud & ruts setting doesn't work well in my mud & ruts.

GGS setting is better as it doesn't dull the acceleration as much, and as you say, you can spin the wheels faster. Unfortunately mud so sticky that it simply doesn't clear fast enough to find traction.

I would really like a cost free solution (ie. technique) but I think I've exhausted the options. Using momentum by taking a run up does work but as mentioned it's not too controlled. I may be wrong but it seems to me that no traction control system can "amplify" zero grip between tyre and surface - hence the tyre research.

Have you considered the Khumo KL78 (pictured in my gallery), comes in standard 235/65/17 size, great all round AT grip & stable & quite on the road.
Have used them as a winter tyre for the past 2 years and can't fault them, not sure on UK stock levels though!

No, sammythedog, I hadn't until your helpful comments. Rightly or wrongly I had kind-of concentrated on bigger brands and not really looked in detail at any budget tyres. I appreciate you taking the time to post your comments and the photos. My shortlist is now longer;
Cooper Discoverer ATR, new pattern General Grabber AT, Goodyear Wrangler AT/SA, or Kumho KL78's

Quote:

AJS4X4 8th Jan 2011 4:47 pm

Should have some news on the supply of General AT next week.
Think we have some Pirelli ATR left.
Andy.

Last chance to influence my choice of tyre. Hope to spend the money soon - assuming someone actually has stock;
Cooper Discoverer ATR, new pattern General Grabber AT, Goodyear Wrangler AT/SA, or Kumho KL78's

Can't talk for the others but I feel sure the General AT would fit the bill, but as you say if there is any stock available, hope to see them soon as we have been out of stock since before Christmas.

Andy. Andy.
www.ajstyres.co.uk www.ajs4x4.co.uk
J8 M25 SURREY
01737 241370

Thanks for the update Andy. I'm tending toward the General Grabber AT at the moment. It seems to be popular elsewhere on the internet and the Nov 2010 LRO review is favourable (except main the area of interset to me; mud, where they didn't really put it through its paces ) The others seem popular but reviews/comments are fairly hard to come by.

Would appreciate any update regarding stock of the General Grabber AT 235/65 17's. Cheers

A bit late but just noticed your thread. Fitted a set of Cooper ATRs about 2 months ago & so far no complaints. The 235/65/17 were not available so ended up with 245/65/17 at £430 fitted for the 4 tyres from Tyrespot in Newcastle. Look fine on my standard GS alloys. They seemed to work well enough in the deep snow we had & are quiet on a normal dry road. Find them a little bit floaty in the dry but I have found this with most open tread tyres. I would say they seem a good compromise without going to a total offroad tyre, but depends what you need them for. To early to tell on wear rate.
Not had a chance to try off road but hopefully off to Kielder tomorrow to sort the route for the Border Counties Stage Rally in March, assuming most of the snow has cleared & may know better after that.

Thanks for that A6TDH. Good to hear about the Coopers, yours is the first feedback on these. I'd be interested to hear how you got on at Kielder, especially if there was any mud involved.
Cheers

Sorry Blackthorn, roads we used were in much better condition than I expected (as above)but the tyres seemed to cope very well with the mud & loose stone sections we did encounter with no problems anywhere. How much is down to the cars abilities & how much to the tyres not sure. Can't comment on really deep mud.
Seem to be a good allround tyre but think you might need a more open pattern to dig you out of the deep stuff if thats what you need them for..(But then you could loose out on the road) Surprisingly quiet at motorway speeds on the way up.

Good luck

Admin note: this post has had its images recovered from a money grabbing photo hosting site and reinstated

Thanks for the update A6TDH and for taking the trouble to post the picture. See what you mean about the track, interesting comments none the less.

My dilemma is that mud tyres would easily solve my problem but I believe the on road compromise wouldn't be worth it. I only need to tow the trailer up/down the field intermittently and have other vehicles that can do it.

I hoped the FL2 would enable me to do the on road and off road bits seamlessly without having to unhitch from the "on-roader" and hitch up to the "off roader". Hence the search for a good AT/ATR. Maybe I should have bought another defender - but I was swayed by the comparitive luxury