So... what car do you guys drive when not flying?

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My Everest, delivered on 24 April last year is in today for its 60K km service. 60,500km on the clock in 16 months, and not a click outside the WA Hermit Kingdom.

It hasn't missed a beat.

In the last 10 weeks, since its last service a tad early prior to the first of three successive trips 'up north', each interspersed with about two weeks at home, I've stacked on about 17K clicks.

Have to love the wide open spaces over here in Paradiso St Marko (TM). 😜

1: Brushing Broome to points further N

2: Covid Revised: Roaming near Rudall River/Karlamilyi National Park

3: A Western Swing – Wildflowers, Gorges, Coast

For the first two of those trips, I took a second spare. Of course, no tyre issues.

The last one, just completed, which was predominantly on bitumen, I decided to get the drag-inducing second spare off the roof. You guessed it: a punctured tyre on the dirt in Karijini NP. The tyre pressure monitor alerted me, so I didn't have a repeat of last year's little scratch:

IMG_7555.JPG

I changed the wheel and shot off to Tom Price to get the tyre repaired. It looked like a single small hole in the middle of the tread, so easily plugged.

Errr... not so fast. 🤪

The repairer comes back after plugging the initial hole and says there's a second fine hole too close to the first on to properly plug. Oh well, another new tyre. :rolleyes:

That was the downside; the upside was that the puncture occurred early enough in the afternoon to get to Tom Price by about 1615h and have it sorted before we left Karijini for Coral Bay next morning. :)
 
sigh.. I can't even nail 10k/pa….
Tyres are a challenge ; I choose high speed road oriented blackstraps because I live in the city.
A set of 17" rims and rugged A/T tyres would be essential if I ventured where angels fear to tread.
The bush track at the end of our street no has some truly gigantic washouts and I am sorely tempted to crawl the eg into one of them
and demand similar evidence of capability from other lesser resident aff vehicles...😄
 
Not so simple QT…..:)
Light truck is a load rating , All Terrain is a tyre construction parameter. (Wall and tread perforation protection)
Many AT's will also be LT rated as the performance demands in terms of durability will usually allow a higher load rating.
 
TheRealTMA said:
Next ones should be half-track!
Click to expand...

I basically had the decision on my next tyres made for me at the Tom Price Tyrepro. They sell only Cooper, so the one I bought is LT265/60R18 AT3. That should cover most bases. 🧐

The vehicle, like almost all fourbies came with highway tyres. I wanted something tougher than that, but I was concerned about road noise if I went AT. A lot of my driving is a long beeline on the highway (eg. Perth-Kalgoorlie), but then I wanted something that could handle a solid run on dirt/stones and a bit of hard scrabble, but I am not into heavy rock-crawling, mud-sliding or sand-digging.

Given those specs, the bloke at the local Bob Jane where I'd bought tyres previously, suggested the Michelin LTs, so I had the dealer swap out the standards for those before delivery. They are wearing really well, but I have now stuffed two of the originals, so to that extent hindsight tells me I should have gone AT tread pattern with LT loading.

Anyway, bottom line is that a new Ranger is due next year, so a new Everest should follow and I'll change over. The Michelins should last another 20K clicks at least and see me through to vehicle change.

I'll aim to keep the Cooper pristine (I have the second spare with an adequate second-hand tyre that I can mount in the vehicle and keep the wheel with the Cooper in the garage). Then when I change vehicle, I'll probably only get four new Coopers and possibly keep the best of the Michelins as the second spare.
 
JessicaTam said:
Not that I have had them, but I believe it is very specific - i.e. lots of opportunities for them to dodge the warranty.
Click to expand...

I think that goes without saying. I won't get neurotic about it.

I'll get 80K clicks out of my (ahem, remaining, Michelins) and they don't rabbit on about it.

I take those sorts of 'guarantee' statements with a grain of salt. As long as they don't disintegrate on me, I'm happy. 😜
 
Quickstatus said:
A rumour they are putting a V6 in it?
Click to expand...

I haven't seen anything about that.

You're not mixing it up with the LC300 are you? Or maybe a V6 specifically as an option in the Raptor? From what I read the Raptor suffers from a power deficiency because of the way it's spec'd relative to its apparently less sexy siblings. Seems kind of a letdown to me.

I'm happy with the 2.0L bi-turbo/10 speed. Good power (I have a liking for sailing through 150kph at the cab of a road train I'm overtaking - and with something in reserve) and great fuel economy (a touch over 8L/100km on the last 4K km trip to the Pilbara).
 

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