Advice on Forester tires

subyroo said:
Seems NQ is harsh on tyres ......... I was in Townsville at the time. :biggrin: :biggrin:
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I lived in Malanda at the time and lived in NQ for 13 years. It is in my blood forever and will always feel like home. It is -or was - tough on tyres and living on the Tablelands I was always after good wet weather tyres and the Reflexes were just one that I tried. Back in the 70's the roads used to get so chopped up from "the wet" and I remember so well trips down the old Palmerston and Gillies H'ways and all the pot holes down through Tully and Cardwell. Looking back I wish there was a Forester around then as it would have been the perfect car for the conditions I drove in as I was always up some muddy back track where the Celica and Mazda RX-3 used to run out of grip and clearance. I lived in Townsville in '76 too - shared a flat in a huge old house that has now been demolished next to the Strand pub.
 
Thanks all... so between Michelin XM1, C drive and the P7, which one is the best? Or they are all the same?
 
Have done 3000km on my P7s and am very impressed.
BTW, I noticed the other day that Jax had them (in Geelong, just around the corner from work) for $159 each.
 
Hi everyone, I´m using in my 09 forester continental conticross AT, this tyres works well if you uses the car in off road, and also is no too much sound in the high way´s,
I don´t know if exist this model there, regards
 
We were running COOPER CS4 tyres on our last Forester. The first set lasted 70,000KM before they were wont out, the second set 35,000KM when we traded the car on a Diesel Forester. The original Yokahama Geolanders were worn out at 32000KM and bl**dy noisy. Cooper tyres will be going on our Diesel when the time comes for new shoes

Regards

Phil
 
Tweaksta said:
I got my Forester fitted Michelin Energy XM-1+s, I got them for just under $150 a corner about 40,000km ago. Amazing levels of grip, very strong sidewalls and great off road on mud, clay or sand. They are showing little or no signs of wear yet. I'm quite easily looking at another 40,000km on them. https://www.jaxquickfit.com.au/other-tyre-news-michelin-energy-XM1.htm
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UPDATE: Now it's four years since this post. I'm still on the same set of XM1+ tyres. I have now done 80,000km on them (including 15,000km off-road & S.A gibber) and they look like I'll get another 10,000kms before needing replacement. As far as $ per km goes they are unbeatable. Never had a flat, a tear, a leak or a blowout so I'd find it hard to switch to another tyre when I can trust these with my life.

Of course something more chunky and less road-based would be great but the cost goes up and it seems the durability goes down (unless anyone here can report a chunkier A/T tyre with similar mileage durability).
 
"Interesting" pic of the Michelin tyre tread on that link! :lol:

silica.jpg
 
Tweaksta said:
UPDATE: Now it's four years since this post. I'm still on the same set of XM1+ tyres. I have now done 80,000km on them (including 15,000km off-road & S.A gibber) and they look like I'll get another 10,000kms before needing replacement. As far as $ per km goes they are unbeatable. Never had a flat, a tear, a leak or a blowout so I'd find it hard to switch to another tyre when I can trust these with my life.

Of course something more chunky and less road-based would be great but the cost goes up and it seems the durability goes down (unless anyone here can report a chunkier A/T tyre with similar mileage durability).
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On my 03 Forester X, for off-road use, I'm running 65 series General Grabber AT2s on 16 inch steel wheels. Used only for club trips, it's hard to say how long they will last, but on all surfaces other than gluey mud, overall, I'm very happy with them. They're not LT construction in these sizings, however, and sidewalls are vulnerable to pinching and staking. Using them all the time on town and highway runs would be a waste, plus they're relatively noisy.

My road tyres have been G900s (yes they squealed, but other than that I've had no complaint with roadholding etc). However as they're now run out, I recently bought a used set of Michelin XM1+ tyres on Gumtree with 80% tread remaining. They came on Outback alloys, so I'm enjoying the new look :)

Tweaksta, your review of the Michelins is very encouraging to say the least. I won't be afraid to use them on outback roads. However, I'd be interested to know what tyre pressures you run on bitumen. While they seem to grip well enough wet and dry, they feel lighter than I'm used to through the steering wheel and I find I'm over-correcting on curves. It may just be a case of getting used to them.
 
I just bought 4 Bridgestone RE002's for $520. Very happy with them both on road and off. Never had a puncture, never been bogged, tenacious road holding wet and dry. Compared to the A/T's I had, they always got punctures, bugger all grip wet or dry and more expensive too!
 
Rally said:
I just bought 4 Bridgestone RE002's for $520. Very happy with them both on road and off. Never had a puncture, never been bogged, tenacious road holding wet and dry. Compared to the A/T's I had, they always got punctures, bugger all grip wet or dry and more expensive too!
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I had 2 sets of RE001's and then a set of RE002's. I just rave about them. They lasted 70,000km with tread to spare and retained fabulous grip almost to the end. I doubt whether you will get a better tyre for the Forester for sealed roads. And they survived the rough well too. In 2010 I did a trip across the Gibb River Road in the Kimberleys without a puncture, which is more than many of the off-road vehicles were managing. Have a set of Bridgestone Turanza ER33's at the moment because I'm mainly having to do a lot of highway driving at present and while they don't grip quite as well in the wet they are alright and very quiet for road noise.
 
My two bobs worth.
On my 2004 Forester which my daughter has hijacked for the snow season ( she works at Mt Buller) we run Yokohama ATS 215/60/16 on separate rims and until they wear out the Yokohama G900 as the road tyre.
On my 2002 Forester I run Yokohama ATS 215/65/16 on spare rims as the off-road tyre. I was going to buy the Michelin XM2 from the local Michelin dealer for my everyday road tyre and he talked me out of them and sold me Hankook Optimo K415 215/60/16 for $100 a corner. If I wasn't happy with the tyre I could swap it but I have to say they are brilliant. I have even driven off road on them by accident!
I recommend that you should have a set of off road and road tyres otherwise you waste the off-road rubber on the black top.
 
Problem being that the off road tyres are the ones that get punctures- and none more so than the Yokohama ATS
 
My ATS were fine, up until I went on dirt. Every time- and I mean EVERY time I went on dirt, I got a puncture. AFter about 4 or 5 trips (and 4-5 punctures) I decided road tyres were a better bet. Never had a road tyre get a puncture on dirt in either of my Forries.
 
Rally said:
My ATS were fine, up until I went on dirt. Every time- and I mean EVERY time I went on dirt, I got a puncture. AFter about 4 or 5 trips (and 4-5 punctures) I decided road tyres were a better bet. Never had a road tyre get a puncture on dirt in either of my Forries.
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Rally, that makes no sense... Could it be just random luck (or lack of)?

I've only ever had 1 puncture on a Yoko ATS tyre, but frankly any passenger car tyre would've punctured - it was a side wall thing.
 
It made no sense to me until I checked out the sidewall thickness of the ATS and compared it to my road tyres. The road tyre sidewall is thicker, at least according to my crude measuring. I can only guess that this is because the AT is designed for use in sand. Road tyres, probably more so my RE002's, need to have a fairly stiff sidewall for cornering. It would seem they do this my making a thicker sidewall. I have no measurements to back this up. I just felt the 2 tyres at the sidewall and the road tyre seemed thicker. The one AT tyre which seemed to have a thicker sidewall was the Bridgestone D697, although I have by no means checked every tyre brand.
 
I think you may be right about roadies there Rally. There seems to be a higher incidence of damage to A/T tyres. I'd still like to own a set though. Just need to keep researching until I can find the most robust. Perhaps Grabbers or Coopers - anyone had any problems with these brands?

mhfoot51, in response to your question, I generally run my pressures low to mid 30's. Last top up I filled the rears to 34 and the fronts 32 PSI. Sometimes this pressure still feels too firm but I don't get any oversteer when driving in normal conditions.
 
Thanks Tweaksta. I have settled on 38psi for my XM1+ Michelins. At this pressure they are hard riding, but more predictable in wet and dry than at lower pressures. I'm still getting used to the feel though the steering wheel, which is much lighter than I'm used to. They feel glassy and a bit skaty in cornering, unlike any previous Michelin I've driven on. I certainly wouldn't be confident to throw the car around on them, but then I'm not into drifting :-)

It occurred to me to check the DOT codes and mine are from the Shanghai factory, whereas a spare I have acquired since is from Japan. The Chinese factory had quality control problems for some years, according to Wikipedia.
 
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