Hello everyone. I was hoping you could give some suggestions. I live in Reykjavik and I have had my Discovery 4 just over a year. I bought Cooper Discoverer AT3's last May, used them for the summer, and then switched them out for Nokian R2's for the winter. I have them in 265/65R18 on Compomotives. I just switched back to the summer tires in the beginning of June (I was gone for May, and we get snow and ice into May here). I have had really bad luck with the Coopers. My total mileage on the car is 26000km, and the Coopers have been on for only about 12,000 of that. In that time I have had at least four flat tires requiring patching or replacement. I bought one new tire (so I have bought six so far). Just yesterday, I had two separate flat tires. One occurred on a mountain road. I had lowered the pressure to around 27 or 28 psi. It was a front tire, and it was in the center of the tread. The leak was fast, but not catastrophic. I did not notice when it happened, as I had deflated all my tires so the TPMS lights were already on. I noticed when I got into town and needed to air up. (it was only 1 or 2km from the trail head, so I was not driving long or fast on the flat). The next flat was the rear tire on the other side. It was fine when I aired up in town, and I put 34 psi on the tire in town. I drove about an hour and arrived in another town, and noticed that it was also hissing. Sure enough, it had also lost pressure and was spraying air out a hole in the tread (not the sidewall etc). It was not the spare tire, but one of the other ones that had been on the car when I was driving before. It was near midnight on our independence day, so no luck in getting anyone to help...I was still an hour away over a mountain road to the place I was staying. I bought some tire fixing foam spray at the gas station before it closed and followed the instructions, and it seemed to work for a little bit, but it seemed to lose pressure gradually. When I drove the requisite ten kilometers, I stopped to check, it was still spraying out air and foam all over my wheel well. I had a call and get a friend to pick me up and drive me out...a two hour round trip for them at midnight. They were very kind about it, but I was mortified.
In the other occasions, I had one flat in the highlands from having too much pressure on gravel roads. I was using the standard factory pressure on a gravel road, and the tire hit a rock and it tore up the tire. I cannot remember the specifics of the other one or two, but I am pretty sure it was either a piece of metal, or just the bad highland roads here. I have had zero problems with the Nokians, but I am not running these on as many trails or highland roads, as they are all closed in the winter.
I have lost my confidence in these tires completely, and I am wondering what is the issue. Should I switch to another tire like the KO2? Are my pressures too high or two low? I generally follow the factory pressures for road use, and air down to around 28 or 30 for trails. I would like to think that I am not driving like an idiot, but of course that is possible. I drive fast over gravel at times, but in general I am a careful driver. On these mountain trails I was rarely going over 20 or 30 km/h, and most 10 or so. Primarily in low range for the passes and so on. The tires seem to work very well when they are not exploding. Tires are exceptionally expensive here, I think the Coopers were around 400 dollars each, but Costco just opened here and is crushing our local monopolies, so all of a sudden they are 30-50% cheaper. That's good news at least. I am not sure what brands they offer other than Michelin though.
On the plus side, the trail and view was amazing!
In the other occasions, I had one flat in the highlands from having too much pressure on gravel roads. I was using the standard factory pressure on a gravel road, and the tire hit a rock and it tore up the tire. I cannot remember the specifics of the other one or two, but I am pretty sure it was either a piece of metal, or just the bad highland roads here. I have had zero problems with the Nokians, but I am not running these on as many trails or highland roads, as they are all closed in the winter.
I have lost my confidence in these tires completely, and I am wondering what is the issue. Should I switch to another tire like the KO2? Are my pressures too high or two low? I generally follow the factory pressures for road use, and air down to around 28 or 30 for trails. I would like to think that I am not driving like an idiot, but of course that is possible. I drive fast over gravel at times, but in general I am a careful driver. On these mountain trails I was rarely going over 20 or 30 km/h, and most 10 or so. Primarily in low range for the passes and so on. The tires seem to work very well when they are not exploding. Tires are exceptionally expensive here, I think the Coopers were around 400 dollars each, but Costco just opened here and is crushing our local monopolies, so all of a sudden they are 30-50% cheaper. That's good news at least. I am not sure what brands they offer other than Michelin though.
On the plus side, the trail and view was amazing!