Cooper ATR - Latest Issues Nov,2008

[mkh Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close mkh]

Hi.
Was on the Ausjeep forum this morning and it seems quite a few of the guys there have experienced the latest round of problems with the Cooper ATR. They are developing tiny hairline cracks around the rim of the tyres about a centimetre out from the wheel rim. According to one of the guys who's dealer is replacing the tyres, there was a recent "dodgy" shipment. Some of them have racked up some decent kms but one guy has fairly low mileage ATRs on his softroader Patriot and they look quite bad.

I know there have been ongoing issues with various Cooper tyres but if youv'e bought them in say the last 3-4 months then it might pay to give them a closer inspection.

Cheers, Markus.

[Lazy Eye'd Mike Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Lazy Eye'd Mike]

Re: Cooper ATR - Latest Issues Nov,2008

Guys,

Just came back from a trip to Cania Gorge QLD and wrecked 2 Discoverer ATR's with less than 10K on 'em, on one drive through some pretty easy NP tracks. On both tyres a rock went right through the centre of the tread section, and could not be repaired. Pretty poor effort I reckon. I had Cooper S/T's on the old 'lux & never had an issue, but these ATRs are crap. $500 down the drain, both tyres are in the bin at the tyre dealer in Monto, and as such don't think the dealer will be much help.

BFG's for me thistime I think, my problem is I still have 2 ATR's with little use, and the replacement cost will be pretty high for the whole set, particlarly since they are so new.

Cooper buyers should stick with S/T's.

[MickL Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close MickL]

Re: Cooper ATR - Latest Issues Nov,2008

Gee those Coopers really get a bad rap online... are they really that much worse than any other brand?

Mick

[McBAIN Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close McBAIN]

Re: Cooper ATR - Latest Issues Nov,2008

i bag mine constantly... but have to add that they've done 70000 with minimal rotations and no more than a nail puncture when i drove over something i shouldn't....

[jeff s Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close jeff s]

Re: Cooper ATR - Latest Issues Nov,2008

i bag mine constantly... but have to add that they've done 70000 with minimal rotations and no more than a nail puncture when i drove over something i shouldn't....

Ditto that.

I have done 65000Km's on our set of ST's, Same minimal rotations, but not one puncture.
I need to do another rotation as the front left at the moment needs a bit of a rest and wait for the others to catch up a bit.

6 months till the 09GTG so will wait untill then and change them for a new set of ST's

Jeff.

[speedcomm Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close speedcomm]

Re: Cooper ATR - Latest Issues Nov,2008

I got 88k out of the STs on my work truck, loaded, offroad all the time, rock, gravel etc. not one flat. 265/75/16, Have gone them again, Excelent tyre.

ATRs on the Prado have done 60 k now, no flats, will go to 100k without a drama, wearing extremely well. BUT you must use 265/70/17. If you use 265/65/17 you will suffer :cry: The 70 series profile is the heavy wall, deeper tread. Big difference between the 65 and 70 profile tyre strength wise.

[Bushbasher Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Bushbasher]

Re: Cooper ATR - Latest Issues Nov,2008

Was sold a set of ATRs for my 90 series. Lost first tyre at 500km when a third of the tread came off. Remainder of tyres started to separate tread from carcass. Discovered (too late) that my tyres were not LIGHT TRUCK construction only standard passenger car type (265/70/R16). Why would any dealer sell me passenger car rated tyres instead of LT?

Sticking to tried and trusted BFG T/A now.

[MickL Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close MickL]

Re: Cooper ATR - Latest Issues Nov,2008

Why would any dealer sell me passenger car rated tyres instead of LT?

Did you specify light truck tyre when you purchased?

Mick

[yetiboy01 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close yetiboy01]

Re: Cooper ATR - Latest Issues Nov,2008

Same thing happened to me with BFG's, leant from that mistake to drop the tyre presures from the black top pressures to around 28 rear & 26 front, no problems since, with the high hwy pressures the tyre cant deform so the rocks go straight through the tread, whith the lower presures the tyre can deform & roll over the rocks without damage. All brands of tyres will suffer the same damage if the tyre pressures arnt dropped on the rocky roads.

Guys,

Just came back from a trip to Cania Gorge QLD and wrecked 2 Discoverer ATR's with less than 10K on 'em, on one drive through some pretty easy NP tracks. On both tyres a rock went right through the centre of the tread section, and could not be repaired. Pretty poor effort I reckon. I had Cooper S/T's on the old 'lux & never had an issue, but these ATRs are crap. $500 down the drain, both tyres are in the bin at the tyre dealer in Monto, and as such don't think the dealer will be much help.

BFG's for me thistime I think, my problem is I still have 2 ATR's with little use, and the replacement cost will be pretty high for the whole set, particlarly since they are so new.

Cooper buyers should stick with S/T's.

[Bushbasher Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Bushbasher]

Re: Cooper ATR - Latest Issues Nov,2008

Why would any dealer sell me passenger car rated tyres instead of LT?

Did you specify light truck tyre when you purchased?

Mick

Well having had Yokohama Geolanders, then Bridgestone Duellers, I figured the dealer knew what he was doing and that I didn't need to specify "Light truck" when I said "Give some of those Cooper Discoverer ATRs that everybody is raving on about."

Silly me for not thinking that he would stick some normal construction rating tyres on as fitted to Jeep Cherokees!!!!

We live and we learn.

[MickL Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close MickL]

Re: Cooper ATR - Latest Issues Nov,2008

Silly me for not thinking that he would stick some normal construction rating tyres on as fitted to Jeep Cherokees!!!!

Unfortunately we live in a world dominated by soft roaders, many of who want bling tyres but won't pay extra for LT. So he's probably not in a habit of assuming people want LT tyres... remember LT tyres is not automaticaly a 4wd tyre... There are plenty of normal road type patterns/tyres available in LT for fitting to vans and utes.


Mick

[Kevin Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Kevin]

Re: Cooper ATR - Latest Issues Nov,2008

If you use 265/65/17 you will suffer :cry:

I have to disagree with this statement. My 265/65R17 ATR's have done 35k km in about 2 years on a four tire rotation, and are about half warn. I have not babied these tires, as you will see on some of the Cairn crew trip reports, and I haven't suffered any failures to date.

[Bushbasher Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Bushbasher]

Re: Cooper ATR - Latest Issues Nov,2008

Here in Kalgoorlie where 90% of vehicles are Toyota and Nissan fourbies, and 95% of the roads are dirt tracks, you would think that you wouldn't need to specify LT.

Anyway, I'm pretty anal when it comes to looking after my vehicle and especially so with the tyres, and despite reducing pressures when applicable, my Coopers failed miserably. And when you consider they advertise a warranty that when the crunch comes they won't honour, why would I go back?

And, as for the goose that wants to put internal ballast into your tyres instead of conventional lead weights, how many times do you here of that failing?

[MickL Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close MickL]

Re: Cooper ATR - Latest Issues Nov,2008

internal ballast into your tyres instead of conventional lead weights

:?: :?etails? Never heard of that on conventional vehicles.... did he explain that?


Mick

[Bushbasher Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Bushbasher]

Re: Cooper ATR - Latest Issues Nov,2008

There's a dealer here in Kal who supplies heaps of tyres to the mining fraternity, geologists, etc and he sells heaps of BFG T/As. Reckons they all go for the internal ballast.

I heard they sometimes do it for truck tyres but never heard of it for cars and 4WDs.

The stuff looks like shotgun pellets and comes in little plastic bags of varying weights. It's supposed to auto balance in a centrifugal fashion as your tyres rotate.

It was fine for a couple of thousand kilometres but then I got the front end wobble at 70 - 90kph. Front tyres had the internal stuff and rears had conventional balancing. No problems with the rears at all

Got Ian Diffens to balance with lead weights and problem solved.

Problem with internal balance is if you are out back of beyond and have to repair a tyre you'll have no way of ensuring proper balance.