I've spent many months researching new tyres for my Jackaroo and finally, I bought and fitted a set of Silverstone AT-117 Special all terrains.
When I bought my vehicle, it was fitted with 16" factory alloys on which the previous owner put Goodyear Wrangler A/T's in a 265x75Rx16 size. The car had a 2 inch lift and with the Goodyears, the car had impressive ground clearance. However, I found that the larger tyres also caused the car to be overgeared and it suffered in performance and economy.
I decided to go down to a 15" size rim and tyre just for the hell of it. I sourced the rims and tyres through ebay. The rims were bought from a private seller and the tyres from a 4x4 dealer. The total cost of the rims, tyres, delivery and fitting was $990.00. The tyre size I chose was 31x10.5x15. By downsizing, I've noticed a slight improvement in performance and I've only lost about 25mm in ground clearance but I've still got plenty of that in reserve.
I was really undecided and sceptical about the Silverstone tyres and was ready to get BFG's but the dealer convinced me to go with the brand. I've only travelled a couple of hundred km's on the Silverstones and I must say that so far I'm impressed with them. They are almost identical to the BFG's in design, quality and performance but are almost half the price of the BFG's. The only thing I noticed immediately was that they were a bit soft on the bitumen when turning corners but I fixed that with an adjustment to the tyre pressure. Road noise is zero and ride comfort outstanding.
I then took the tyres on to some dirt and once again they performed really well. The tread pattern can unfortunately trap small stones but they're eventually ejected with a bit of forward motion. The ROH rims are a Lancruiser offset and stick out about 15mm - 20mm past the body which means there is the potential for stones to be flicked backwards on to following traffic or on to my vehicle's body work. Flexy flares will be my next modification to fix the stone flicking problem.
I can recommend the Silverstones as a viable alternative to the premium brands especially for those on a tight budget. They're not for everyone so you'll have to do your own research but for me, they do the job nicely. Shop around because there are quite a few dealers selling the Silverstones but you should be able to get a set of five AT-117's for around $800.00. You can check the tyres out and my Jackaroo at http://forum.australia4wd.com/index.php?&a...tem&CID=111
Silverstone is a privately owned brand and the tyres and are made in Malaysia, not China.
When I bought my vehicle, it was fitted with 16" factory alloys on which the previous owner put Goodyear Wrangler A/T's in a 265x75Rx16 size. The car had a 2 inch lift and with the Goodyears, the car had impressive ground clearance. However, I found that the larger tyres also caused the car to be overgeared and it suffered in performance and economy.
I decided to go down to a 15" size rim and tyre just for the hell of it. I sourced the rims and tyres through ebay. The rims were bought from a private seller and the tyres from a 4x4 dealer. The total cost of the rims, tyres, delivery and fitting was $990.00. The tyre size I chose was 31x10.5x15. By downsizing, I've noticed a slight improvement in performance and I've only lost about 25mm in ground clearance but I've still got plenty of that in reserve.
I was really undecided and sceptical about the Silverstone tyres and was ready to get BFG's but the dealer convinced me to go with the brand. I've only travelled a couple of hundred km's on the Silverstones and I must say that so far I'm impressed with them. They are almost identical to the BFG's in design, quality and performance but are almost half the price of the BFG's. The only thing I noticed immediately was that they were a bit soft on the bitumen when turning corners but I fixed that with an adjustment to the tyre pressure. Road noise is zero and ride comfort outstanding.
I then took the tyres on to some dirt and once again they performed really well. The tread pattern can unfortunately trap small stones but they're eventually ejected with a bit of forward motion. The ROH rims are a Lancruiser offset and stick out about 15mm - 20mm past the body which means there is the potential for stones to be flicked backwards on to following traffic or on to my vehicle's body work. Flexy flares will be my next modification to fix the stone flicking problem.
I can recommend the Silverstones as a viable alternative to the premium brands especially for those on a tight budget. They're not for everyone so you'll have to do your own research but for me, they do the job nicely. Shop around because there are quite a few dealers selling the Silverstones but you should be able to get a set of five AT-117's for around $800.00. You can check the tyres out and my Jackaroo at http://forum.australia4wd.com/index.php?&a...tem&CID=111
Silverstone is a privately owned brand and the tyres and are made in Malaysia, not China.