MAXTREK SU-800 Tyres

Hi All

I'm John, I'm new here but I need to vent so please bear with me.

I recently bought 2013 ST Manual PATROL "The Truck" on the test drive I felt some vibration but being unfamiliar with the vehicle put it down to road conditions and solid suspension so soon "The Truck" was mine, turns out it had worn Bridgestone Duelers on the front and new Maxtrek SU-800 (Chinese Bridgestone look alike) on the back.

After taking delivery I decided it made sense to have the new tyres on the front axle and the worn ones on the rear so swapped them over which turned "The Truck" into a nauseating bone shaker, after identifying the worst corner I returned the old Bridgies to the front with the best Maxtrek and the spare on the rear, "The Truck" was immediately more comfortable to ride in.

At my regular wheel aligner the suspect Maxtrak was put on the computer balance and while running true it was 80gm out of balance, the other Maxtrak was out by 60gm, that imbalance can possibly be put down to the previous tyre fitter or machine so with both balanced and visually running true I again moved them to the front axle with the same nauseating result so clearly there was something very wrong with the construction of at least one tyre, it has since been replaced with a Bridgie and the remaining Maxtrek moved to the rear axle.

There is still some smooth road wheel vibration in "The Truck" that I'm putting down to the remaining Maxtrek but as it's not intrusive and "The Truck"'s future is unlikely to involve a whole lot of freeway tarmac, I'll live with it.

I have no idea who bought the tyres, when or from where so haven't looked into what warranty may be available and as I no longer have the tyre I won't bother but when tyre replacement comes around again Maxtrek will not be on the list.

Has anyone else had a problem with Maxtrek or have I been singled out for special treatment?

Cheers
John

Never used that specific tyre personally.
Unbiased IE non-Dealer Internet reviews of Maxtrek in general state they are shyte.
Never seen or heard of a Chinee tyre brand that works OK on the front of a Patrol yet.

Given the 'sensitivity' of the Patrol front end geometry to develop vibrations and shake if a mossie lands on the front guard I would stick with quality mainstream tyres

Just reread your post saying you had them on the back and going by the reviews... be very wary of the rear end letting go in the wet.

Hi All

It's Interesting evil twin that you mentioned the back end letting go in the wet, both my wife and I have had the rear end step out recently at roundabouts in the wet so I now have zero confidence in the Maxtrek which is now the spare for emergency use only.

It will be interesting to see if the remaining vibration is gone next time I'm on the freeway.

I've attached some pics, it certainly looks like a Bridgestone but it's probably sufficiently altered that they can get away with it.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...psviwk7a3m.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...pswtfygskm.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...psvlcd4fkg.jpg

Cheers
John

I've have a set of Maxtreks (Mud Tracs, a BFG knock off ) 285/75r16. Have done 45000ks on them with some very harsh off road stuff as well. I found them to be quiet good off road. Rotate and balanced every 10000ks. Not the best on wet city driving but for an aggressive tread not too bad. No wheel balance problems but a couple of weeks ago on the highway I did start to feel a shudder in the steering and pulled over to investigate and found the front right tread had a hudge bulge in it about the size of both my hands spread out. Another couple hundred meters would have been a blow out for sure. So 45000ks before a problem. Take want you want from that I spose.

Bump for TT as his post........posts went into moderation

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NissanGQ4.2

Bump for TT as his post........posts went into moderation

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Thanks for sorting that out for me NissanGQ4.2.

I have now done a short freeway run and report further improvement with almost no vibration at all, not being familiar with Patrol when I test drove the vehicle I put the vibration down to tuff all terrain suspension and thought it must be normal, so I couldn't be happier.

Prior to buying the "Truck" I had a Fairmont Ghia and put a set of Chinese Goodride (supposedly associated with Goodyear) tyres on and once warm they were fine but by comparison the Ghia is very softly sprung.

Cheers
John

Have heard good things about the Maxtrek M/T's, however no long term usage (apart from Chubba's post above). I see you have the A/T, which normally should be better in the wet than a M/T. Sounds like best suited to keep them as a 2nd set for mud use (well the M/T ones) and have a decent set of A/T's for the black stuff.

Goodride is not assocaited with Goodyear, they are owned by Omni whom also make Timberland (yes the same as the shoes for your feet, they also make shoes for cars too), RADAR Tyres, Goodride and a few others.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ozjeff

Goodride is not assocaited with Goodyear, they are owned by Omni.

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Thanks for that ozjeff, I guess I was taken in by the price and marketing spin, I didn't keep the car long enough to know how they perform over time, from my experience there's a lot of good product coming out of China but there's also a huge amount of crap so until they adopt some minimum manufacturing and quality control standards we're going to be left guessing a bit like being blindfolded playing pin the tail on the Donkey.

I look forward to getting my "Truck" as muddy as yours.

Cheers
John

Ideally you would want 4 tyres of equal diameter wouldn't you.??
seeing its a sort of constant 4wd set up in auto hub
Also check wheel bearings

Are those tyres in the pic H/T??

The tyres in the pic do appear the be a different diameter but I think it's just the angle the pic was taken from, the one on the left in now hanging off the back door interestingly there are no markings indicating H/T or A/T, I have four matching Bridgestone A/Ts on the road.

I can't detect any wheel bearing noise and my mechanic who's owned Patrols forever has been right over it and given it a clean bill of health.

Cheers
John

Hi All

Since my last post I've put a few Ks on the truck with a return trip from Perth to Albany and a round trip from Perth to Kal to Esperance and back via Albany so I'm up to about 8000ks since purchase and I really must say that I'm extremely happy with my decision to buy a Patrol.

I know it's a truck it lets me know that the moment we're on mildly a rough surface I accept that because it's what I expected from a truck but it's now also a comfortable ride on a smooth surface since I ditched the Maxtrek tyres.

Maybe it was bad luck but I had two bad out of two so won't try my luck with them again and certainly can't recommend them.

G'day all
Interesting isn't it.
Someone once said you get what you pay for. Not sure how that pans out overall but it seems to go either of two ways.
1) cheap, regardless of who makes them and replace them often, or
2) full price and replace them after lots, lots more Km's.
My experience is the dearer ones allow you to run say 80K without any worries and simply replace when tread is down while the cheapies have you always unsure that even though they look good when you start the trip, somewhere, somewhen you can get 'bubbles', blowouts, whatever. Proven fact.....it happens in the worst possible spot.
Good luck,
Col