25,000 Kilometre report - KL 78's
Still pretty happy with the value for money overall. I estimate they will be due for replacement at about 65,000 maybe 70,000 tops BUT as noted previously tyre wear isn't necessarily linear so still a guesstimate.
They have held their balance well and worn very evenly so I have only rotated them once at 20,000 K's. No tread slap, no scalloping etc.
My truck is pretty near GVM with all its goodies and fatrrse driver so is what I call "heavy" and when we are away we tow about 900 Kg in the Camper and gear
Bitumen - very good 8/10
Gravel - excellent 9/10
Beach - not bad 6/10
Mud - rubbish 1/10
As I don't do much mud at all I thought I would be very happy but there is one issue I didn't really consider at the time of purchase. My useage is about 95 % Bitumen/Gravel/Beach or WA outback Sandand about 3% mud (if that). The problem is that the 3% mud can be a show stopper IE if you wear hearing protection and drive defensively then a muddie (any muddie) is OK on the bitumen, a bit better on gravel, no real hassle on the beach and obviously great in the mud.
That means the M/T will go anywhere the A/T will but at the cost of comfort however the A/T won't go anywhere the muddies can. In a weird way that means the Muddies are actually more of an all terrain than an A/T depending how you look at it so my search for that elusive and aggressive A/T that is about a 4 in the Mud on my personal scale of performance continues.
I must also add that the missus and I tour and do very little "playing" so my opinions are biased towards getting from A to B not conquering a mudhole or a hill climb.
Bottom line (@ 25,000 K's) ... IMHO the KL78's are worth the money and perform as well as anything else in an A/T albeit they wear quicker than, say, Coopers or BFG etc so the $ per K figure would probably be similar. I would recommend them to anyone who does very little to no mud so at the risk of setting labels I would call them a perfect choice for a family daily driver or grey nomad that does towing and semi adventurous camping, exploring, touring etc but that stays home or in camp when the tracks get really wet.
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