MT Tires -

[CreeperSleeper]

*snip*chains don't work when the other side of the drifts is a bare interstate (they don't fit with 35's, either).*snip*

Man that guy is right about that NEGATIVE thread!

You are all a bunch of NEGATIVE BASTARDS who don't let the littlest of mistakes get by.

Your right... They do make chains for 35's. I have a set!

 

[wildmanscout]

Maybe you should try this Nay. Green Diamond Icelander MT Tire Reviews

Rich Gostenik, the owner of Green Diamond Tires, runs them on his Land Rover Range Rover (DD) and his Defender 110. Seems like he demands tops in both on- and off-road performance. Here is his post to a Land Rover forum in June 2008. Solihull Society Forum - View topic - Green Diamond Tires

I like the review given by offroaders.com where mud performance of these tires is rated very high and road performance above average for a MT. I really like the looks of this tire and plan to replace my MTZ's (if they would ever wear out) pending contrary experience/feedback from mud!

Green Diamond Icelander MT Tire Reviews

Editors at offroaders updated their review: "Our long term test of this tire has been great. Wear has been good with about 20k on a set that has about 50 percent or more of the tread depth left."

 

[Cj80cruiser]

Rich Gostenik, the owner of Green Diamond Tires, runs them on his Land Rover Range Rover (DD) and his Defender 110. Seems like he demands tops in both on- and off-road performance. Here is his post to a Land Rover forum in June 2008. Solihull Society Forum - View topic - Green Diamond Tires

I like the review given by offroaders.com where mud performance of these tires is rated very high and road performance above average for a MT. I really like the looks of this tire and plan to replace my MTZ's (if they would ever wear out) pending contrary experience/feedback from mud!

Green Diamond Icelander MT Tire Reviews

Editors at offroaders updated their review: "Our long term test of this tire has been great. Wear has been good with about 20k on a set that has about 50 percent or more of the tread depth left."

I emailed him last night and this is what he said,"
At present, the largest GDTs that we build are as stated on the website. We receive many requests for 33, 35 inch GDTs on a 15 wheel and we are evaluting the availability of casings for at least the 33 for the coming 2009/2010 winter season.

The critical issue for us is that we reject over 80% of the casings that we evaluate for remolding into a GDT. Mathmatically, we need access to 1,000s of casings just to build 100s of GDTs.

So, regrets… nothing as large as a 35 or 36 in a 16 inch wheel in the near term.

Regards.

~rich

 

[Nay]

Rich Gostenik, the owner of Green Diamond Tires, runs them on his Land Rover Range Rover (DD) and his Defender 110. Seems like he demands tops in both on- and off-road performance. Here is his post to a Land Rover forum in June 2008. Solihull Society Forum - View topic - Green Diamond Tires

I like the review given by offroaders.com where mud performance of these tires is rated very high and road performance above average for a MT. I really like the looks of this tire and plan to replace my MTZ's (if they would ever wear out) pending contrary experience/feedback from mud!

Green Diamond Icelander MT Tire Reviews

Editors at offroaders updated their review: "Our long term test of this tire has been great. Wear has been good with about 20k on a set that has about 50 percent or more of the tread depth left."

High speed performance winter tires are all silica compound based. The Yokohoma TRZ's on my minivan are silica compound based. The idea is that the granules bite into ice and that the compound does not freeze - you don't get the multi-cell compound of a studless snow, but you keep other areas of winter performance with an attempt at a "grippy" compound to compensate for the lack of the multi-cell performance.

Having run Nokian WR's, I can attest that these can be good winter tires, but really the idea is that you keep the winter tire tread pattern while allowing a high speed low temp biased compound. In other words, this technology is ideally suited for the AWD performance sedan market. Think Audi.

The idea that a silica compound bites into ice better than studs is a joke, but that doesn't mean that these are bad tires or that a silica compound is a bad idea, but I wouldn't buy into the idea that this somehow makes the tire better for crawling. Soft and pliable is better for crawling, and I want a siped MT before I get too concerned about believing I somehow have sandpaper in my tread.

Again, doesn't mean these are bad tires, but the tread design is far more of an issue than the effect of the silica, and that design is pretty much a Yokohama Geolander MT with its attendant directional tread.

I've have a really hard time getting excited about this tire as a winter performer - if you could really get any tire to bite better than studs, every major manufacturer would be selling it. The dedicated multi-cell winter tires don't even reach that standard, forget about a non-siped directional MT with a silica compound.

 

[wildmanscout]

Good points, Nay, about the carbide, and Cj80cruiser, about the limited sizes. Lucky thing is, it's available in our stock size! In my case, I want to stay with the standard 31" diameter because of towing issues re steering geometry, but I want the agressive tread for occasional mud trail riding. With the MTZ's, and no buddy truck, I trend to backtrack a lot. The Geolander tread design is very close to the Icelander, but if you look closesly, every other edge lug on the Geolander is cut off by half but is completely cut off in the Icelander. This brings up another negative on the Icelanders regarding spares -- the tread pattern is directional. I'm figuring to just keep my MTZ as a spare, since it is the same size. My interest in the carbide is on slippery boat ramps, but siping might work as well, or even better. I don't have the experience and hope to learn from this world-wide forum.

 

[80t0ylc]

Good points, Nay, about the carbide, and Cj80cruiser, about the limited sizes. In my case, I want to stay with the standard 31" diameter because of towing issues with steering geometry, but I want the agressive tread for occasional mud trail riding. With the MTZ's, and no buddy truck, I trend to backtrack a lot. The Geolander tread design is very close to the Icelander, but if you look closesly, every other edge lug on the Geolander is cut off by half but is completely cut off in the Icelander. This brings up another negative on the Icelanders regarding spares -- the tread pattern is directional. I'm figuring to just keep my MTZ as a spare, since it is the same size. My interest in the carbide is on slippery boat ramps, but siping might work as well, or even better. I don't have the experience and hope to learn from this world-wide forum.

I am very impressed with the Icelander and agree with your wanting to stay with the stock 31" diameter, but for different reasons. I might go 33", but only if I really liked the tire. I also like the tough standards they have on casings (rejecting 80 per cent) for building the Green Diamond Tires. I wonder if they would take trade in casings for a discount. The directional tread is a plus in my opinion. Never have been impressed with studded tires, they seem to give people a false sense of security. But the carbide makes sense to give some assistance for traction. The reviews pointed out that once the "new" sheen was worn off the tread, the wet performance improved significantly. All in all, the Icelander seems to be right up my alley!

 

[gotmud]

One thing I would like to ask: Considering the soft compound of the KM2's, these wouldn't work well in, say, Phoenix, AZ where the summer pavement gets hot enough to fry eggs, right?

I don't see any problem with them. I drive from NE Mesa to my office in downtown Phoenix daily. No problems yet.

 

[80t0ylc]

As I was oogling over the Green Diamond Icelander /MT last night, I decided to follow my own advice and ask about a discount. I went to the GDT website and asked:
I have a '94 FZJ80 Toyota Landcruiser that runs LT265/75R16
size tires. I am impressed with your Icelander M/T of the
same size. I am also impressed with your tough standards for
tire casings and was wondering if you give discounts for
trading in old casings? Also, do you have any sales outlets
in Oregon?

And this morning the answer:


[FONT=&quot][/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Hello, Tom...[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Thank you for your interest in the Green Diamond Tire (GDT), you kind comment, and for your question.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]At present we build the GDT in mid-state New York. I will be placing a second manufacturing facility out here in the west in 2009… to be operation for the 2010/2011 season.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]With a capacity to produce only about 300k GDT per annum, we have concentrated on opening up only the eastern US and Rocky Mountain region. With the second plant on-line, we will be expanding our retail outlets (most likely Les Schwab and The Tire Factories) into the mid-west and PNW.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]The economics of taking in customer’s casings are not favorable if we need to ship them to NY. That stated, we would love to have you as a customer, and if you wish to order your M/Ts on-line, then I will extend to you a 15% discount… since you were sincere and bold enough to ask. I will forewarn you, I have only 17 total of the LT265/75R16E in Colorado and although I will bringing in several trailerloads over the next few weeks, however many of the most popular sizes (yours’ included) are pre-sold-out.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Kind regards,[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Rich Gostenik[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Owner[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Green Diamond Tire – West[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Green Diamond Tire / E-Commerce[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Green Diamond Tire – North America[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]866.380.0009 (toll-free)[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]303.770.5295 (local - Colorado)[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]303.808.7280 (mobile)[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Rich@GreenDiamondTire.com[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]www.GreenDiamondTire.com[/FONT]

I must say, I am impressed with this company and it appears that they are going the extra
mile to satisfy their customers. I wonder if MUD should ask them to be one of it's
advertising vendors?

 

[Nay]

I'll caveat my last post, looking at the website these granules appear to be much larger than what you get in a typical silica compound.

Seems like serious use in the rocks might add to a lot of extra wear, but they don't have big sizes anyway.

Nice when you can talk to the owner about tires, and scary when you can talk to the owner about tires

 

[Bluetribal]

As I mentioned in post #6 I needed to do a 2yr update on my Coopers. Well here it is: IH8MUD™ Forums - View Single Post - Cooper Discoverer STT's

 

[tucker74]

Ended up going with a set of 285/75R16 General Gabber AT2s, time will tell if it was a good decision. The are smooth and quite on the street, going camping next weekend so I'll get to see how they handle in the dirt/rocks. They're pretty much a cross between the Nitto Terra Grappler and BFG AT in appearance, the lugs are deeper than the BFGs though.

Thanks for the input guys -

Tucker

 

[Ebag333]

So now I'm looking for a new set of tires, and ATs just aren't going to cut it for what I do.

Ended up going with a set of 285/75R16 General Gabber AT2s, time will tell if it was a good decision.

I poke fun, but I'm think you'll like the AT2's. Please post up your thoughts (both positive and negative) on them once you've broke them in a bit. There's very little information here on the forums about them, not sure I've seen anyone else post anything in depth about them aside from myself.

 

[Grench]

Wouldn't it be cool if...

I know it is highly unlikely to ever happen but...

If Green Diamond got a bunch of XML carcasses and made a 255/100R16 (9.00R16) MT tire...

There are only two tires in that size that I am aware of. Centipedes and XMLs. Only the XMLs are DOT compliant, but good luck getting them. The XML has other disadvantages as well as I understand their highway manners are abysmal.

If Green Diamond were to put a smaller block size tread on them with their compound/silica... those might just rock.

Dream on... I know.