I just replaced my Grandtreks with the new Mickey Thompson ATZ P3 and I thought I'd post my initial thoughts on the tyre. I've had them installed for only 6 days now but I've done some offroading, a decent amount of highway driving whilst towing a camper and a few trips to around town.
The tyre size is larger than the stock GT at 265/70R17 so the height of the car is noticeably higher when driving and they certainly fill the guards more than the originals. They look very aggressive at a 50 / 50 mix between an AT and a MT, even more so than the Cooper ST MAXX (which was the other tyre I was looking at).
ROAD NOISE: You can definitely hear a drone as you drive, though I don't think it's that annoying. Any louder and I think the wife and kids would start to notice and complain. It's certainly worse around 60-90 kph and anything over 110. On the highway I didn't notice it at all, especially on the rough country roads. On the smooth freeways is where you hear the noise over the wind and general tyre on road. Actually they make way less noise on the ripple strips down the side of the highway. This was seen by the wife as a bonus as the old Grand Treks used to make a right noise and wake the kids!
HANDLING: Very good. I thought going to a larger profile tyre with less rubber touching the ground there would be more squirming and less overall traction on the tarmac. I know going from fairly worn 2 year old tyres to new ones makes a big difference, but cornering is excellent, stopping that I've tested is great and general grip at highway speeds is fine. Whilst towing my camper I was maintaining speed around all corners with no troubles even when fully loaded. I haven't tested wet roads yet.
OFFROAD: The surfaces we traveled on was a mix of soft beach sand, gravel and sandy tracks. We ran 15psi on the soft beach and even at that pressure, the tyres weren't bagging out much. I ran this pressure for most of our trip, until I hooked the camper back up and picked them back up to 22ish. On the soft sand you do have to be careful to keep the tyres from spinning too much as they'd dig in quick. Overall I don't have much experience driving on soft sand other than the Grand Treks and I certainly felt more confident with the P3s. Towing the camper on the soft sand was a piece of cake and thats where I've had issues with the Grand Treks before not getting much forward drive in the soft sand. Gravel was great with heaps of grip and feel from the tyres. They did pick up some big rocks in the treads but these came out on the beach and highway.
Overall I'm very happy with them... other than the price!
The tyre size is larger than the stock GT at 265/70R17 so the height of the car is noticeably higher when driving and they certainly fill the guards more than the originals. They look very aggressive at a 50 / 50 mix between an AT and a MT, even more so than the Cooper ST MAXX (which was the other tyre I was looking at).
ROAD NOISE: You can definitely hear a drone as you drive, though I don't think it's that annoying. Any louder and I think the wife and kids would start to notice and complain. It's certainly worse around 60-90 kph and anything over 110. On the highway I didn't notice it at all, especially on the rough country roads. On the smooth freeways is where you hear the noise over the wind and general tyre on road. Actually they make way less noise on the ripple strips down the side of the highway. This was seen by the wife as a bonus as the old Grand Treks used to make a right noise and wake the kids!
HANDLING: Very good. I thought going to a larger profile tyre with less rubber touching the ground there would be more squirming and less overall traction on the tarmac. I know going from fairly worn 2 year old tyres to new ones makes a big difference, but cornering is excellent, stopping that I've tested is great and general grip at highway speeds is fine. Whilst towing my camper I was maintaining speed around all corners with no troubles even when fully loaded. I haven't tested wet roads yet.
OFFROAD: The surfaces we traveled on was a mix of soft beach sand, gravel and sandy tracks. We ran 15psi on the soft beach and even at that pressure, the tyres weren't bagging out much. I ran this pressure for most of our trip, until I hooked the camper back up and picked them back up to 22ish. On the soft sand you do have to be careful to keep the tyres from spinning too much as they'd dig in quick. Overall I don't have much experience driving on soft sand other than the Grand Treks and I certainly felt more confident with the P3s. Towing the camper on the soft sand was a piece of cake and thats where I've had issues with the Grand Treks before not getting much forward drive in the soft sand. Gravel was great with heaps of grip and feel from the tyres. They did pick up some big rocks in the treads but these came out on the beach and highway.
Overall I'm very happy with them... other than the price!
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