WOW, original tyres.

[spl@]

Just out of curiosity I actually looked at my tyres today, I mean LOOKED. 

Would you believe they are the original, oe tyres, dated 20th week 2007.  😮

Considering their !Removed! noisy and probably not condusive to pulling a caravan out of a wet field I was wondering on my options. I had  grabber at's on my old much missed rangy P38 (not a knackerd ol mud plugger btw) and they were great everywhere, even proper off road, in as much as it did. 

So as you lot know this vehicle a lot better than I do, what would be the pick, wet campsite grass is as heavy duty as it will get off road (surprisingly challenging pulling 1600kg), decent mileage would be nice, outright road grip is irrelevant, im more interested in the mpg these days than the mph.

Confess I still fancy the grabber at's cos they look the part, not too butch but still enough grip for anything, but happy to be redirected.

[philip42h]

You don't say what make of tyres you have but I believe that one of the OEM fitments was the Bridgestone Dueler H/T. I believe that you stated on different thread that your RAV has done only 28K. I'd expect to get between 40 and 50k miles out of the Bridgestones - I certainly did from my SR180. So yours should have a good 4mm left and be a little over half worn even if totally time expired.

I can't give  recommendation from personal experience. A RAV 4x4 fitted with Bridgestones give perfectly acceptable grip in the wet but the Bridgestones do tend to be a bit noisy on poor road surfaces. I run Contis in the winter and they provide excellent traction. A member on another forum fitted Grabbers precisely because "they look the part, not too butch but still enough grip for anything" and eventually got rid because their noise and behaviour on road was unacceptable - that's hearsay so you can reasonably ignore it. If I were looking for new tyres (as I will be soon) I would consider Nokian Weatherproof as an all season tyre which I suspect would more than satisfy your needs ... but I can't recommend them as such as I haven't bought them yet! 🙂

[spl@]

Thanks, yes the bridgestones are the oe tyres and have plenty of actual tread left. Its the age issue for me. I do not want to be wondering about tyres at 60mph towing my caravan with my missus and kids in the car.  Also as you say the road noise at times is unbelievable, probably because of their age maybe?

We changed the caravan tyres at 7 years old for the same reason, well 2 @6 years and 2@ 7.

Will look at the nokian, the wranglers seem a popular choice too.

[Bill Aldridge]

i tow a caravan with the rav4

the original tyres i had on the car were bad

the tyres were out of round so changed them for michelin lattitude cross 

fuel consumption gone down by about 2mpg 

for towing a caravan i would reccomend these tyres road noise no different from normal tyres 

but off road these are very good 

no slip on grass or flooded fields 

my brother has an x trail with road tyres fitted his was one of the caravans i towed out 

other caravans were being towed out by tractor 

the rav 4 behaved impeccably to say i was surprised is an understatement

 

[spl@]

Thanks that is exactly the kind of information I wanted, I don't want to punt 500 quid on tyres only to get stuck in the same grass that stumped the mondy. We used to use off grid sites, some of which are not even manned. There are several in the new forest that still use honesty boxes, these are down quiet roads into fields and you can not see anybody for the weekend sometimes.

In this day and age that's bliss in my book, but you cannot use them if your going to, or there is a high risk you will get stuck.

[spl@]

Well I went for the Generals.

Cost 130 a corner and are just peachy. There is no problem with grip or stability. I think you would have to be a proper plumb to upset the rav anyway aside from lifting mid corner, that seems to send it a bit unsettled.

Have now put 500 miles on them, wet and dry and there maybe a mile per gallon down on fuel. Not nearly as noisy as the Bridgestones. You can hear them but its not intrusive now. I know they work well far beyond the grip I need. 

Recommended, more tyre than you will need in truth unless you do actually need to use the 4wd button.

[spl@]

Update time.

Have now put around 4k on the General At3's. No complaints, lost a tiny bit of mpg but no other negatives.

the noise is fine, nothing more than background at most. They grip well and going on previous sets on a P38 rangy they will last a good 30-40k.

the look is good too, not too 'butch off road tyre' but enough to get the job done. Haven't been able to make them misbehave yet. Have driven some field tracks and grass and had a bit of a hoon around my mates farm. Just gripped. May take her to a AWD club day to see how she does.

Normal road driving is fine, if and it is an if, you go into a bend fast and wimp out and get off the throttle the car will oversteer but that is more down to the driver being a plum and losing the power from the rear wheels than anything to do with the tyres. Have the confidence that she will go round and unless your driving has the passengers reaching for the sick bag you will be fine.

All in at 130 a corner fitted and balanced I'm very happy with them.