I bought new tyres for this season. It's a bit difficult because I still have four of the last six tyres still serviceable. If they'd been good tyres then I could have just bought another two and we'd be back to six good tyres.
We lost one on a hot day returning from Perth and the last on the long stretch of remote highway near Sandfire Roadhouse just as a storm hit. We need super singles for the type of bush travel we do but they aren't as good at carrying a load when the temperature gets over 40°C. Duel wheels carry more weight but we find that we end up with a rock stuck between the rear tyres whenever we're offroad. The other issue with these Hankooks is that they come from a Queensland dealer who fails to honour the usually warranty.
I called the local workshop to make an appointment to have a couple of tyres fitted to find that the mechanic had left and closed the workshop.
This left me with the option of a two hour drive to a nearby town or try to change a tyre by hand. The first challenge was to break the bead and that nearly proved too much for Zimba our little excavator.
Of course that was only part of the challenge. These tyres are too rigid to easily insert the tyre lever.
If you head well off road and you don't know how to change a tyre then this is one maintenance procedure you probable should learn.
It took me about an hour to change this tyre but it was still quicker than driving off to a neighbouring town and hoping to get decent service.
It would be extremely difficult to change tyres like this in the bush but everybody who takes their vehicle into remote locations without a support crew should know how to carry out this sort of basic vehicle maintenance. It could save your life.
The Hankook 37x12.5R17 tyres had a load rating of 129Q 1850kg at 65psi. The new Renegade 35x12.5R17 tyres have a load rating of 135Q 2180kg at 80psi.
There are still five to go but I could only buy four at the time and I decided to stick with the Hankooks for this next trip and take a Renegade as a spare.