Hi, meet 'Mitsi', she is a thirty one year Mitsubishi L3000 4x4 express with a 'Big Foot' lift kit to clear the 15 inch wheels.

As of writing she has 911,345 Km on the clock and sports a new set of Cooper 31/10.5R15 S/T MAXX tyres.

This is the eighth set of Cooper tyres she has had, they get change at around 90,000 km but still have easily a legal amount of rubber left on them, a number of friends are still using them as trailer tyres.

I have tried a number of different Cooper tread patterns from the STT (incredible grip in mud, a little noisy on road but that is not really what they were designed for) to milder patterns, but the S/T MAXX is far the best for the mixed landscape we travel on and they are not noisy on the road.

Now I know that there is a certain amount of luck involved considering where we go but I have never had a 'flat' on the previous 28 Cooper tyres.

Bulging side walls and/or distorted treads have never happened to the Coopers (even running at low pressure that would probably have Cooper designers astounded) which is more than I can say for other brands I tried in the early days that delaminated or blew sidewalls.