You could probably write a book on the subject if dozens of others hadn't already beaten you to it - but whatever tyres you choose make sure they are in good condition if not new - my Michelin Synchrones suffered a lot of edge damage, though not much serious sidewall damage, but the two new ones lasted the course, and the others just about limped home.

The puncture rate was far more noticeable on the worn (thinner) tyres as thorns were more likely to force their way through to the inside - however with tubeless tyres this is not an immediate problem as the tyres will go down slowly - and you can keep them going with your compressor till you can get to a repair shop that can do the job.

Be aware that it is hard to get tubeless repairs in West Africa - even breaking the bead on a tubeless tyre can cause most tyre shacks a problem. Alloy rims are butchered by local labour so keep a good eye on what they are doing and be prepared to step in when the big hammer gets taken out... A lot of old hands, especially in the desert, use tubes even if they do require more frequent changing.

I started off with two spare wheels, and broke both the wheel and ripped the tyre when the wheel fell off in Ghana - I got a replacement tyre in Douala, Cameroon (255x65xR16s are not too common in West Africa). This meant I was in the Ténéré with five wheels and this caused me no end of problems as there were a lot of thorns waiting for us out there. This is about the time a local garage put a knackered old tube into a tubeless tyre - and it worked fine for about 5,000km, but it's not really recommended so the experts tell me. The second time I had to do this the tube lasted about 2km, but it at least got me to a tyre garage. As for a replacement alloy wheel - never even sniffed one...

With hindsight I'd recommend setting out with rims and tyres that are commonly found in Africa, not exotic sizes or configurations that are specific to Europe - a good resource for checking out options is the Sahara Overland web site

To service the tyres I took:

• 2 Tyre Irons - actually used for lots of things other than  ironing tyres

• 2 x Tubeless tyre repair plug kits - not sure if it was intended for radials, but I used up an entire kit failing to repair a single hole. Thumbs down unless you are prepared to practice before you set out.

• 2 x Jacks - one little hydraulic and the Hi-Lift which got used once

• 3 x Foot Pumps, 1 x Hand Pump - mostly useless, and the Land Rover foot pump didn't even do three tyres. Managed to pick up an imported foot pump in a Toubob shop in Youndé which saved us.

• Silverstone Compressor. Used a couple of times before failing in Timbuktu - wouldn't pump more than 2 Bar

I really suffered from an inability to pump up tyres - Next time I'll look at using a belt driven car aircon compressor as that's what half the tyre shacks seem to use, and could probably repair...

By the time I'd arrived in SA I'd replaced the Synchrones with Goodyear Wrangler AT/R, with three of the Michelins strapped to the roof. This is where I picked up a R500 compressor which was great for the rest of the journey.

It should have been plain sailing on the return leg as I now knew how to, and was equipped to repair my own tryes if I had to, or at least shoulder aside the bungling amateurs. Unfortunately the Wranglers weren't up to the job, and Ethiopia saw me once again having to sweat through days with only four serviceable tyres (three of which were Synchrones). Here's the expedition report for the Wranglers.

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Camelworld Round-Africa Expedition Report

Equipment/Tyres:

Brand: Goodyear Wrangler AT/R

Description:
235 X 70 R16
Tread: 2 x polyester cord, 2 x steel cord, 2 x nylon cord
Sidewall: 2 x polyester cord
Manufactured: South Africa

Summary:
I bought a set of six of the above tyres in Namibia after retiring the Michelin Synchrones, keeping three from the old set a emergency spares (a good move as it later turned out).

The cost in local currency was about £100 per tyre.

On the easier East African Roads the tyres fared well, and handled they handled the more rugged of the Lesotho passes with ease. My concern at an early stage was that the side walls of these tyres were prone to thorn punctures in terrain that I hadn’t expected to challenge their integrity.

As part of my planned strategy I saved two new tyres for the Ethiopian Roads North of Addis Abeba. By this time the vehicle was carrying it’s lightest load of the expedition as I was travelling alone, and did not need to maintain fuel and water reserves, but even so the Wranglers were woefully inadequate for the road surface, which is sharp stone. In two days both rear tyres were replaced with the standby Michelins, and inspection revealed a total of nine tears along the centre-line of the tyres, where stones had simply pushed through the tread. The inside surface of the tyre seemed remarkably spongy for an all-terrain, and some of the tears were more than three centimetres long, although the softness of the tyre meant that they were able to seal themselves to an extent (i.e. they did not rapidly decompress, even with multiple holes).

By contrast the Michelin Synchrones, which had seen between 10,000 and 35,000km of hard all-terrain driving, never caused any problems at all, despite not being classified as AT tyres.

In Khartoum, Sudan I inspected the remaining Wranglers and discarded three of the original six, despite their total mileage being between 400km (the two new ones) and from the third  20,000km, of which more than half was on good asphalt. The remaining three Synchrones, by contrast, are still in good condition, and are road legal after taking me a further 20,000 km back to London.

Post Expedition:
I spoke to Peter Wayte of Goodyear (UK) who apologised for my poor experience with these tyres but would not consider compensating me for their poor performance, as I had discarded the damaged tyres. This is a shame as other suppliers have accepted the reality of this sort of travel and have taken my word for such failures. Peter stated that these tyres were designed to take into account the comfort of asphalt-road drivers who represented the majority of the, and therefore their off-road performance was bound to be compromised. I might read this as an admission that labelling the tyres as AT is a move motivated by their marketing department.

Conclusion:
I would not recommend these tyres of off-road use. The tyres are simply too soft to cope with stone penetration, and the sidewalls offer surprisingly little resistance to thorn brush. Mud performance was poor, but not unduly so for an AT tyre. Despite 6 ply tread construction compared to the Synchrone’s 5 ply, these tyres significantly underperformed the Michelins. I suspect that they have been designed to appeal to the 4x4 driver who want a tyre that looks right, rather than to cope with genuine AT conditions. I will shortly be replacing these tyres with BFG Mud Terrains which were the original Camel Trophy specification tyres for the vehicle.

Related Pages:

http://www.camelworld.com/diary_ethiopia.htm
http://www.camelworld.com/vehicle_tyres.htm