In The Black

Lesser-known tyres like these kendas can deliver similar results as more established brands, and sometimes at up to half the cost.

I AM A bit of a tyre snob these days – you know, tried the best and now looking at the rest. In the past, I’ve spent a bloody fortune on the big brands and to be honest they have been pretty darn good, but on the other end of the scale I’ve tried the el-cheapo range too and I’m just as impressed. Having spent some 20 odd (some very odd) years in the bush, touring outback desert regions, clocking up stacks of highway miles and just recently spending time in Tassie and the Cape, I reckon I can lay claim to being a seasoned traveller.

During the past 18 months we’ve been travelling Australia and when it came to prep I knew I wanted muddies for where we planned to go. Now I know there are pros and cons with noise, wear patterns, being dicey in the wet (allegedly) blah, blah, blah, but that’s what I wanted.

As a side note, we bought a hybrid camper the year before to prepare and there were muddies on the trailer. Again, there’s been stacks of debate regarding muddies on trailers, so I won’t go there. Anyway, the tyres on the trailer were ones I had never heard of before, namely Kenda Klevers in an MT pattern. Now while they looked ‘tough’ on the camper (the only reason why manufacturers put them on in my books) I thought they wouldn’t last long. After having them balanced and aligned, they’ve performed well on the tracks we’ve been using to prepare for our upcoming trips.