After searching for ages for suitable wheels to swap for off road work I have given up and Plan B is to fit quality all terrain tyres to the OEM wheels.
Having had great experience with BFG All Terrain AL KO on past Nissans these were my first choice.
However - after lots of checking locally the best price I have (and for 265x65x18) is $529ea fitted.....!!!
These are 65 profile as against the original of 60 but I think they will fit fine.
Checking Tirerack in the US, I have a quote for exactly the same tyre @ $235ea + $454.72 freight to the door, for 4 units.
Once duty and GST is applied the total landed price would be $1669.
Has anyone imported tyres or used Tirerack as a supplier?
John
It really pays to still shop around locally, I wanted some Cooper HT PLUS 265/60/18 and the cheapest quote from four Cooper dealers was $335.00 each, the same tyre in the US was approx $200.00, I eventually found a tyre business in Sydney who sold me four for $880.00 delivered to my door, they said the dont advertise as they were not a Cooper dealer, there is comparable tyre prices here if you find the right supplier, and why should it be different when you look at the DOLLAR comparison, good luck either way.
I bought tyres, sorry tires from tirerack for my previous vehicle. Tirerack are easy to deal with and I would recommend them highly. Time from order to delivery to my front door was six days by Fedex.
You shouldn't have to pay duty on the tyres as they are duty free under the FTA if they are American made.
Those tyres you are after are only USD$174 ea on Tirerack in 265/65/18. Also the freight seems a little expensive. My outlander tyres were 225/55/18 and only cost $217.76 delivery to Sydney. Are you in a regional area or capital city?
Thanks for the feedback Selous (and AussieJeep), I did believe that others in Aus had positive experience with Tirerack.
I didn't know about the free trade - no duty bit - didn't see that anywhere when i was reading up on the Customs site - probably it is in tiny print somewhere.....
You got a great price on the site for the tyres @ $174 - my latest check for BFG All Terrain ALKO in E rating 265x65x18 shows $251/ea. and I was happy with the $235 quoted.
Likely I will go ahead although I would much rather support local businesses and still doing some homework. Location is Gold Coast.
John
My bad, I was looking at the BFG A/T, not the BFG A/T KO. You are correct, they are $251.
US manufactured goods are generally free of duty due to the Free Trade Agreement. Tirerack will supply a certificate of origin with the paperwork for customs. If the country of origin (manufacture) is not the USA then you can get charged import duty, which I think is 5% or thereabouts. GST is payable regardless whether or not the goods attract duty if the value of the goods + freight is over AUD $1000.
On a thread on the whirlpool.net forums there were some posters who claimed imported tyres didn't meet the ADR requirements, which is rubbish. As long as the tyres have a E mark (European tyres) or DOT number (USA) on the sidewall, they are compliant, whether or not they are available in Australia.
Having sung Tirerack's praises, unfortunately, they don't sell Coopers, which is what I am going to put on the Jeep. The cheapest I can find Cooper Xeon LTZ in 20" locally is $440 per corner. Same tyre in the states is $200 per corner.
I hear you about supporting Australian businesses, but tyres for my Outlander were around the $400 mark for anything decent. They were also an uncommon size which meant I only had the choice of around five tyres in Australia. My OEM tyres had clapped out at 38000km. I got Michelin Hydroedge tyres from Tirerack which were rated for 95000km for $830 landed. It cost me another $60 to have them fitted and balanced by my local tyre dealer. The whole deal saved me around $500-$600 and the Michelins were a much better tyre than the OEM tyres.
Thanks again, getting the BFG ATKO's from the US represents a significant saving over local purchase. I've had great results with these tyres on previous Patrols and never blink about going off the bitumen with them (at the moment I'm pretty toey about doing that with the Kumho OEMs)
I was also inclined to Pirelli Scorpions or Yokohama Geolandars, but Tirerack can't sell Pirelli or Yokohama to Australia.
My brother has fitted his second set of Coopers to his Prado, so he's happy with them but I had the vehicle for three weeks and after parking overnight they seemed to develop flats. Ambient temp was around 15 degrees. It took around 5k in the morning for the thumping to disappear.
Bit more local checking and I'll likely bite the bullet and place an order.
John
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