TOUGH ALL ROUNDER
I’ve had the Duelers beneath my GU Patrol for a solid 14 months or so, and they’ve provided solid service on the sandy tracks of Hattah-kulkyne National Park in the Victorian Mallee country; they’ve tackled some fabulous sandy runs on Stockton Beach at Port Stephens; traversed the rocky and rutted tracks of the Avon river; and hit up the Murray River’s mud at Echuca and the challenges of the Dargo High Country. And, of course, the daily drive in suburbia.
With the rubber installed, the odometer has ticked over 12,000km. They’ve travelled across all types of terrain and shown no signs of excessive wear. When I took the GU in for a tyre rotation, the depth gauge discovered 4.5mm wear on the front tyres and 3.5mm wear on the rears.
The tyres have pleasantly surprised as a daily driver. They’re quieter than expected and also grip and handle well. In the wet they’ve performed much better than the old A/TS that were on their last legs.
I have no complaints when off-road either. On High Country tracks – as well as on the when wet, grease-like tracks along the Murry River near Echuca – they performed brilliantly.
Where the tyres surprised me was on sand – on a Stockton Beach NSW run they performed excellently. Now, let’s be honest, my faithful 3.0-litre GU Patrol is many things, but a power-laden, sand-chewing beast it’s not. We dropped pressures to 17psi and away we went. It didn’t have any issues on the sand at all, and I even managed to perform a snatch recovery of a 2015 Triton, as well securing trip bragging rights, by rescuing my mate Brad’s Pajero from a particularly soft patch.
Its time to start considering the Bridgestone Dueler A/T 697 or the M/T 674!”