Review of the Kumho Road Venture MT-71.
NOTE: The opinions and information provided in this video are completely independent. Kumho had no input into the content of this video. However, to be open and transparent, the producer of this video has provided paid video services for Kumho. In addition, Kumho were approached after testing these tyres and they have provided a small sponsorship arrangement for the supply of MT-71 tyres for the producers 4WD Safari Rally Vehicle.
For those who follow our KZfaq channel, we recently reviewed the Kumho AT51 all terrain tyre that I’ve been running on my Pajero for some time. Kumho have just released a new Mud Tyre so we asked them if we could have a set to test them out and they were generous enough to provide a brand new set of their MT-71’s for us to review.
The tyres we were supplied with are 17 inch, so I borrowed my mates VW Amarok and a spare set of wheels and went and had them fitted up at Plumpton Tyre and Auto Centre. They have a very aggressive tread pattern, as you’d expect from a Mud Terrain tyre, so it’ll be interesting to see what they are like on the bitumen.
They are very quiet on the bitumen and Kumho have told us they have spent a lot of time developing this tyre and that Highway noise, handling and stability were key design elements in addition to the off-road performance. The design is supposed to deliver significant on road noise reduction compared to standard MT tyres due to the design of its packed centre block and its dual pitch tread design.
We went to the Watagan Forest north of Sydney to conduct our testing and it’s been a bit wet. We’ve selected a range of tracks to test the tyres, but we’re also well aware that we don’t want to tear up the tracks with the aggressive tread.
Our first track is mainly black soil and the going has been easy with the tyres performing as expected. These tracks are very popular with 4WDers, so sometimes they can get a bit cut up.
The tyres have seven integrated steel and fabric layers. It has a three-ply high-strength construction, with two steel cord layers and two nylon protection plies that Kumho claim is one of the most robust mud-terrain tyres you can buy.
It also has mud and stone ejector bars in the design to prevent damage from stones drilling in and to help with self-cleaning. It also has quite an aggressive side wall design with extra biting lugs which is clearly designed for extra traction.
The next challenge we set for these Mud Terrain tyres was some hill and rock climbs. We dropped the air pressure down a bit more for this test to give us more traction and climbing ability. I’ve got them set at 20 PSI and the terrain here on the side of this hill is quite steep.
The rocks are also quite slick after the rain shower we’d had just before we arrived here. The Amarok made it up very easily. The Amarok’s traction control helped a lot, but the car has gone up the rock steps far better than the other cars that are here with us on the test.
The last test is to find some real clay-based mud roads. Nothing like some red clay to thoroughly test a Mud Terrain tyre. And we have found the perfect track with mud, clay and a decent hill to go down and back up to make it even more difficult.
We sent my Pajero down first and straight away the AT style tyres clogged up with mud. In comparison, the tread on the MT-71’s cleared far better as we move forward and they did not slide nearly as much.
The return trip up the hill was also done with ease in comparison to the Pajero with the AT-51’s, the Amarok performed far better. We also a had a few other 4WD’s with us and there’s no doubt that the MT-71’s made the climb from the bottom of the hill in the muddy conditions a breeze in comparison, which is what we were obviously hoping.
Conclusion: These are an excellent Mud Terrain tyre, probably the best I’ve driven on, with the added benefit of being very quiet and well balanced on-road. I thought they might be a bit skatey on wet bitumen, but they hung on well. They also gripped extremely well under heavy braking, which means you could easily have them on your daily drive.
In terms of wear, I cannot give any prediction other than Kumho’s marketing which claims you should get at least 80,000kms from a set. Being such a new tyre in Australia, I couldn’t find any info from any owners on their wear performance.
I rate these tyres very highly and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them to any serious off-roader. We didn’t do any crazy tracks in the testing, and our 4WD is a standard Amarok. However, I’m pretty sure that a set these MT71 tyres on a big, well set up rig would see it go anywhere.
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