Mike Leyland of the famous Australian Leyland Brothers

When it comes to four wheel driving, outback exploring and adventure, Mike Leyland speaks with authority.

Mike was the cinematographer on the remarkable first Australian East to West Crossing by 4WD vehicles in 1966. The expedition took 111 days to complete. In all, 6797 kilometres (4248 miles) were traversed including 800 kilometres (480 miles) of Queensland mud.

Mike has continued his exploration of "the wide brown land" ever since that remarkable adventure. Here he tells us about his most recent adventure and his successful experiences with Cooper 4WD tyres. Since we fitted the Cooper Tires we have made two major filming expeditions. On that followed the Queensland and New South Wales Border where we travelled approximately 7000 klm's with absolutely no problems with the tyres.

We have only just returned from a three months trip through Central Australia up the Tanami Desert Track into the eastern Kimberley Area, back into the Northern Territory where we filmed Kakadu National Parks 4WD tracks and then headed into Arnhem Land and on to the tip of Cobourg Peninsular. We then headed across to Cairns in Queensland and commenced shooting a program on a 4WD journey to the tip of Cape York.

During this three months trek we covered 20,000 klm's of varying road types and conditions, the Tanami Track was extremely corrugated and sandy in parts. Once we reached Western Australia we hit sharp rocky gravel roads that leads us into places like the Bungle Bungles and it was really 4WD territory.

After finishing filming in Western Australia we drove on sealed roads to Darwin and on to Kakadu. Whilst at Kakadu we filmed all the available 4WD tracks which were extremely rough with bad corrugations, deep sand, water crossings and rocky tracks. Our journey then lead us into the depths of Arnhem Land where the road conditions were only wheel tracks through the scrub. This is the only place we had a staked tyre, we happened to pull off the side of the track to allow another vehicle to pass and the front left hand wheel unfortunately came to a stop on a hidden stake in the bush which pierced the inside wall. I plugged the tyre and we kept it as a spare before replacing it in Cairns.

The rest of the journey in Arnhem Land included rough gravel river crossings and very slippery road conditions that were like driving on marbles because of the type of gravel that is in the area. All this was completed with no tyre problems.

We then drove to Cairns on sealed roads doing high speed travelling with a very heavy loaded vehicle and encountered no problems what so ever with the tyres, in fact we checked the tyre pressures regularly and never had to top them up. Once at Cairns we headed up the Cape and encountered some pretty hair raising conditions on some of the tracks which included massive corrugations once again an on the Old Telegraph Track we had numerous creek crossings with slippery mud on the banks and some with very jagged rocks. We also encountered lots of sandy tracks and huge wash always during the Cape York filming.

The three weeks we spent on Cape York was the most demanding on the tyres and they came through unscathed. We did not even get bogged like a lot of others who had more aggressive tread patterns than we had, in fact I was highly impressed with how the Coopers handled all the various situations. They just seemed to cope with the mud and sand equally as well and at one point we crossed the Pascoe River on what is known is known as the Frenchman's Track. This is not for the faint hearted, the drive down the jagged rocks with no turning back. Once at the bottom you encounter the fast flowing Pascoe, which was over the meter deep with huge boulders in the crossing. After checking for hidden rocks we headed through the water and on the other side looked like a steep wall of square jagged boulders before we were safe on gravelly mud on the steep bank above the river.

As I drove across the river I was absolutely certain we would be using the winch to get over this mountain of slippery boulders knowing I had road style treads on the tyres. Much to my amazement the heavily laded 100 Series Land Cruiser just crawled up the hill with the tyres spitting out rocks at the back. What better recommendation could I have for "Cooper Tires"

We also met lots of people in 4WD's and the most common question I got asked was "How were my Cooper Tires going". Everyone knew about Coopers, but as I mentioned to Terry they had an impression they were very expensive compared to other tyres, but after hearing my tales of tyres they pointed to their own and said, "Look how ours have worn compared to your Coopers" and a lot of them said they would be trying Coopers in the future. They were aware of the 80,000klm warranty.

Our drive home from the Cape was equally trouble free and the tyres have now completed around 30,000klms and there is plenty of tread left.

"It is great to go away on a trip and have no trouble - thanks to our Cooper 4WD Tires"

Regards,

Mike Leyland