My 2014 T-31 Tekna is fitted with 18" wheels. The tyre size is therefore 225/55 R18. Some months ago, my wife became stuck in a muddy car park (very embarrassing) as the road-biassed tyre treads of course simply filled with sticky mud and resembled slick doughnuts more than tyres! Also, the local council has a policy of repairing potholes with PlayDough, which lasts for ...ooh, 2 weeks, maybe? Even on the X-Trail, some of the pot holes are quite jarring when you drive across them by mistake. I am fed up replacing springs and tyres in my BMW M-3, and all my claims for reimbursement have been roundly rejected. But that's another story.

I determined to replace the current worn road tyres with A/T units, believing they may have slightly stronger sidewalls and certainly a more open tread pattern to save my wife's blushes - or even mine!

I appreciate than 18" wheels do not offer much scope for A/T variety, and I have found Yokohama Geolandar tyres and Kumho eco Solus KL21 tyres on the Net. Does anyone have experience of either of these, or have alternatives I might try to unearth?

Be careful picking WHICH Geolandar tyre you choose as there are many styles under that brand, some of which would not be any better than your current road biased tyre.
Obviously look at all the different styles and pick one which has the amount of aggressive tread you desire but know that as the aggressiveness increases, the potential for road noise at higher speeds also increases.

I have the Geolandar GO15 and they are great offroad but still relatively quiet onroad at motorway speeds.

I have a 2011 Facelift Tekna with 18" and fitted Vredestein Quadrac 5 - they've been on nearly 18 months and all still have just a tad under 7mm on them after 15k.

They have been nothing short of excellent in all weathers - I even towed a builders van off some very sticky muddy ground slightly uphill and didn't use diff lock. They were brilliant in the small amount of snow we had over winter as well.

225/55 x 18 with M&S snowflake and Mountain symbols on the side. Reasonable priced as well.

Thanks, Revhead! It's information like this which is so invaluable. Most tyre retailers (the larger ones, anyhow) have some sort of scoring system to guide buyers as to fuel consumption impact, noise, expected life and so on, but as we use our vehicles for everything from continental tours through dropping the kids at school and ferrying home half the rugby team to meandering through a woodland which the satnav insists is a Right of Way, passable by all traffic, we want our tyres to be generally ok at everything. It's all a compromise.

I'm too old to care about my tyres hinting that I might be some Backwoods maven, who has only nipped into Tunbridge Wells town centre to pick up a month's supply of hard tack - the supermarket bags in the boot kind of destroy that image anyway. The actual distance our X-Trail covers over what might loosely be described as 'off-road' as a percentage of total miles travelled is tiny - but it's blooming embarrassing to be foiled by slightly slippery muddy grass.

On the topic of wear, I remember having a lovely set of Goodyear mud tyres on a Land Rover 110 which I thought were going to last and last and last... Until the garage giving it its annual MoT test pointed out that while there would seem to be loads of tread left, the tyre flexing had worn them into a threepenny bit shape, and '...didn't I notice how much noise they made'? I chuckled and said that it's a Land Rover, so as conversation with the passengers is impossible at speeds over 30mph is impossible anyway, what difference did it make? But I changed them anyway - and went back later, red-faced, to agree that there was a noticeable difference.

The X-Trail is quite a quiet vehicle, so I do have to bear this in mind!

OOh! Another brand which I recognise. Thanks very much. I'll go looking. On the topic of towing a builder's van out of the goo, you don't suppose it was anything to do with the significant extra torque you have gained from the engine remap?!

I am ordering Michelin latitute cross rubbers. According to russian forum, 235/60R18 is the max.
235/65 R17 is popular there, and it is 2mm smaller than the 235/60R18.

It sounds as if these are slightly taller but narrower tyres, so likely better off-road. I think I may stick to the 18" wheels if I can, using whatever rubber I buy for everything. But thanks for the steer!

I use Toyo Open Country A/T Plus tyres on my T30. They are excellent and quiet on the road. My offroad experience was limited to crossing a very muddy campsite without even a wheelspin. You would have to go to 235/60 in 18" though.

The 235/60R18 i am getting

https://www.camskill.co.uk/m65b0s253p10 ... se%3A_71dB

Yet another choice for me. Thanks, Colster. The taller, thinner tyre might be more robust over the mean streets of Tunbridge Wells as well.