Thread: SAND tyres for 110 Defender tdi 300

A wider tyre gives more floatation so a much lower bow wave in front of the tyre because the tyre sinks less in the sand. It also gives a greater footprint for increased traction. When airing down, both wide and narrow tyre contact patches grow in length only, neither grow in width. Dedicated sand tyres are either big balloon tyres or (with much less relevance) wide paddle tyres.

I can't say I agree with you, though I guess it might come down to person preferace and experience.

Originally Posted by J RAD

I have heard great things about the Pirelli Scorpion ATR in terms of punctures. GGs are also great in sand, though their side walls do let them down.

FYI if you are doing a lot of sand driving, skinny tyres are far better than wider. Once you air down, the wide tyres ballon width ways and will result in you pushing a bow wave of sand. Skinny tyres balloon length ways giving more traction and minimal resistance to the sand. But you already knew this right?

Good luck mate.

I'd far rather try ride a bike with fat tyres through sand than a road bike.

Sand buggies have fat tyres.

Real world suggests the opposite to what you're saying.

Hmm I remember watching a doco that showed big toyotas in (can't remember which) either Greenland or Iceland, driving around natural open space on 44 inch tyres that were deflated to 4 psi.

They did this to protect a lot of the vulnerable vegetation which takes a long time to regenerate in those conditions. They claimed the resultant surface area of the contact patch exerted less impact on the ground than a person walking. I have no data to back or dispute that claim, but the concept seems logical.

Personally, over the years I've driven over sand with both fat tyres and skinny. In my opinion it really doesn't matter which you use, as long as you experiment and decide on a suitable pressure that performs well for your vehicle, with your loaded cargo, with your tyres, in the particular sand that you are driving.

Get into it. Learning is half the fun.

Cheers,
Nige

I am now thinking the TOYO Open Country M/T may possibly be a good tyre for the deserts. The tyre is claimed to have tough side walls.
Now will the 235/86 R16 be better than the 265/75 R16 when climbing sand dunes in the Defender tdi 300? My past experience has been with Cooper
STT in 265/75 R16 and they seemed to work, but wonder if the 235/85 size
would be better.