Thread: Who has 285 tyres on there Defender?

Originally Posted by Col.Coleman

What's all the hoo ha about wide tyres? They make your car drive like crap, aquaplane and swerve when you hit puddles, you rip the sidewalls out on ruts and rocks and generally look naff. I'll take my skinnies any day. As the pressure drops they elongate rather than widen giving a better footprint, you wide guys make wide ruts so my sidewalls don't suffer and in anything other than sink hole slop actually dig down to the hard stuff underneath instead of floating all while slinging less crap all over my pride and joy. More mud means more weight. Case in point is have a look at pro mud racers or mud rally tyres. sorry guys but they are large diameter and skinny. Widies are for street cars and poofters in landcruisers. Ooops did I say something wrong?

Nah Col, your on the money!

Bushranger

Thats quite interesting. Interco, who manufacturer some of the best offroad tyres in the world, with tyres like the super swamper and arguably the best mud tyre going around being the Bogger. Pretty much the narrowest tyre you can get is about 9" wide, most being between 10.5" and 13.5 - 15" wide. The Bogger doesn't come any narrower than 10.5" and goes out to 20". There is no 7.50's in the catalogue, they're just Ag tyres that are built with lots of plys and not much more.
Interco Tires :: Interco Tire

So I check out the Mickey Thompson tyres, who probably produce the next best tyres for drive, and the narrowest Bias Claw available in Aus is 13.5" wide going out to 19.5". For the Radial Claw, the narrowest available is 10.5" wide. Still no skinnies in there!
Mickey Thompson - World's Toughest Traction Tyres!

Next awesome muddy maker I check out was Simex! They're renowned for making skinnies and again awesome mud tyres.
They have a regular mud tyre which is marked 7.50R16, but measures 8.7" wide, and another that is a 29" dia tyre, but every other tyre in their range actually measure between 10.5" and 13.4".
Dynamic 4x4, Simex 4x4, Sime 4x4, General tire, Dynamic Wheels, Sime, Grabber, Extreme Trekker, Wheels

Sooo, somehow I don't think the manufacturers of proper muds seem to think that skinnies are better in the mud.

I fitted Interco SSRs 2 (?) years ago as "all around" tires,they rub on the radius arms and reduce turning radius (7X16" alloys-not LR),this may be annoying sometimes but you can live with it...road manners are good,although I tend to drive slow

I still have the RRC HD springs front which give a less than desiderable steering,but I guess you can fit the tires with no lift at all at the expense on some minimal rubbing...

Originally Posted by rick130

And pray tell, what do you consider the 'right' size ?

How wide is too wide ?

What height ?


ALL tyres elongate the contact patch when deflated.

A larger contact patch gives more traction on a hard surface. Period.

Sidewalls more prone to ripping if a tyre's wide ?? Please.

You keep talking about mud, but what about rocks and sand and the thing most people send time on, Bitumen ? A bigger contact patch equates to better cornering and braking.

By your reasoning, we should all go back to 6.00/16 bar treads, we'd be better off.
When I was a kid, a 7.50/16 was considered a big tyre, 235/85/16's didn't exist and would have been considered big and the then new 31/10.5/15's were considered a US aberration. (anyone remember Desert Dogs ??) These days 265/75/16's is a standard size on most all large 4wd's, including the 90 and is at least an inch taller than the old 31/10/15. 235/85/16 is the standard LT/farm ute size.

Times change, 4wd's get bigger and much, much heavier. Tyre technology, both construction and compounding forges ahead in leaps and bounds. Old stereotypes fall by the wayside.

Settle down guys we are comparing apples and oranges here.

My Interests are in long distance travel so I have Different requirements to putting around on the weekend. I use my vehicle to take me to the places I want to see then get out and walk, I don't feel the need to drive over everything I see. I drive on everything from bitumen to rocks, sand and mud.

I use mud tyres for offroad grip and toughness of construction. In these sizes the road noise is not noticable inside the cab with the air on, rolling resistance is much less than the wider ones in the aggressive treads(how's your fuel economy?), I pepper my car with less rocks on the gibber roads, am more precise with wheel placement in the tough stuff. On black soil roads and clay you want more wieght per square inch to dig down not float(up to a certain point, but after that the road is probably closed,flooded, you get fined for ripping it up or you are not getting through in anything anyway).

Legally I have no problems with main roads, my insurance company or police. Once you start modifying one thing where does it end? As a number of you have said you have reduced steering lock, tyres rub on this and that and you need to lift to gain back the clearence you had. This decreases your stability and at nearly 3.5ton loaded doing 110 in marbles that is something I don't want to give up for a fly**** more grip or clearance to get over something on the weekend that lets face it I don't really need to.

The widest tyre I prefer is 235/85r16. This size is the metric replacement for the 7.5016 but is actually a larger tyre(nearly 32inch and wider). Michelin don't import that in their muds so I use the 7.50. In the wheel ruts my tyres stay away from the rut sides where the rocks lay to stake your sidewalls. It is the jamming of big tyres into narrow ruts and the weight of the vehicle and drive forces snagging the sidewalls that tears them out. Stay away from it and there is less risk.

Taking into account the section v diameter equation the skinnies produce a longer rather than wider footprint which is better for floating your vehicle in sand. In a wheel track you are then traveling on the already compacted sand rather than constantly pushing through the soft stuff. The wider front section has to push through more sand creating more driveline stress and heat in the diff and gearbox/transfer case and uses alot more power hence more fuel. Not too great on the Canning. Of course there will allways be a situation where a little more float would be nice, but there is no 1 solution to everything or everyone would have the exact same tyre.

Contact patch gives grip, yes. But carcass construction, type, sidewall stiffness and tread compound give cornering ability and braking. Bigger isn't neccesarily better, just bigger.

Old cross plies were crap on the road but were very good off it. Bridgestone and Dunlop as well as a few others still make them prdominatly for light trucks and farm equipment that spend 100% of the time off road. I looked at some for my 4wd Canter.

Times change yes and modern 4wds are actually getting more car like and less capable, have less payload and towing ability. The tyres are wider and more like passenger car tyres than light truck.

That's why I drive a Defender. They got it pretty much right first up. Landrover have alot more money to test things than I do and the defenders still come out with skinnies on them. Good enough for me.

Nothing here is personal, just some of the reasons why I choose what I choose. If all the effort and mods in your opinion is worth the effort then go for it. Just bear in mind that there are so many different makes and models of everything out there and we all swear by different stuff, but we all seem to get to the same places no matter what we use. At the end of the day we all drive Landies.

Originally Posted by Col.Coleman

<snip> Just bear in mind that there are so many different makes and models of everything out there and we all swear by different stuff, but we all seem to get to the same places no matter what we use. At the end of the day we all drive Landies.

absolutely true, and we belong to a very broad church, but saying what you said you didn't think it would go unanswered, did you

Did I mention I don't even run wide tyres ?
or at least I don't consider 255/85's wide

Thanx for all your replys guys...

Iam just looking at my options as it is a family wagon/tourer not a rock crawler I still want to keep it practical.The hardest part is telling the missus that it needs to be practical if it was up to her it would have 6" lift and 35" tyres she just likes to be bigger then everyone else on the road.

My last 4by landcruiser ute (opps ) had 4" lift and 33" tyres and she loved driving that but it was also my toy and went alot of places that the big boys went but now I just want a Tourer.Ill get another toy for the crazy stuff one day.

Thanx again Azza

i had 285/75's MTR's on my 130 and they were one of the best tyres i've had, ate all over my 235/85's and 255/85's in handling, comfort, wet roads, both on and off road!! they are not a wide tyre, around a 33.3 x 10.5 i'd say, they were clearly taller then my mates 33x12.50 MTR

they were mated to 16x7 disco steel rims with an additional 20mm or so offest added (rewelded the bands) i used to run them at around 8-10psi offroad and never popped a bead or had a flat! had about a 2" or so lift and pretty good flex, locked rear, etc

however i've had 33 x 12.50 MTR's and hated every second of them, noisy and handled like crap!

by the way you only 2" of lift for some 35's just a bit of flare trimming thats all

Working in a restaurant I have big pots with even bigger spoons to stir with.

Old habits die hard

These conversations go alot better with beer.

Forgot to mention I used to pit crew for Super Sedan Speedway and hand groove all the tyres and work out tyre selection, pressures, wheel offsets, diameters and compounds. With more than 30 tyres per corner to choose from and regrooving and recutting between races I formed a special bond with our black rubber donut friends.

Also ride motorbikes. Fast. Tyres aren't right, IT HURTS ALOT.