Thread: how wide is too wide tyres?

other than the legality or lack thereof of it, and the lift you'll need to fit them...


unless its a play toy, you don't really need them. for most driving conditions.

Originally Posted by nat p

hi all,
I want purchase some 35 by 12.5 wide tyres for my classic, is there any issues going with a tyre this wide, I am running a Maxi rear and standard front diff. Also got a 4.6 so I can turn them, any thoughts on good V bad points


Cheers NAT

Hi Nat

I run 35/12.5/r15s on my rangie with a 2inch body and 3 inch suspension lift. They work fine off road as I have also trimmed the guards to get clearance. You will need to adjust you bump stops as they will rub when doing tight turns otherwise...presuming you get appropriately offset rims. -25mm is whats need I think...

You will find that depending on what sort of driving you do the engine may struggle. Your speedo will be out, it will work harder to get up to speed and you lose a lot of what little engine breaking there was (if you have an auto). You might want to look into changing your diff ratios or alternatively swapping in a defender transfer case and putting in some lower crawler gears to regear for low range.

Angus

I run 35s on my rangie classic (2 door) with a 4.4, maxi rear locker and standard front 10 spline.

Breakages include:
Steering rods
engine/gearbox mounts
ball joints wear stupidly fast
diffs
axles
wheel bearings
swivel pin bearings
clutch

35s are hard on the car but if you want to do anything 'hard' 35s are almost a must. Especially as a lot of the harder side tracks are getting chewed out by people on 35s or bigger. I'm in the process of upgrading everything so it doesn't break anymore, but I'd imagine something else will break down the line once i've strengthened everything else.

If its going to be a daily- definately go something like a 33. 35s for play only. Also as suggested before- diff ratios will need to be changed to get your low range back and correct highway speed- and don't use the series gears as they'll just break.

A bit of mechanical empathy goes a long way to not breaking things.

Mechanical empathy only works if your diffs aren't made of cheese