Thread: Are land rover defender rims really rubbish?

Originally Posted by Ken

Dont know much about steel landie rims but alloy rims on Disco2 s are one of the hardest rims to get a tyre off the bead with a tyre changer thats why I wont change to after market because you can run really low pressures with them and they wont break the bead

Yes, the AH2 bead lock form on the D2 and P38A (and probably later cars) are very good at holding the bead and, apparently, require specailised tyre changers to remove. I bet that a lot of tyre places don't have the correct tools.

Ron

Originally Posted by p38arover

Yes, the AH2 bead lock form on the D2 and P38A (and probably later cars) are very good at holding the bead and, apparently, require specailised tyre changers to remove. I bet that a lot of tyre places don't have the correct tools.

Ron

sorry Ron but will find heaps of tools working there

Originally Posted by hiline

sorry Ron but will find heaps of tools working there

It took me a second or two....

I was fed the same rubbish about LR wheels having no safety beads and having leaking rivets by a bloke who sold me a set of crap light truck tyres because 'the Land Rover ones were unavailable'. From that read 'less profit' maybe, or 'I don't have them here'. I have since run on ex. works Defender rims with tubeless tyres for about 9 years at all pressures with no problems on rocks, sand and highway. Inner tubes are a pain except for floating children (and adults with a cold tinnie) down rivers when it's hot.

Well I have cerimoniousely ditched my standard rims purely because tubes kept failing. I was getting a flat tyre every 3 months or so
No tyre guys could tell me why but my brother, a mechanic said the tubeless tyres are ruff on the inside and damage the tube. So I ran 40 psi (to reduce movement between tyre & tube) everywhere I went except off road but would re-inflate even for short trips at speed between tracks, Cheesed the other blokes off a bit but do I care? No I drive a Land Rover
Mine were the rivetted 110 style.
As a foot note; none of the local tyre blokes would even consider putting tyres on without tubes.

FWIW, Late model 130 rims are available in either tubed (no internal or 'safety' bead) and tubeless. After welding quite a few tubes to tyres, and having one catastrophic deflation at over 100km/h in a corner on the Putty Rd and the tyre rolling off the rim, two different tyre fitters suggested I run the tyres tubeless on the tubed rims as the bead area is so damn wide.
Illegal ? Probably.
Safe ? Haven't had a problem in the last five years. Think of it this way. If you have a puncture and the tube/tyre deflates on a tubed rim, what will keep the tyre on the rim ?

Tyres often have ribbed sections inside which, I have been told, abrades tubes and cause leaks.

Dunno - but I never had any problems running tubeless tyres on my old RR steel rims.

Ron

Yes Ron, but the Ro Style steels from old RR's were rated for tubeless tyres.