Thread: 17 / 18 inch wheels

Originally Posted by ADMIRAL

Ditto, changing them in a garage with all of the gear, is a pain. Too damn heavy, too damn bulky, and the larger rolling diameter does mean you have to get the vehicle up higher, which is also a pain.

I'm sure Baz is talking about how hard it is to break the bead on the standard alloys. This is when you are swapping actual tyre carcases over using a bead breaker and tyre levers, something you would want to have practiced before at home first!

It's worse on the roadside for another reason too...
Picture this, standard D3/4/RRS towing a camper trailer with a boot full of stuff. You're on a **** road but you've got a flat on your $350 20" tire and you want to be able to legally repair it if possible, so you pull over ASAP.

To get to your spare you have to:
1. unhitch the trailer
2. move the trailer back to give yourself room
3. remove the fridge and everything from the boot and put it somewhere. Probably not a bad time to grab a beer out the fridge.
4. stuff around with the key to unlock the tow hitch - the lock's full of dust and crap so it's not an easy process
5. remove the tow hitch after finally figuring out how it comes off, off course it too is full of dust so it takes some perseverance!
6. now that you can unwind the spare, do that
7. go to crack your wheel nuts
8. the last tire joint to touch your car had the rattle gun set at 5,000,000nm so your land rover multi tool for the wheel nuts bends like a banana
9. lucky you have a breaker bar and a 22mm impact socket which LR were thoughtful enough to provide in the tool kit
10. use the bent tool to wind up your jack. Even harder than it usually is, which is hard, as it's not that easy to wind the tool in a full circle, meaning you have to do two thirds of a circle, unhook the tool, put it back on, and repeat! Curse when you scrape your knuckles on the ground. Hope you didn't jack under the compressor !! :P
11. Realise that you're definitely putting a bottle jack in that little spot for it when you get home!
12. Finally get it up and get the wheel off.
(putting the spare back on is the reverse of this)...
Cost - scraped knuckles, lost time, full carton of beer, fix up job on the tire.

Hi All,

There is an easy fix for one of the LR short comings here. You can remove the tyre without unloading the car. There is some prep required though. Remove the left seats plastic cover that covers the hinge at the base of the seat this allows enough room to insert a 1/4 inch socket extension. Before loading the car place a 1/2 inch socket on the bolt for the tyre and leave it there for ever, place some wire around the underside of the dust cover creating a hook via which you can remove the dust cover and expose the socket, then taking a 1/4 inch socket wrench, the extension and a converter to 1/2 inch you can now insert this between the gap in the seats and proceed to lower the tyre and reverse to install new tyre

P.S if you have the d4 hitch or mitch hitch you can leave the trailer on as well.

Originally Posted by Rich84

It's worse on the roadside for another reason too...
Picture this, standard D3/4/RRS towing a camper trailer with a boot full of stuff. You're on a sh I t road but you've got a flat on your $350 20" tire and you want to be able to legally repair it if possible, so you pull over ASAP.

To get to your spare you have to:
1. unhitch the trailer
2. move the trailer back to give yourself room
3. remove the fridge and everything from the boot and put it somewhere. Probably not a bad time to grab a beer out the fridge.
4. stuff around with the key to unlock the tow hitch - the lock's full of dust and crap so it's not an easy process
5. remove the tow hitch after finally figuring out how it comes off, off course it too is full of dust so it takes some perseverance!
6. now that you can unwind the spare, do that
7. go to crack your wheel nuts
8. the last tire joint to touch your car had the rattle gun set at 5,000,000nm so your land rover multi tool for the wheel nuts bends like a banana
9. lucky you have a breaker bar and a 22mm impact socket which LR were thoughtful enough to provide in the tool kit
10. use the bent tool to wind up your jack. Even harder than it usually is, which is hard, as it's not that easy to wind the tool in a full circle, meaning you have to do two thirds of a circle, unhook the tool, put it back on, and repeat! Curse when you scrape your knuckles on the ground. Hope you didn't jack under the compressor !! :P
11. Realise that you're definitely putting a bottle jack in that little spot for it when you get home!
12. Finally get it up and get the wheel off.
(putting the spare back on is the reverse of this)...
Cost - scraped knuckles, lost time, full carton of beer, fix up job on the tire.

But if your running a set of quality LTs,there is a good chance you will never have to do the above

$350 for a 20" tyre seems awfully cheap

Originally Posted by scarry

But if your running a set of quality LTs,there is a good chance you will never have to do the above

Quality is fine but nothing is bullet proof. Any tire can be punctured or fail LT or not.

If your going on a great trip take the right tool with you. One spare or two? Why try compromising with some thing which might or will cause more problems than they solve. $$$$ ? 17 inch in have a 17 inch spare ( or two) IMO

saw a person driving a flat tire today. steely determination on her (yep) face. not stopping to change it or get help. ( I would have) She stacked when the flat shredded and rim failed on a corner near a school

Stupidity, compromise or poor planing = risks to you or others

Originally Posted by weakestlink

Quality is fine but nothing is bullet proof. Any tire can be punctured or fail LT or not.

Exactly,but i am talking about minimising the risk.

For the last 10yrs i have run nothing but LT rated tyres on our Discos,never changed one yet.Sure luck can play a part.
Before this we had a good few punctures.....
For me,i wouldn't use anything else.

Sure, they do not handle as well as a dedicated road tyre,are slightly more noisy,rougher ride,but a small price to pay.

Just my 2 cents worth

Originally Posted by Rich84

It's worse on the roadside for another reason too...
Picture this, standard D3/4/RRS towing a camper trailer with a boot full of stuff. You're on a sh I t road but you've got a flat on your $350 20" tire and you want to be able to legally repair it if possible, so you pull over ASAP.

To get to your spare you have to:
1. unhitch the trailer
2. move the trailer back to give yourself room
3. remove the fridge and everything from the boot and put it somewhere. Probably not a bad time to grab a beer out the fridge.
4. stuff around with the key to unlock the tow hitch - the lock's full of dust and crap so it's not an easy process
5. remove the tow hitch after finally figuring out how it comes off, off course it too is full of dust so it takes some perseverance!
6. now that you can unwind the spare, do that
7. go to crack your wheel nuts
8. the last tire joint to touch your car had the rattle gun set at 5,000,000nm so your land rover multi tool for the wheel nuts bends like a banana
9. lucky you have a breaker bar and a 22mm impact socket which LR were thoughtful enough to provide in the tool kit
10. use the bent tool to wind up your jack. Even harder than it usually is, which is hard, as it's not that easy to wind the tool in a full circle, meaning you have to do two thirds of a circle, unhook the tool, put it back on, and repeat! Curse when you scrape your knuckles on the ground. Hope you didn't jack under the compressor !! :P
11. Realise that you're definitely putting a bottle jack in that little spot for it when you get home!
12. Finally get it up and get the wheel off.
(putting the spare back on is the reverse of this)...
Cost - scraped knuckles, lost time, full carton of beer, fix up job on the tire.

Better having at least:
Spare Wheel carrier
Bottle Jack and Breaker bar
Some will say Mitch Hitch a given as well.

A rear wheel carrier is such a good thing on a Disco 3/4, saves so many issues when a spare is needed, plus gives you that extra room for a long range tank.

As Rich says a Mitch hitch is also a really good thing, I personally wouldn't tow off road without one.

Go on buy the stuff that will make any trip a lot easier if and when you have a problem or want to go futher than a tank of fuel will take you, afterall its only money ...