Thread: Where to buy Tyres

After much deliberation about replacing the original tyres on the D3 I have decided to stick with the standard 18" rims and put on some General Grabbers. The question is where is the best place in Brisbane or the Gold Coast to buy them?

The road to the decision has been a long one though so if you want to read on I will bore you a little with my deliberations.

111H is the lowest load and speed rating for a standard tyre fitted to the D3 according to the manual. The standard size tyre in 18" (255/60) and 19" (255/55) is 763mm according to all the tyre size calculators while the 17" (235/70) is 760mm. I compiled a fairly exhaustive list of what tyres I could run that had at least the required load rating of 111 in both 18" and 17". This list includes brands like Kumho and Toyo but I tried to restrict it to AT style tyres though I also did look at more agressive mud styles while I was trying to decide what I wanted. I decided that I wasn't likely to keep changing wheels on and off so I need an AT.

The load requirement put out most of the 18" tyres in an AT Pattern (including the Yokohama G012) while others are way too much oversize for me like the Mickey Thompson ATZ in 275/65. I have rear air conditioning in an 08 plate so have to be a little careful of rubbing in the back. Also I probably want to stay within the 15mm requirement to be legal as I would like my insurance to pay out. So the only one left in 18 seems to be the Grabber.

There are three options that I can find in 17" wheels, standard Land Rover 17x7 alloys if they can be found, Dynamic 17x7 steel and Performance 17x8 BB6 alloys.

So in 17" I could run 245/70 or 265/65 and be just inside the 15mm while a 265/70 is a little too big at 803mm. I don't want to go narrower as I just like wide tyres, they look better despite any arguments that narrower is better offroad so the 245 is out. There are a number of tyres in the 265/65 size as they are a fairly standard size for things like patrols and prados but only two I could find have the H speed rating. The rest are either S or T rated which puts them out for me as I travel up to or slightly above the speed limits even when loaded. I know that is still way under what they are rated at but it's just a niggling doubt for me and that pretty much ends it. The only two tyres left in the required size and speed rating are the Kumho KL78 and the Yokohama ATS G012.

The 17" tyres are much cheaper (around $100 per tyre cheaper) but I have to buy rims which range from $140 for steel to $335 for Performance and who knows what for genuine Landrover. So a set of 17s will be more expensive by around $1k for 5 of them and after reading many reports about the Grabbers I can't justify the difference to go to 17s. Maybe later it may be worth getting a set of 17" steels and putting some muds on them for play time but not yet.

Hope that all makes sense and if there are any glaring errors in my logic or something I have missed please let me know.

TimJ

Hi Tim,

We purchased the GG for Dad's D3 from Dog Tyred at Kallangur who shipped em to Bridgestone Browns Plains for fitment.