Big wheels are largely for aesthetics and people pay extra for them so car companies use that to extract more profit. Big brakes are for stopping power and they cost the manufacturer more to make and go the other way financially. One of those requires the other. But not the other way around. Plenty of cars running around on big wheels with small brakes. Can't be done the other way. Stopping once from 100mph is very different to doing it a hundred times in a row with WOT acceleration between them. Just selling a vehicle in a market doesn't mean it's designed for it. If AMS have actually run a LC200 through their test (I haven't checked) it'd not rare well, just like the very poor showing of the Japanese 1-tonners. Not designed for it so fail that market test.
Lumbering can be big, heavy and fast. And also slow to stop or change direction. F-series brakes are relatively anemic, as are other North American full size trucks. They'll stop you a couple of times, maybe even thrice in a row, fully loaded from freeway speeds. And that's more than most people will ever need or want. They are engineered to that customer expectation. Europeans expect more. They just do. That's why their vehicles handle and brake and can maintain 200km/hr plus all day long. Totally different to here, or the US, or SE Asia. F-series (even the little ones) are all on 17s as a minimum anyway.
And sidewall is sidewall... 6" is 6" irrespective of the metal holding it to the car. So saying 17s or 18 are no good is a bit silly without context. Plus a bigger overall diameter tyre with the same sidewall will generally outperform a smaller one off-road.
A Defo on 16s with std (nearly) 32" tyres has around 7" effective sidewall (the wheel lip is about 3/4" high, so you lose that). The tyre is sized/measured to the bead, not the visible rubber we generally think of as the "sidewall". On 18s you'd need a 34" tyre to match that sidewall height and that should be possible with slightly oversize tyres on the new one. RRC/D1/D2 ran 16s with 29s. That's actually less effective sidewall than a new Defo on 18s. Comparable to 19s on new Defo in fact. There's some context.
Barnsey at Birdsville brought in 1200 tyres just for last years Big Red Bash IIRC. Lots of those were 17s and 18s to cater for the LC brigade (and increasingly others, like some of us with later LR product). 16s are great, but 17s and 18s can be as good, or even better...
				
			 
			
		 
			
				
			
			
				DiscoClax
'94 D1 3dr Aegean Blue - 300ci stroker RV8, 4HP24 & Compushift, usual bar-work, various APT gear, 235/85 M/Ts, 3deg arms, Detroit lockers, $$$$, etc.
'08 RRS TDV8 Rimini Red - 285/60R18 Falken AT3Ws, Rock slider-steps, APT full under-protection, Mitch Hitch, Tradesman rack, Traxide DBS, Gap IID 
			
			
		 
	
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