I am interested in this topic. I spent the last two days wheeling at Landcruiser Mountain Park at Jimna near Brisbane. I was with a 2004 Patrol with a 2" lift. Because it has bigger tyres (rolling diameter 33" (versus our standard 29")) he could consistently get up rutted climbs where I would scrape the diff housing and get stuck. Considering my engine power and TC advantages this made me mad.
Lifting the body wont do much good if your diff is still 2" closer to the mound between the ruts than most other big aussie 4wd wagons...
I love the air, and wont change to coils, so it seems to me that the wheel arch being so inflexible with other tyre sizes as one of the serious flaws with making the RR outstanding off road - am I overstating this? I want to put 33s (or at LEAST 31s) and not have to redesign the body.
PS. I still love my P38, as she aptly dragged the Patrol out of a BIG boghole. See here.
I have been running 245/75/16 good year wrangler mt/r's on my 96 rangie and they are 31's and very seldom touch anything except in highway mode crossing a gutter etc.
They have a pretty good grip in mud and excellent on rocky stuff. Bit noisy on the highway, but not too bad.
Next set will be at least 32's with the mudflaps off.
On another set of wheels I have a set of Toyo open country A/T's which are good on bitumen and gravel and very quiet but for mud you need the chunkiest tread with good self cleaning properties.
Takes a bit of research to find the biggest size that will fit without cutting anything. Worth the effort though.
I had my '96 Rangie on 265/75/16 Wrangler MTR's. Fitted Gen 2 airbags with longer shocks and adjusted the EAS settings to a higher level. Don't recall any rubbing issues.
On the way at about 4am, the EAS lights blinked, and then that earth shattering beeping started, and then solid lights came on about half way to the meet up point. Question: Turn around or keep on going??
Fortunately I had installed 4 tyre valves (EAS override) linked to each airbag, and completed the 4 day bush trip, only checking the heights every morning and topping up as necessary.
I've got the Silverstone All Terrain 30' which have served me well. I do agree more clearance is needed under the diff, but you don't want to go to bigger tyre. I'd say 31' to 32' tops, otherwise your speedometer and auto trany will go out of whack, not to mention the excess stress on the diff itself.
Mine compressed down about as far as it will go just before lifting the opposing wheel off the ground.
These are 255/85R16 (33") and you can see how they tuck up nicely in to the wheel arch. This is a good illustration why I don't recommend people put wider than 265 tyres on.
Of course mine is running a 2" lift so I can get away with 33"s, otherwise don't go beyond 31"s. Even then be prepared to trim or remove the mudflaps and get occassional scrubbing on highway mode over speed humps and gutters.
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Originally Posted by RoverHse
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