Yeh Yeh another tyre thread

[Pete38]

And now I read the 265/75 km2 are slightly narrow at the tread so now got me thinking will I get away with them.

Hey, if I get them to put one tyre on the front, lift the car up to the high setting (up an inch on standard high) and let the air out of the bag with the big tyre on it's corner and turn lock to lock and check clearances, would that give me a good idea? I know the axle is not quite as angled as in off road but it will be on the bump stops so hoping it gives a good idea. I'm assuming off road makes the wheels hit the bump stops? Never looked but just assumed. I'm prepared to take the mud flaps off so that's no biggy.

[parasnoop67]

Just go with them, they will be fine. If they touch anything, just find where it is and remedy that if you think it is necessary.There are very few times when there is enough compression on the suspension together with enough lock to make them touch. And if you use it offroad the benefits of the extra size outweigh the downside. Slightly longer bumpstops would fix the compression aspect anyhow. I have a set of 245/75 Wrangler mtr's which are also good but the extra size of the 265's makes quite a difference. Another aspect is the speedo error--108 actual when showing 100k's so fuel consumption increase isnt as bad as it looks. Having said all that my on road tyres are 255/65 at's which are much quieter and the lower gearing gives better overtaking acceleration and cornering is much flatter, helped by the Arnotts gen3's.

[FANTOM P38]

Hi Keithy P38!,
Don't have pics but will take some tomorrow & post up in the evening!
changed ny sign on from Rovinrangie as I named the truck FANTOM as you may be able to see on avatar!

[Pete38]

OK. So after some saying don't and some saying go for it..... I'm gonna get the 265/75/16 km2's thrown on tomorrow morning and see how much work there is needed for them...

And then get it out to my parents place who have a good mound that will make em scrub, and get to modifying the guards were they scrape bad.

Mud flaps already off in anticipation.... Looking forward to the extra diff clearance... Not so looking to chopping the inner plastic parts and the minor chops of the sill.

Thanks all for your replies. Both those that said don't do it, and those that said just go for it... I'd be lying if I said I wasn't concerned, but as parasnoop said, I've gotta way up the pro's verse the cons, and that extra clearance is a big contribute to my final choice.

Will report back within the week so it may help the next newbie to 32's on a P38.

[Keithy P38]

I noticed the username change, had me scrolling back through to realise you did fantom! I'll be keen to see those pics from both of ya! Jealous to say the least, but if one can indeed fit the 265's without a lift and much work to the body, that's my next move.

I'd also be interested to hear about rpm at actual 100km/h too, I'm sitting at 2100 at actual 100km/h with 255/70's.

Cheers lads

[Pete38]

Will post back for sure. Just might need a week to give proper feedback....

I will have an idea when I play with the suspension heights in the tyre place car park though, so if the km2's are way too big I can always just pay $80 or so to fit the 245/75's. Hoping thats not the case mind you cause I really want them now. Willing to hear small scrapes but if a panel gets getting torn off I'm definitely getting em swapped

[p38oncoils]

Hi All,

Well my last forum topic convinced me to go with LR alloys for my offroad wheels and not look for steelies with a +57mm offset... even if they existed.

But in the mean time, until I find bargain alloys to run both sets of tyres, I have decided to remove my Cooper HT's (came on the car with great tread left) off the 16x7 inch rims, and put on a set of BFG KM2's mud terrains. Was looking at the Kuhmo KL71's but I can get the KM2's for almost the same price so favour the more popular choice of tyre for safety sake...

But the big question is what size??? Yes I have read loads and loads. Yes I have read the sticky for tyre sizes for a p38. So I have almost made my mind up, but I'm favouring the size I would prefer not to go, cause I'm worried about the other size scraping too much and regretting it.

The tyres will be going on a P38 with Gen3 bags, only lifted 1 inch up from standard height on the high setting only because I have the almost standard length bilsten shocks in it. Not interested in extended bump stops because that will loose articulation.

These will be used for offroad use and experience full articulation so I don't want bad scraping but minor noises don't bother me.

245/75/16 - Minor scrapes but nothing significant to worry about. Now my feeling is if it scrapes a little in access mode then even at the high setting and the wheel pushed right into the guards climbing rocks they are still likely to rub a LITTLE? But no biggy? Probably need to remove the front mud flaps though. All highway mode and standard height are fine on the road.

265/75/16 - Scrapes, scrapes, more scrapes and possibly damage to the inner guards from scraping when the wheels are right up at the bump stops off road. Not as easy as just trimming the plastic liner??? But more diff clearance which is the point that keeps me tempted. Also OK if I end up getting the 2 inch lift kit and shocks to suit. I have the EAS emergency kit so driving with an EAS fault should be OK. Popped bag, well thats gonna make the tyre scrape until I put the spare bag in the bush.

I've almost made up my mind but hoping someone can convince me that a 265/75/16, with minor plastic guard work, will not scrape that bad when the wheel ends up right in the guards. Gonna take some convincing mind you

Following are a few pictures of my P38 with 285/75/16 Maxxis Bighorn tyres fitted. The suspension lift is 3.5 inches on the rear and 2.75 inches on the front. After fitting there was a fair bit of rubbing on the front wheels under articulation when the steering wheel was turned slightly where the tyres rubbed against the sill trim. I modified the trim and now the tyres clear the sill trim under all conditions. There is now only slight scuffing of the inner guards under full lock on the steers and on the rear under full articulation. If you are going with Gen 3 airbags and a 2 inch lift you will have no issues with rubbing once you have modified the sill trim. If you are interested I can post pictures of the modification that I made to the sill trim.

[Keithy P38]

Pics?? I'm keen to know how you went mate!

[Pete38]

I'll upload some before the end of the weekend.

First impressions;

The KM2's in 265/75/16 are a proper 32 inch but with fairly narrow tread width (just over 200mm on the flat part really). Maybe the slightly narrower tread width is why the tyres don't seem to touch the sills even in access mode. I have removed the mud flaps before I went, and pretty sure they would have scraped them.

No scrubbing yet on the road even in standard mode and highway mode on minor bumps. No major bumps yet though. High mode, well that is less likely until full articulation happens.

The tyres really set the car off, seeing I had it lifted about 30mm from standard. They really do look in proportion, if anything they actually look slightly big and bigger than 32's on the car. The tread design looks quite a bit more aggressive to me on the car than they do in pictures.

So far I am more than happy and glad I got the 265/75 as no scrubbing yet and almost match the radius of the wheel arches.

But should have photos to show before the end of the weekend and more reports as I will have a few banks I can drive up to see how bad the scrubbing will be. But it is Fathers day so that may end up being early next week reports instead.

[parasnoop67]

A week or two down the track you'll be loving them, especially if you're going bush, and it sounds as if you are. I would'nt be too worried about the narrow tread, my bighorns are a bit like that too but are great in the mud, the dig very well. Do you have a spare to suit as you really need one the same diameter, or you can carry a plug kit and pump. When I run the bighorns I leave my normal spare in its hole and put the spare bighorn in the back as well. It does take up a bit of room though. I would have loved KM'2 but the bighorns were $1250 fo 5 so I went that way. Only problem with them is a bit of noise.