Smaller spare wheel? 2012 RRS

[discomarsh]

I'm looking at a 2012 Range Rover Sport in a car yard that has genuine 20? bling wheels (not my cup of tea) but the spare is 19?. This is a red flag for me. But the salesman assures me it's OK. Am I right to be concerned? Why wouldn't the previous owner have bought five 20? wheels?

[Disco-tastic]

Hey discomarsh

It's the overall diameter of the tyre thats important, not the size of the rim.

From what i can tell the standard tyres on a sport are 255/50/R19. A similar diameter tyre on a 20inch rim would be a 255/45/R20.

One easy way to check is to get the 19inch spare out and stand it next to the 20inch wheels. If they're the same diameter or size then you should be right.
You can also check out this website to compare:
http://exploroz.com/Vehicle/Tyres/SizeCalc.aspx

Hope that helps!

Cheers

Dan

[letherm]

Sounds like the previous owner sold the original rims when he bought new ones and just kept the old one as a spare.

Mrtin

[rufusking]

You an check on Topix (via the VIN) if it originally came with 19 or 20" and the style. She may have bent or damaged an original 20" and replaced it with whatever was going cheap on eBay or as previously mentioned may have come with 19" and only bought / traded 4 x 20".

Seeing that in some markets there is an option of a temporary spare (check the tyre placard in the drivers door jam) a 19" shouldn't be an issue if used as a temp spare.

[strydes]

This is a red flag for me.

You could actually see this as a good thing. Someone swapping to bigger wheels likely is more interested in lapping the 'burbs than if they had swapped to a smaller wheel size for off-road performance and more driveline stress.

Mechanical signs are obviously always the key, but type of mod can give good insight into previous use.

[PRS]

What you describe in the original post is what's supplied new.

For MY12-13, the 4x 20" rims a 9.5J20 are standard, with a 19" spare, 8J19, and fitted with a different profile tyre (a continental). If you drop the rim you will also see the max 80kM/hr markings. Rolling distance is the same. It is a "get me home" spare. The 20" tyre will fit in the spare space however sits way toooo lowww.

From the manual
8J x 19 255/50 R19 Y (durable spare) 107
9.5J x 20 275/40 R20 Y 106

[Stuart02]

Yeah I've got a 2010 RRS which had that issue. Four x 275/40/20 (10" wide rim actually) on the car and a 255/50/19 8J spare - with a max 80kph stickered spare. It does reflect that in Topix.

Weird thing with ours is that it turns out the 20s are Chinese knock offs. You wouldn't know to look at them unless you had an OEM Italian-made rim next to them and looked very very closely. BUT. Our tyre guy reckons they can have microscopically more tolerance in the stud pattern, making them potentially hard to get running smoothly on the car, as ours have been lately. So look for the 'made in' written on the back.

Unless as suggested earlier the originals were trashed, I'm at a loss to say why the previous owner would have replaced them.

I've since picked up a couple of OEM 20s in the same style and have one under the car. It certainly does hang down more but I feel better having a full, same size and profile spare.

[discomarsh]

What you describe in the original post is what's supplied new.

For MY12-13, the 4x 20" rims a 9.5J20 are standard, with a 19" spare, 8J19, and fitted with a different profile tyre (a continental). If you drop the rim you will also see the max 80kM/hr markings. Rolling distance is the same. It is a "get me home" spare. The 20" tyre will fit in the spare space however sits way toooo lowww.

From the manual
8J x 19 255/50 R19 Y (durable spare) 107
9.5J x 20 275/40 R20 Y 106

What limits the spare's use to 80 km/h? The tyre or the rim?

And the rolling circumference of the 20" tyres is 2.5% larger than the 19" spare tyre. Not a problem?

Will Discovery-2 18" rims fit on these vehicles?

[Lotz-A-Landies]

A wheel repair specialist friend informs me that the 20 inch rims are getting stress fractures much more frequently than 19 or 18 inch rims, probably because of hitting speed humps too fast. So if you do much off highway use, it would be worthwhile looking into some 19s or even the 18 steels for a bit of peace-of-mind.

[Graeme]

What limits the spare's use to 80 km/h? The tyre or the rim?

Most likely just the difference in adhesion between the spare and the wider normal tyres.

Fit 265/50 to your 20" rims to get almost the same sidewall height as 255/55 on 19". My brother has Nittos in 265/50 on his 2008 TDV8 RRS which whilst not perfect, are a lot better than 275/40 off-road. The spare needs to be 255/55R19 to be close enough in diameter.