Thread: Narrow tyres V Wide tyres

On my 110's i have run:
235/85/16 BFG AT's
235/85/16 BFG MT's
285/75/16 BFG MT's (current)
33/12.50/15 BFG MT's (sold with old 110)

By far the best handling, riding, traction and especially comfort both on and off road was from the 33/12.50/15's.
There was a small increase in bump steer, bugger all difference in steering weight (it has power steer) and in 4 years of use never had to change air pressure from 25 psi. I would be running 33's now, but would mean buying yet more rims.

I have run a variety of tyres my largest are the current ones which are 265/70/16 the best I have used

I am going to try 35/13.5/16 next and I am looking at some new ex aslav 315/80/16 that I can get for $250-00 each.

the 315s will require 4.11 crown wheel, stronger axles body lift and much panel work. now my rationale is as follows:

larger diam + wider = less weight per square inch, if any one here has ever tried to go through black soil will know there is no bottom except probably in China. I am going to build some thing that will look a bit like one of the Icelandic rigs because where I want to get to is a challenge that I havent done yet. The whole reason why I go wider and larger is so that I dont cut through the track as that stuffs it, I am trying to float over the top. Hence the larger and larger tyres.

I am doing personal research based on loosely on the icelandic mob as I want to try it myself. So far the bigger the better and the more aggressive the better, this is not based on road driving at all but it will remain road registered, and also based on 27 years of owning nothing but 4wds and using them from shooting buffaloes professionally to bull catching which is as extreme as any competition. How I am using tyres and what I am doing is probably on the extreme end of 4wding particularly as I have no intention of going into challenges etc.


Cheers Blythe

Originally Posted by Slunnie

OK. Sorry, I'll shut the hell up.

I've run 235/70, 255/85, 33x10.5, 34x11.5 and a mix of highway, AT, mud and bog patterns on my current truck and if my opinions and experiences from this are unable to challenge anybodies thoughts irrespective of their outgoing belief then the thread should have been locked after the first response. The comp talk was re the limits of performance of tyres rather than comping itself and did bring in the issue of fit. If you think that my contributions are crap then perhaps my words are there, but the message isn't. Good luck with it McRover, I hope you find the answer that you've probably already got.

I didnt say your input was crap just that I made it clear at the start that as it is a bit of a contencious issue between some members on this forum that it would be best if it was kept to what you have your self and what you thought of them.

Im sorry if this doesnt suit you Slunnie, I have nothing against you or your opinion just that I didnt want the thread to turn into a mine is better than yours thread with a I want to make you change your opinion under tone so it might be possible to get some actual feed back on what is out there without the BS in between it all.

Im happy with what I have and im sure you would be happy with what you have so why not just ask a simple question about what you or anyone else prefers without dragging other people down in the process.

Sorry if that upset you and I thank you for your input.

Skinny....

IMO - You're better off learning how to drive properly before playing around with tyres. You'd be amazed where we take a Defender or RRS on standard road tyres.

When touring & mud plugging, I use Michelin XZL 7.50x16". As has been mentioned before, the narrow section lets the tyre bite through the slush and down into the firm stuff.

Don't be fooled that you need a wide tyre for sand either... I was able to take the 110 (loaded to 3.5 tonne) along the beach at Fraser at high tide. i.e. in all the soft stuff at the top. On top of that, Steve can tell you that we had no problems with the dunes on the border track a couple of years ago.

HTH

M

205/16 Bridgestone Desert Dueler M+S: skinny fellas.

...been great for me, but I do have to drop pressure on very loose sand....

dakar rally raid cars run 'skinny'....

(love widies tho'....those foot wide kellys on my HQ van looked great, but not a good tyre, the bridgestone Rd111vs were fabulous!)

saw a set of 245 Nankang mudstars on a D1 recently, wow! (and the price is right!)

GQ

Originally Posted by mcrover

I didnt say your input was crap just that I made it clear at the start that as it is a bit of a contencious issue between some members on this forum that it would be best if it was kept to what you have your self and what you thought of them.

Im sorry if this doesnt suit you Slunnie, I have nothing against you or your opinion just that I didnt want the thread to turn into a mine is better than yours thread with a I want to make you change your opinion under tone so it might be possible to get some actual feed back on what is out there without the BS in between it all.

Im happy with what I have and im sure you would be happy with what you have so why not just ask a simple question about what you or anyone else prefers without dragging other people down in the process.

Sorry if that upset you and I thank you for your input.

I think that probably most are happy with the tyres or whatever setup they have, especially considering thats what they have chosen.

What challenges me and I usually don't like let go is misinformation or information that is misleading and perhaps thats where you may think its a ****ing contest, where it really is not. It's good to challenge peoples thinking also as there is a lot of myth out there which just isn't the case. I only need to speak to a Toyota driver to find out how often a LandRover breaks down and how much they cost to repair. If you review the thread though and critically analyse the information in it then it really can be difficult to draw any conclusions from it from a technical perspective as perhaps what is seen as logical to the owner, isn't necessarily logical from a research perspective and probably difficult or impossible to draw conclusions from. From here there is only going to be conflicting evidence. I've done some analysis in it which is where understanding comes from and I think analysis is important in technical threads, but if its more for mindless value.. then Ok, my truck:

I run fats
Sand: Better floatation for greater traction and to minimise the height of the sand wedge in front of the tyres to make travel easier.
Mud: Increase tread area to provide improved drive from the tyres
Bitumen: Improve road contact area for additional traction and stability.
Fast dirt: To improve traction and stability
Rock: Greater surface area on the tyre provides more traction on smooth rock, and provides greater area for mechanical traction on rough rock.

I like fats because when I air them down I still have the long footprint length of a skinny tyre, but the additional width just provides more footprint - the very reason why we air down. The tyres I run are 285/75-16 MTR's on road at 36psi generally, and 34x11.5-16 JT2's offroad at 15psi or lower. Of course pressures will deviate depending on load and terrain.

I hope you question everything I've written as with every other reply given by the other members and wonder why or how that response has come about, because what I have just written will come into direct conflict (in a nice way) with what others have written.

If its just a matter of who runs skinnies and who runs fats, then its probably fine and a poll will probably do that with minimal fuss.

Originally Posted by Slunnie

Sand: Better floatation for greater traction and to minimise the height of the sand wedge in front of the tyres to make travel easier.

Yep... I'd agree. It's the same for driving on snow drifts.

Originally Posted by Slunnie

Mud: Increase tread area to provide improved drive from the tyres

Hmmm... Not quite. Like the sand, the wide tyre is giving you 'flotation' on the mud. From there, you are relying on the agressiveness of the block pattern on your tyre.

Originally Posted by Slunnie

Bitumen: Improve road contact area for additional traction and stability.

No. The stability would come from running a lower profile. Traction... Only to a point. Run a wide tyre in the wet and you're buggered as you'll aquaplane everywhere. It also depends on your rubber compoud... If your rubber is stickiest when cold then you're in with a chance. If you go wide, there's less friction so therefore there's less heat being generated and your tyres aren't getting to their optimum temperature.

Originally Posted by Slunnie

Fast dirt: To improve traction and stability

No. For improved traction in dirt you need a narrow tyre to cut through the loose stuff. Wide tyres can't remove the loose stuff fast enough so it's like driving on ball bearings the whole time.

Originally Posted by Slunnie

Rock: Greater surface area on the tyre provides more traction on smooth rock, and provides greater area for mechanical traction on rough rock.

Yep.

M

Slunnie, Im not having a go at you, I was just trying to get the thread back on track for what I had asked and to avoid exactly what has apeared a couple of times straight after your posts for Camel Landy and others disputing what you have said.

I didnt want to do a pole as I wanted to know what size tyres people were running on what cars as well as how they found them, nothing more.

If you want to get more information then maybe start a thread yourself discussing the ins and outs of it rather than just what size tyres do you run and what do you think of them.

Im glad you like your tyres, I like mine but the whole thing came about after some mates got into a near punch on over what they thought was more popular and just for interests sake I decided to ask the question without having to traul through the opinions of what everyone thought of everyone elses tyres.

As for going through all the other threads to get specifics for analysis, Im not interested in doing that, It was just an informal thread with a guidline to help keep it on track and try to get some rough info without the BS.

I only quoted your post first as yours was the first I thought was starting the opinions side of things, Im not singling you out for anything just that I thought that was where it started so I posted about that but I see it was PhillipA that posted about the Comptrucks so maybe I should have started there but Im sure every one gets the point now.

Sorry about not chellanging you mate but not everything has to be a challenge in life, some times it's just the simple answer is what is required.