Best Tyres

[Iain3 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Iain3]

Hi, there doesn't seem to be a lot of posts in the tyres and wheels section here.

I'm looking at changing my tyres soon, but don't know an awful lot, just chatted to a few people, and did a tiny bit of reading. I'll be moving from the stock tyres to something that is good for a mixture of road driving with some reasonably rough off-road driving every month or two.

What are people's thought on:

• Bigger tyre diameter adding lift but throw out the speedo and change the handling, any solutions to that? New diffs, WindBooster, etc, how big to go, when is too big?
• Wider tyres, better off-road, but less fuel efficient or poorer handeling on road? Again, how wide to go, when is too wide?
• What styles and sizes, brands of tyres are people using for what sort of activity?

Cheers
Iain

[Guest Close Guest]

Wider tyres aren't necessarily better offroad. What you want is a long footprint, not a wide one.

[maulbeagle Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close maulbeagle]

Wider tyres aren't necessarily better offroad. What you want is a long footprint, not a wide one.

Hi Andrew, why aren't wider tyres better ? I thought any increase in surface area at the contact point with the ground would be beneficial ?

[Guest Close Guest]

These articles contains the relevant info
https://www.google.com.au/webhp?sour...narrow%20tyres

In particular, this one
http://www.expeditionswest.com/resea...tion_rev1.html

[Spilsy Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Spilsy]

What are people's thought on:

• Bigger tyre diameter adding lift but throw out the speedo and change the handling, any solutions to that? New diffs, WindBooster, etc, how big to go, when is too big?
• What styles and sizes, brands of tyres are people using for what sort of activity?

Cheers
Iain

I know a bigger tyre would improve my speedo's accuracy (if I went from the 265/65 to the 265/70)

Pretty much any all terrain tyre from the bigger names (think, BFGoodrich, Goodyear, Bridgestone, Cooper) will be as good as the other. What you want is something with a Light Truck (LT) Construction, which offers better protection to damage, and allows the tyre to handle lower pressures - the best way to get a bigger foot print.

[JimmyC Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close JimmyC]

You've opened a can of worms here. Every person has their opinions on the 'best' brand of tyre but in the end there really is not a huge amount of difference between them.
Really in the end it comes down to the type; highway, all terrain or mud terrain. This decision can be made but looking at the type of driving YOU intend to do with the car.

[brogers Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close brogers]

I know a bigger tyre would improve my speedo's accuracy (if I went from the 265/65 to the 265/70)

Pretty much any all terrain tyre from the bigger names (think, BFGoodrich, Goodyear, Bridgestone, Cooper) will be as good as the other. What you want is something with a Light Truck (LT) Construction, which offers better protection to damage, and allows the tyre to handle lower pressures - the best way to get a bigger foot print.

I agree with Spilsy...but all depends on what driving yu r are intending to do...I had BF Goodrich At LT tyres of standard size, and they were great...and I'll get them again. JUst my personal opinion...and over 100,000km out of set, its all about cortrect pressures and coorect alignment/rotation

[Iain3 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Iain3]

Cheers for the responces. AMTS, I read the first half of that article, very interesting, I will finish reading it tonight.

My current thoughts are switch to All-Terrain, go with a bigger tyre wall to get additional lift, and probably go for something that is similar width to what I have now, certainly not the widest tyre I can find.

One person has recommended Toyo, saying a lot of people buying Goodrich, Coopers and Mickey Thompson have started moving to them. I'll look into this.

I need to get the specs of the current stock tyres, then work out what specs I want and see what is available.

Cheers all

[Iain3 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Iain3]

So got my suspension lifted now and actually planning to buy tyres.

Current tyres are stock 265/65/17

Two main options are 265/70/17 or 285/70/17

From what I can see the 265/70/17 will give about half an inch of additional lift, and add about 3.5% to the wheel circumfrence and added to the speedo (which I understand are typically about 7% out).

The 285/70/17 will give about one inch of additional lift, and add about 7% to the wheel circumference, so this will effectively correct the speedo, but throw out the odometer and the performance more. I was told a $300 Windbooster would resolve that. I was also told this was the legal limit for increasing tyre size without needing additional tests and certifications.

I understand that both these tyres can fit on a 7.5 wheel.

What do people here think of the two options?

Third option is to buy a used set of tyres, see how they go for a month or two, then sell them on and buy new ones, that way I can try before I make a big investment, then sell the used tyres on, hopefully for close to what I bought them for, so only costs me to get them fitted.

[Guest Close Guest]

285/70R17:
1. requires different offset rims
2. increases fuel consumption
3. decreases performance
4. decreases braking performance
5. increases weight
6. improves diff clearance
Just a few pros and cons....

[GEEEXL Member Find all posts View Profile Close GEEEXL]

if you tow with the thing dont increase size - Mr toyota didnt give them enough beans to start with never mind putting them in knee high steel caps to do a 100m sprint

[Iain3 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Iain3]

Not planning on towing, more looking for a little extra lift.

I've done a bit of phoning around and found a place that has Coopers 265/70/17, or 275/70/17 which seems a nice compromise between the 265s and the 285s that I was struggling to choose between.

Now A/T3 or S/T Max?

[Seafarer4711 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Seafarer4711]

I went from Standard tyres to BFG 275 65 17 which made a big difference in the way the car felt. I then lifted the car 2 inch and feels better again. I'm very happy with BFG after 12,000ks they don't even look like wearing out. I doubt you will go wrong with any good AT tyre.

[404pug Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close 404pug]

Related to this.... I have a new car on order and am thinking of immediately changing to my normal tyres [BFGs]. I have huge experience with these over several cars but zero experience of the standard tyres. The question is are the standard Dunlops up to outback roads- eg the stones of the Flinders or Oodndatta track etc [ with correct pressure for the conditions] OR will I save myself grief by changing as soon as it is delivered?

[MYT150 Member Find all posts View Profile Close MYT150]

Get them changed to what you want as part of the deal to buy it. They will give you an allowance for the change over so you just pay the difference, easier then trying to sell the tyres separately yourself afterwards. I have done it on the last few new vehicles I have bought where I wanted better tyres on them.