new tyres . Size?

[chris_harvey]

hey i am looking around for new tyres for my disco 1 as i am going to be ordering some when i get back from holiday end of next month but at the moment i am on 15" wheels and tyres . i want to move up to 16's but i am unsure of what size to order . i have a 2" suspension lift on the truck  and don't really want them to scrub the body of the car , but i want the chunkiest widest i can get if you get me .
i am going to be putting extended flexi arches on the car soon so if i need to put them on b4 i change the wheels then so bit it .

basically i would just like to know whats the best tyre size to have

thanks in advance

[crazymac]

Do a search on here, but i'd say 235.85R16

[Range Rover Blues]

235/85 are stock tyres for a 110 Defender and fit nicley on a Disco with 2" lift and no other mods, unless you have spacers the only wheelarch mod you need is a tiny trim on the back of the rear arch.

With flexi arches you could go wider and/or bigger offset but much taller and they will rub the arches on full twist.

[chris_harvey]

My m8 has put it to me that as my wheels are 15" I can get really big chunky tyres but stay in 15" the reason I wanted to step up 2 16s is fir the hight as his is much taller than myn an more ground clearance. So does any have any ideas of what size I could get ?? Thanks

[chris_harvey]

ive been lookin for 2 days almost now and i am still baffeld by the tyre size's .....

basicaly i am going to stick with my 15" rims but i want to go as big and wide as i can on them rims

ive been lookin at recip trials but i dnt know what size to order . on my car now i have 31-10.5-15 colway ctrax
but thers loadsa space i could easly go bigger and wider

can any1 help
 plzzzzzz ha  :roll:

[lambert]

the long and short of it is what do you want to do with it and how much do you want to cut your body work by?

900r16 (36.5 inch tall) tyres will fit if you lift it and carve off the few bits of body that they touch, adjust the steering stops and fit taller bump stops. they will need less bodywork than say 35/14.5/15 because they are narrower and will fit into the arches better than the 35's.

it is all a matter of horses for courses, 31 inch tall tyres will do for most green lanes and narrower tyres offer less rolling resistance on road as well as digging down through soft top mud better where as a wider tyre will to some extent float over softer ground better, taller tyres improve ground clearence but knawls up gearing effectivly making it too high which your clutch will really appreciate.

in essence it is a mod to fit bigger than stock tyres so at that point anything will fit if you make it.

[chris_harvey]

well basically Ive got a 2" lift on it now and i dnt mind trimming abit of the arches and the like . the reason i want bigger is i dnt really want to lift it more as that just lifts the body not the chassis and Duff's so as a friend of myn said i need to step my wheels and tyres up to get that extra inch poss inch and a half diff clearance as his is on 16" and insa special tracks and he has so much more clearance than me and he is also on a 2 inch lift .

the thing i need to know is as i already have a set of 15" modulars in black now can i get the same hight gain from say a big 15" tyre or shall i just got straight to 16" rims and tyres

if the first option is doable what in Ur opinion is the best size to go for ?

thanks for the reply also Lambert

[lambert]

right, stock on a disco is about 29 inches tall and up to about 9 inches wide, these fit into the arches with room to spare.

as you rightly point out a suspension lift does not of its self give more height under the diffs.

i have 750 r16(31 inch tall 7.5 inches wide) tyres on mine with no suspension work the only mod being to space the rear wing lower quarters out to save a camel cut. the other benefit of the narrow section of my tyres is they fit up into the arches really well. this means that i have as much ground clearence as a stock 110 defender as that is where the tyres are from. it also means that whilst i have an extra inch under my diffs over a standard car my ramp break over angle is worse than your lifted car on the same size tyres.

where your lift comes good is that you can fit taller tyres than me. 33 inch tyres seem to be popular for this but they also tend to be quite wide. this is a problem when they try to fit up into the arches hence the need to remove various bits of wing panels and bits of rear door lips as well as fitting plastic arches.

obviously the ammount of bodywork needed depends on the specific tyres fitted as they vary wildly in terms of represented size and actual measured size, but broadly bigger equals more need to remove metal. this in itself leads to a kind of arms race along the lines of "well i have started cutting for the 33's so why not get 36's?".

as to rim size there is just as much if not more big tyres in 15 inch as there are in 16 inch as a lot of jap stuff is 15 as standard as is the american gear, so stick with what rims you have it will save buying more.

[chris_harvey]

rite i am sort of gettin the gist of things now thanks ! just another quiky ha how much panel mods do ya think i would have to do if i got a set of  35 12.5 15 kl71's

or is it best to just stick with 33's

[lambert]

idealy with 35's you would be looking at lifting the body off the chassis by 2 inch as well as trimming back the wings to near the top of the arches. thought would also be given to reducing the available compression of the suspension by fitting much taller bump stops, however whilst that would eliminate some of the body trimming it also limits the ability to cover uneven ground.

baisically like i said befor it is a modification and how far you go is up to you, but most things are possible if you try.

[sardonicus]

As a quick comparison ,my 31x10.50 maxxis are about the same as a half worn bfg at 265 75 16,that i measured it against the other day,so you wouldnt be gaining much there .
It is possible to fit 33,35,or37" on 15" rims,but you would have to get 15x10"wide rims for bigger than 31's as I presume you have 8"rims at the mo.
Personally I wouldnt go bigger than 33's if its used regularly on the road as well,unless you fit a defender transfer box which helps with the change in gearing.

[chunk84]

right im running 33x10.5x15 on my disco and had to fit the flexi arch`s but also i have a 4 inch lift but i still get scrubage on full articulation but still never stoped me but tbh depends on what u intend on doing with you truck