Houm_WA
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I have 32.6" tires and even in Access I wouldn't try a full lock turn. Bump stops are even lower.
Will I still be able to drive these tires with a suspension fault?
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I guess mine is magic. Diameter is not the only determining factor. If I ran a 275 or 285 with the same overall diameter I’m sure I’d have problems, that’s why I went tall and (relatively) skinny.
Houm_WA
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Good point on the width...maybe I should consider that for my next tire size. How does that look? If you have any pics, I'd love to see.
Timbo, your tyre diameter increase from 30.0" to 30.5" or 94.247" vs 95.818" circumference amounts to a 1.66% increase. That alone is less than you'd have by tyre wear alone.
Add the factor of same tyre spec numbers in diameter and sidewall the variations between tyre manufactures having a wider margin of error than your 1/2" diameter gain.
Then there's the other crowd that install 2", 3" or 4" taller tyres now adding over 6.28", 9.42" and 12.56" to the tyre circumference. Talk about overgearing issues but then they are looking cool is all that matters.
Going up one to two tyre sidewall widths and down the aspect ratio 5% will usually result in the same tyre diameter and circumforence which becomes more critical with newer vehicles being geared tall for the most highway MPG like 1,900 to 2,100 rpm's at 60+ mph.
Driving at 7 to 10,000' elevations with overly tall tyres really shine now as a guttless vehicle. ......~~=o&o>.........
Add the factor of same tyre spec numbers in diameter and sidewall the variations between tyre manufactures having a wider margin of error than your 1/2" diameter gain.
Then there's the other crowd that install 2", 3" or 4" taller tyres now adding over 6.28", 9.42" and 12.56" to the tyre circumference. Talk about overgearing issues but then they are looking cool is all that matters.
Going up one to two tyre sidewall widths and down the aspect ratio 5% will usually result in the same tyre diameter and circumforence which becomes more critical with newer vehicles being geared tall for the most highway MPG like 1,900 to 2,100 rpm's at 60+ mph.
Driving at 7 to 10,000' elevations with overly tall tyres really shine now as a guttless vehicle. ......~~=o&o>.........
Yeah, I’m going to disagree with the real world application of this. I’m not sure why you took the cheap shot about only being worried about looks, I hope that wasn’t meant for me.
I live at 5600 ft, work at 7200 ft and go ‘wheeling regularly near 10,000 ft. I wish I could have gone bigger than 33” because then my skid plates wouldn’t be so shiny from all the rocks! I’d really love to run 35’s, but that’s not really practical with an LR3. I’m contemplating a Disco for that since I’m so near world class ‘wheeling. Anyway, when I bought my 3 the previous owner had UNDERsized the tires by one size (245/60/18 if I remember correctly). Not a huge difference, but still undersized. I nearly immediately replaced them with 275/65/18 Goodyear Duratracs until I realized the sidewalls are made of paper. (I shredded 3 Goodyear sidewalls in one summer.) I did some research on the max size I could comfortably run and found 265/70/18 seemed to be the max without a strut spacers. Enter my Cooper S/T Maxx.
Short story long, I have run these tires for over 40k miles and honestly have not noticed any ill effects of the taller final drive ratio. My commute takes me up about 1800 feet of vertical in about 7 miles, so I climb a pretty good hill every day. Any negative effects have been VERY minimal in terms of on road performance and well worth the benefits off-road. Oh, and the wear like iron and have really tough sidewalls!
Houm_WA
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Those look good! Not too skinny...
If you think the negative effects on road are minimal you may just be forgetting! I swap back n forth between stock size and 275/65s...and it's always profound to me.
If you think the negative effects on road are minimal you may just be forgetting! I swap back n forth between stock size and 275/65s...and it's always profound to me.
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Perhaps, but it doesn’t matter at all as I will never run stock sized tires on it. I know when I switched it wasn’t a big enough difference for me to regret the change. It’s still a heavy vehicle with average (below average now) horsepower. If I want to zip around I’ll drive my wife’s Mini, my daughters Bimmer, or my son’s modded GTI.
Houm_WA
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That's fair...I'm lucky that I can switch back 'n forth. If I couldn't, it'd stay big.
Interesting discussion for me. Recent change on my end where I'll be moving to a new place with a lot more room - and snow and dirt - so am going to look at more aggressive tires in a year-ish. When I bought my LR3 in 2010 I also got the OEM 18" rims so was thinking of using that for my more aggressive tire set up. I know there has been a lot of discussion on the best tires for the LR3s over the last 10 years. Any top recommendations looking at what's available in 2021? Some of the top recommendations back in 2010-11 aren't available anymore. Thanks!
