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Equipping the Overland Vehicle Vehicle accessories - Making your home away from home comfortable, safe and reliable.
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  #1  
Old 5 Aug 2016
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Africa 4x4 tyres
I'm working towards getting my toyota LC80 ready for the trip of a lifetime through Africa. I'm looking at replacing the current alloy wheels with steel.

What size tyre (and what brand) is most suitable/common in Africa?
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  #2  
Old 5 Aug 2016
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most available size in Africa is 7.50x16 Michelin or Goodyear or you could go 235/85x16 for metric equivalent
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  #3  
Old 7 Aug 2016
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I concur with gipper
Apart from issues of availability for fancy pants wide tyres
tall skinny tyres are best for sand as they respond best to airing down while wide tyres build up a block of sand in front of them.
Wide tyres additional leverage significantly increase the stress on other components such as steering and suspension, while their greater weight also increases strain on the suspension, bearings etc

rather counter intuitively, Paris Dakar racers seem to favour BF Goodrich MTs but that has less to do with tread pattern and more to do with durability, but ask 100 off roaders what tyres they recommend and you'll get 100 answers! I used sand tyres when I drove to The Gambia as we intended to do a lot of desert work, but found them very susceptible to damage on the rocks in Morocco.

I currently run 235/85x16 as gipper suggests

Wide for show, skinny for go!
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Old 10 Aug 2016
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Thank you all for the replies, I have taken the advice on board and have decided to take the plunge and go for it!

Can anyone recommend some decent steels for them? Will these tyres fit comfortably on my 80 with stock suspension? I don't have the money to mess around with suspension lifts and the like right now!

Cheers again!
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Old 10 Aug 2016
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Hi Matt,

As I don't know the exact model or year of your 80 series Im guessing that the stock size of tyre is either 270/70X16 or 275/70X16 which are roughly 31.3inches tall (depending on make) and 235/85X16's are around 31.9 inches tall, so they should fit OK, the 80 series generally has quite a bit of tyre clearance in the wheel arches.

You should be able to use stock steel Toyota OE rims, but double check with the tyre shop you buy them from and make sure they will be ok with the narrower 235 tyres.

Let me know what size tyres are on your vehicle. With slightly taller and much narrower tyres you might lose a little acceleration but you might also get slightly better fuel consumption (depending on which tread tyres you use) the 4.2 diesel lump has plenty of grunt - its one of the best engines out there.
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Old 11 Aug 2016
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Assuming your in the UK, I used Silverline for my 60 series wheels, 3 years on and they still look good, no rust and were very well priced. I used the 8inch rim (16 diameter) with -33ofset but that did make fitting the 235/85s tricky, really a 7 inch rim is more sensible. I can't remember the price but it was under £50/wheel and the cheapest I could find, yet the quality seems pretty good these ones:

Silverline Wheels and Tyres| 4x4 Steel Wheels

If your needing tyres as well, they will probably cut you a deal
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  #7  
Old 11 Aug 2016
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Smile Tyre sale
Hi all

Loads of wheels and tyres on MOD Sales, Military Vehicles & Used Ex MOD Land Rovers for Sale, but have to be quick.

Happy trails

Bruce
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  #8  
Old 11 Aug 2016
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OK for tyres but probably not much use for wheels to fit a Toyota.
I got ex military tyres from LW Vass Ltd at a very good price, £45 for new michelin XZY, although that was 10 years ago. I'm not sure if there are issues these days with selling second hand tyres commercially to do with appropriate stamping etc
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