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Equipping the Overland Vehicle Vehicle accessories - Making your home away from home comfortable, safe and reliable.
Photo by Andy Miller, UK, Taking a rest, Jokulsarlon, Iceland

I haven't been everywhere...
but it's on my list!


Photo by Andy Miller, UK,
Taking a rest,
Jokulsarlon, Iceland



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  #1  
Old 29 May 2002
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Tyres
Following the advice of some of you I fitted a Superwinch X9 plus to my 110.
But now I have another problem- which tyres are best? They should be tough, good in snow & mud & not completly hopeless in sand. I'm not planning to drive through dunes but stick to tracks.
I also want to keep my 5.50 wheels.
Would 235/85 fit?
I heard BFGoodrich M/T km are best. What about Goodyear G90,G82,or General Super All Grip?
Any shared experience is apreciated!!
Thanks in advance,
Gregory

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  #2  
Old 29 May 2002
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i seem to remember geoff kingsmill having trouble with BF Goodrich tyres. check out his website on:www.geocites.com/gkingsmill/
it was around ethiopia where the tyres shredded after only 30,000 km.
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  #3  
Old 29 May 2002
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I really don't know if they exist for your bike but I have had an unbelievable good experience with Michelin Deserts. Used them for a month in Marocco on sand, stony tracks, mud (lots of it!!!) and (believe it or not) snow!!!!
They always provided suffciant grip to feel confident on a +200kg heavy Honda Transalp.
Haven't had one puncture and that's one I can hardly believe considering...
Personally, I wouldn't go off road without them in the future.
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  #4  
Old 29 May 2002
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G'day Gregory,
I take it by 110 you mean a Land Rover, as I think Fireboomer might have gone a tangent thinking 'bikes', anyroad, I've currently got Goodyear Wrangler AT and have done to date 60000 K's and it looks like I'll be changing at least the front ones in a few thousand K's.

To get the good mileage out of the tyres I rotate front-to-back at least every 5-7000 K's, that will give you a good 'wear' out of the tyres. Also when running on tarmac I run a few PSI above recommended.

As you quoted that you'll be doing some snow & mud I can't comment on how the Goodyears will perform, as for tarmac, unsealed surfaces and sand (not desert sand) the Goodyears have perfomed excellent with only a few punctures (to be expected). I'm running these tyres on a LandCruiser HZJ75 so the weight comparison is about the same for a 110.


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  #5  
Old 29 May 2002
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If you are sticking to tracks I suggest you use BFGoodrich tyres as they have stronger sidewalls than Goodyears.

You cannot fit 235/85 tyres on your 5.50 rims. These tyres need a rim width of between 6 and 7 inches, ideally 6.5 inches. If you want to stay with steel rims, then the standard Discovery 7J rims will do the job. A lot of Discovery owners replace them with alloy rims so you should be able to buy a second hand set quite cheaply. They will fit your 110.

Also, please be aware that your 5.50 rims are designed for tubed tyres. Although you can fit tubeless tyres to tubed rims (but not vice versa ), I would advise you to mate tubeless tyres with tubeless rims if you can afford it. The Discovery 7J rims are tubeless.
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  #6  
Old 30 May 2002
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Have you considered michelin XZLs in 7.50x16 as they are fitted as standard by LR on 5.5 rims, but would be better on the wolf rims which are 6.5, stronger and less than 30 quid each.
The XZLs are excellent mud tyres, I would imagine any tyre that is good in mud is no good for snow on the road, they have a very heavy duty sidewall but are designed to be deflated to a min of 0.6 bar, so they will still perform quite well in sand, they are the standard fit tyre for the military vehciles in quite a few countries so they have quite a good reputation.
BFGs do have a strong side wall but they are not designed to be run at extreme deflation, they wear quite well but the treads cut quite easily on rocky terrain, I have a friend who destroyed a set of BFG A/Ts in 4 weeks driving a HZJ75 through the middle of Australia, when he arrived in Perth he ditched them in favor of the standard fit dunlops.

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  #7  
Old 30 May 2002
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Col,

Why would it be better to use 6.5 wheels instead of 5.5 on 7.50x16 tyres? I know that the wolf wheels are stronger, but is the width also better for some reason?

Erik D.

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  #8  
Old 30 May 2002
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A 7.50 tyre should ideally be fitted to a six inch rim, but you can go half an inch either side.

The Section Height of the tyre will increase/decrease by approx 5mm (0.2 inches) for every half inch change in the width of the rim. However, this should not affect the Rolling Circumference as the steel bands in the tyre make it deform anyway.

Michelin's XZL tyres are rated at 75mph max. This means that a perfect tyre at the perfect pressure setting for the load it is carrying can run for 30 minutes at 75mph. If you drive for a lengthy period at 70mph with the wrong pressure - the tyre will fail.
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  #9  
Old 2 Jun 2002
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Thanks everybody for your help. I still don't know which tyres to fit but I'll take your facts in account.
All the best to all of you...!
Gregory

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