Advice on tyres - Off road tyres.

[MGV]

Just wondering how the 18's would soak up corrugations? I think 15k's of smooth gravel would be fine with 18's, but 15k's of corrugations would be better with 16 or 17' wheels & more side wall?

[Transporter]

Just wondering how the 18's would soak up corrugations? I think 15k's of smooth gravel would be fine with 18's, but 15k's of corrugations would be better with 16 or 17' wheels & more side wall?

Fitted to Tiguan, it wouldn't. The 18" and generally any low profile tyre is more likely to get the puncture on the dirt road. I stick with the 16" for very same reason, the comfort and a casual drive just a bit off the road.

When our stock Hankook tyres wear out, I will get the Cooper tyres.
Cooper Tires - Tyres

[Hillbilly]

My new TDi got delivered yesterday, and its time to start upgrading There are so many threads on here with awesome advice, I've spent the last few weeks getting up to speed with all the mods available! Opticoat goes on Monday, tint next week as well - but looking at wheels, I still have a few q's...

Got the TDi and it came with the stock 16"s. Found some Davenport 18" rims, but wanted to ask if anyone had advice on rubber. I do mostly highway driving, but we live on a few kms of dirt road, and when the weather gets bad, we can't use sealed roads and its a 15km trip to get to the freeway all on dirt, so performance on dirt roads is pretty important too.

Does anyone have any recommendation/advice?? I've asked the peeps at Motorsport Wheels & Tires (recommended via a friend) and got the following feedback:

235/50/18 Dunlop SP01 $295 Fitted and Balanced.
235/50/18 Pirelli Scorpian Verde $320 Fitted and Balanced.
235/50/18 Hankook K110 $260 Fitted and Balanced.
235/50/18 Kumho KU39 $195 Fitted and Balanced.

Has anyone had any experiences they could share?? Keen to make a decision this week

Cheers and thanks in advance!!

I wouldnt even dream of using low profile tyres on a 4wd as half the suspension is in the sidewall of a regular tyre.

Note the number on here who have carved rims up in normal potholes when running them so what will happen when you hit a washout with 50's on. As well as that putting larger diameter wheels will up the gearing and make the vehicle less responsive.
Also the lower profile will ride harder. Also if going off road an LT rating is 150% better than a car rated tyre.

I got 65,000k out of a set of BFG AT's mostly fully loaded and towing a 3T caravan Spent a lot of time on gravel and corrugations and never ever got a puncture Were still Ok when I sold it
Remembering that anything more than 15mm over stock diameter is illegal

[tumbo]

Tyres are always going to be a compromise and only you can decide in what area/s to compromise.

I do 95% of my driving on road so when I purchases a set of Michelin Latitude Cross(all terrain) tyres for my X-Trail, it was a mistake. Now I have a vehicle that is noisier, less road capable, not as comfortable and perhaps a little less safe too. I would have been far better off staying with Latitude Tour HP's that were replaced and I will be going back to them as soon as these tyres are down to the tread wear indicator.

Lesson learned. While I thought fitting AT's to my X-trail was a good idea at the time, it has not turned out to be so. My opinion now is that you would be far better off fitting tyres biased towards the road especially so if you do more than 90% of your driving on road then a road biased tyre will be by far the best choice for you.

I do 1 or 2 trips a year up the beach and perhaps 40 kays on gravel roads a month so my road tyres will handle that if I am careful.

[wai]

Does anyone have any recommendation/advice?? I've asked the peeps at Motorsport Wheels & Tires (recommended via a friend) and got the following feedback:

235/50/18 Dunlop SP01 $295 Fitted and Balanced.
235/50/18 Pirelli Scorpian Verde $320 Fitted and Balanced.
235/50/18 Hankook K110 $260 Fitted and Balanced.
235/50/18 Kumho KU39 $195 Fitted and Balanced.

Has anyone had any experiences they could share?? Keen to make a decision this week

Try and stay away from asymmetric tyres. They can be more trouble than they are worth and are more sensitive to tyre pressures when it comes to even wear across the tyre.

No problem with directional tyres.

Remember, it is not just the size and speed you need to consider, but the load rating as well.

[kolchy]

Thinking the need for 85% highway driving still may make a pure 4WD tire not a great match wrt fuel econ, noise, hwy performance etc... Happy to be proven wrong tho

[kolchy]

Just wondering how the 18's would soak up corrugations? I think 15k's of smooth gravel would be fine with 18's, but 15k's of corrugations would be better with 16 or 17' wheels & more side wall?

Road is normally pretty well maintained - owner local grader lives up the hill so doesn't let to out of hand.

Fitted to Tiguan, it wouldn't. The 18" and generally any low profile tyre is more likely to get the puncture on the dirt road. I stick with the 16" for very same reason, the comfort and a casual drive just a bit off the road.

Good point - took 2 trips to the farm (which we do weekly) for the A4s 245/40/R18 to puncture That said, it was bad timing too - 3 years of multiple trips a week down without a problem, and just as we got new tires - POP!!

That was 40's tho, thought 50 would have been OK/better? 16" has 65s, so its kinda middle ground. On first drive it felt slightly 'floaty' in parts, but I also need to get used to a SUV rather the a low slung A4 on super low tires and stiff springs...

[kolchy]

...Remembering that anything more than 15mm over stock diameter is illegal

Thnx Hillbilly for the input. When u say this tho, is that tire size? Or rims?? Learnt more about tires this evening than I'll probably ever know

[MGV]

I think when Hilly says "putting larger diameter wheels will up the gearing and make the vehicle less responsive" he means the overall diameter ie rolling diameter & not wheel diameter.

Also think getting a puncture with whatever rubber is just a 'luck of the draw' scenario. I have done about 2000k's on all kinds of gravel with 245/40/19's, occasionally at around 120kph & hit some pretty cringeworthy potholes without an issue, & the 2 punctures i have had in the life of my 45000k old tyres (still a fair bit of life left in them yet!) was only due to nails left on bitumen from tradies...

[Hillbilly]

I think when Hilly says "putting larger diameter wheels will up the gearing and make the vehicle less responsive" he means the overall diameter ie rolling diameter & not wheel diameter.

Also think getting a puncture with whatever rubber is just a 'luck of the draw' scenario. I have done about 2000k's on all kinds of gravel with 245/40/19's, occasionally at around 120kph & hit some pretty cringeworthy potholes without an issue, & the 2 punctures i have had in the life of my 45000k old tyres (still a fair bit of life left in them yet!) was only due to nails left on bitumen from tradies...

I meant the diameter of the wheel and the rolling amount is the circumference A larger diameter gives a larger circumference and therefore does less revolutions per kilometer, effectively upping the gearing and making the vehicle slower off the mark and slower acceleration.
It also affects braking coefficient, steering and other things.

How do you know it was tradies LOL