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Wheels, tyres and lift kits...


Lord_Unsub

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Hi all,

I've been toying with the idea of getting a second set of wheels for my FL1 and fitting them with more aggressive A/T rubber. I've got standard 16" five spoke alloys with mud/snow bias road tyres at the moment, and I want to start getting into green laning. I appreciate that in theory there is no need for massive mud pluggers, snorkels etc for laning, however the current rubber just doesn't look up to it.

My question is, what have people fitted to theirs, and does it require lifting / spacing or other suspension geometry changes? Not too fussed on which type of wheel steel/alloy etc.

I am going to keep them as a separate "weekend" set so it drives normal for daily commuting.

Cheers team

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I'm on standard size (215/65 R16 I think it is) general grabber AT's and they're absolutely fine on the road and pretty good off it, no alterations at all, drives as normally as the road tyres that came off it. Doing ~30,000 miles a year in the FL so would notice if they didn't drive normally.

TBH even something like BFG muds would drive pretty normally, plenty of people use them as their "one and only" tyre. It's only cheap remoulds or madly aggressive tyres that can be a bit of a handful, and on a Freelander the handling's that much better to start with.

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Thanks for the advice. I think I've settled on some ATs as you've mentioned. Looking forward to finding some legal lanes now which is proving difficult in Somerset. Sailsbury Plain is just under an hour down the road though, just got to convince people to go with ?

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  • 2 weeks later...

We run a BFG A/T copy on the Freelander. Can't recall the size off the top of my head, but think they are about an inch taller than stock.

No probs with rubbing and it drives better on the road with them than it did on it's previous road tyres. Work well in snow too.

That said, if you are having them as a 2nd set, I'd highly advise a set of proper mud terrains. When it's slippery out they are night and day difference to A/T's. Many MT's will also run perfectly fine on the road too.

It looks quite good in person, better than the pics suggest.

IMG_7561.jpg

IMG_4455Medium.jpg

I would say though, while I'm impressed with the Freelander and it's ability, I do find it more of a challenge off road. This is a manual Td4, and it stalls way too easy. And lack of low range is a real issue for low speed work, it just crawls too quickly and then doesn't have the grunt when you need it, or if you ride the clutch to pick up some revs will then spin the clutch too easily.

It also doesn't have enough ground clearance for my liking, which makes it easy to get beached, and you are always hearing lots of nasty sounding knocks underneath. This combined with the lack of low range often means you have to tackle obstacles and terrain at far higher speeds than you would in another 4x4.

Combined with the low ground clearance, the front over hang is long, so expect it to dig in occasionally.

On the flip side the TCS is brilliant as is the HDC.

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  • 2 weeks later...

DrRob and chicken drumstick,

Thanks for the replies guys. Currently penny pinching for some new at's. As for overall ability, I knew it wasn't the best before I got one, it was more a bargaining chip to get the wife into the green oval.... As she loves it, I can now move into phase two of the plan, sell her scenic and buy either a defender 110 or disco 3... All good things and that...

Cheers again guys

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DrRob and chicken drumstick,

Thanks for the replies guys. Currently penny pinching for some new at's. As for overall ability, I knew it wasn't the best before I got one, it was more a bargaining chip to get the wife into the green oval.... As she loves it, I can now move into phase two of the plan, sell her scenic and buy either a defender 110 or disco 3... All good things and that...

Cheers again guys

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Here's my set up.
16" alloys with 215/70 16's BFG A/T's and 10 mm wheel spacers (needed spacers as mines a facelift model and the wheels are from a pre facelift) it originally had 17" alloys when I bought it a years go.

Whereabouts in somerset are you as I'm in Yeovil. I've done a bit of green laning in Somerton on the levels and out towards Shaftesbury way was quite a good mile long byway

freelanderbfg3.jpg

freelanderbfg4.jpg

freelanderbfg5b.jpg

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Hi muzzys

I've just moved to castle Cary but work at the air station so practically in Yeovil Dailey. Not done the somerton lanes as was not sure which ones were ok, would like to do them tho! Haven't got any tyres yet tho but on my last outing to Wiltshire it got very boggy and rutted and coped fine through there.

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