Tall skinny tyres

[Chicken Drumstick]

Hi. Haven’t posted in a while. 

But thought I’d share

As some of you may recall. I have a thing for tall and skinny off road tyres. Now don’t get me wrong I simply love how big fat monster truck style tyres look on a Land Rover. And indeed I even own a fat set of Simex Jungle Trekker II’s. 

But it has been my experience that for most off roading in the U.K. that I’ve done at the very least. Skinny tyres tend to actually work better. And certainly if you are into trials events. Narrow tyres tend to make the Vehcile turn better and keep total Vehcile width down. 

Obviosuly there are some exceptions, such as very sandy soil where fat tyres do work better on. But shall we say for 80-90% of the places I’ve off roaded over the years. Narrow tyres would be my choice. 

For the past several years I’ve been on the look out for some. My ideal tyre would be something like a 7.50 x 18 or 7.50 x 19. But alas nobody makes anything remotely close to this. And even if they did. Rims for them might be an issue too.

Leaving 7.50 x 16’s as the only real contender. But sadly so many are built on 235/85R16’s these days and the 7.50 ends up being short and fat!! There are still a few true 7.50’s about  but I’ve never been one to follow the heard as it were.

Howver I’ve just picked up a set of these. 

BlackStar Guyane 2

They are a 7.00 x 16. A tad narrower than a 7.50 and they should be shorter. But these seem pretty tall for some reason. They are physically taller than Fedima Partners in 7.50 by an inch or so.

Here they are lined up to some 235/85R16 BFG MT KM 02’s. As you can see they are much narrower but almost identical height. 

 

And here compared width wise with to some 235/85R16 Cooper STT’s. 

And again almost identical height. 

The treat pattern looks pretty decent too. Big lugs, good tread depth and nice voids to clear the mud out of the tyre. 

I’ll  report back once I’ve used them a little. 

[Mo Murphy]

I agree, drumstick.

Mo

[Maverik]

Love the sticker on them, smacks of quality

I like your train of thought, I'm not a fan of fat tyres, I'll take a pic of the ones I put on the camel disco recently...

[oneandtwo]

I Found 7.50s vary massively in size, comparing a Goodyear extragrip 750 to a deestones xtragrip 750 (same tread pattern), the Goodyear looked like a 650.

[garrycol]

Go 9.00x16 - tall and compared to height are narrow - but will your axles be able to handle them.

[AV8R]

15 hours ago, garrycol said:

Go 9.00x16 - tall and compared to height are narrow - but will your axles be able to handle them.

I agree but try to find a set of 900x16's intended for a "light" Land Rover. What you will find nowadays are tyres intended for vehicles weighing 4000+ Kg. They really are too heavy for anything like a proper ride. I have downsized to 255/85R16. Less tall but, besides 15Kg less weight per tyre, better roadholding and comfort. Other than that, € 200 each instead of € 400 is a benefit too.

[steve b]

What are those wheels ?

The Michelin 8.25 -16 XZL is pretty tall and skinny , but again stiff for a SWB Land Rover

cheers

Steve b

[AV8R]

The wheels were made by Sankey, 6,5x16. Two part, forged aluminium alloy. They weigh 14 Kg each, including all nuts and bolts.

Originally developped for the Shorland Mk3 and 5 APV's as an option to use a run-flat tyre system.

Edited November 27, 2017 by AV8R

[steve b]

That's interesting , not seen them before - presumably with the right spacer inside you would have a double beadlock .

cheers

 

Steve b

[Chicken Drumstick]

19 hours ago, garrycol said:

Go 9.00x16 - tall and compared to height are narrow - but will your axles be able to handle them.

A 9.00 x 16 might be narrowish for its height. But it’s still pretty wide overall. Really after something narrower. 

As per my op. I’d really like a 7.50 X 19. Ie something the height of a 9.00 but the width of a 7.50. The bigger rim would mean the sidewall height wouldn’t need to be any taller than a 7.50 x 16. 

And as per the other poster. Choice of 9.00 x 16’s is very very limited. Petlas about the only real MT and often in a heavy ply rating. Not great for an 88” Land Rover. 

[Chicken Drumstick]

3 hours ago, steve b said:

 

The Michelin 8.25 -16 XZL is pretty tall and skinny , but again stiff for a SWB Land Rover

cheers

Steve b

I’m running these at the moment. Nice height. But considerably fatter than a 7.50 x 16 XZL. 

They actually ride pretty well all things considered. Suspect they aren’t all that different to a 255/85R16. Maybe a smidgen narrower.

[Chicken Drumstick]

Tyres mounted on some One Ton rims. This is one compared to a Kingpin 7.50 x 16 diamond. 

Suprisingly the BlackStar 7.00 is taller and narrower. 

[Soren Frimodt]

On ‎27‎-‎11‎-‎2017 at 6:46 PM, AV8R said:

The wheels were made by Sankey, 6,5x16. Two part, forged aluminium alloy. They weigh 14 Kg each, including all nuts and bolts.

Originally developped for the Shorland Mk3 and 5 APV's as an option to use a run-flat tyre system.

I want a set of those wheels!! Can they still be found?

[AV8R]

10 hours ago, Soren Frimodt said:

I want a set of those wheels!! Can they still be found?

Not very likely, I'm afraid. These were optional equipment on the Shorlands (Mk3 in the picture) and I have seen them on a prototype 101FC. So i guess there's not that many around.

Got these rims brandnew at an Army surplus store in 1982. Traded 5 of them for a set of 4 shiney Wolfrace-like 16" rims. We both thought we had the better part of the deal. I still think I do ;-) but the surplus store is still around ;-D

[missingsid]

If you look at the various tyres available there are two possible reasons for the height differences, the carcass height and type then the tread height.

Your new tyres have a good deep tread pattern  whilst the diamond tread is either worn down or a lower tread depth from new?

[Chicken Drumstick]

The kingpin diamonds are a little worn. But not over than inch of tread worn. It’s just a shorter tyre despite being labelled as a 7.50. Interestingly the diamonds are still about an inch taller Fedima Partners in 7.50 x 16. 

[Waldorf]

Black Star Guyane are great in mud. You see them quite a lot in France. I had them in 7,5x16 on my 88 for almost ten years, and they are huge, compared to any other 7,5x16.

[deep]

It seems the Russians make exactly the sort of tall skinny tyres asked for here:

 

[Shackleton]

On 29/11/2017 at 6:37 PM, AV8R said:

We both thought we had the better part of the deal. I still think I do ;-) 

Yeah you won. No contest.