Defender 110, a Bedford cf and a utility truck walk into a bar...

[Badger110]

After finally collecting some rubber corners from @ThreePointFive it was time to fit them.

 

i had done some calculations and figured if I went for metric equivalent of the current 7.50 x 16’s with a little more width I could ditch the spacers and get a good fill to the arch’s.

 

My calulations we’re a little off I think as these fill the wheel arch’s and make the other tyres look like mini wheels! 

 

They do look good though 😁

 

With a good overlanding vehicle it’s always good to prep for every eventuality and one thing is being able to swap tyres on the rims and I had 5 attempts to get it right 😏

 

Not many pictures as I was sweating my arse off doing it and with Nikki we managed to get a good routine going.

 

Wheel off ready to for the bead to be broken which is the hardest part. Forget limp hammers, forget sledge hammers, forget using the weight of the truck with a scissor jack to push the bead off, it took Nikkis truck and Nikki stood on the opposite side of the rim to drive her Mitsubishi onto the wheels to break the bead and a few attempts until we had a good rhythm to getting it break .  We found the inside rim more difficult than the outer rim...not sure if that’s a normal thing? 

 

Gettig the tyre off , we went from the outside first and removed the rim through the back of the tyre which turned out to be the most awkward part after the bead breaking. 

Still we got them off

 

Putting the tyres back on was pretty much a doddle and the opposite of removing them and I’m not sure why they are easier to put on but hey ho they are 😁

 

We have had a few discussions about white lettering inside or outside and as Nikki choose the colour of the truck I won this one and got to keep the white lettering out of sight 😁

 

 

ive still got the spacers on but they’re coming off 

 

 

[hurbie]

looking good , what size is it ?

[ThreePointFive]

Wolfs and 255s are a classic combination, I'm glad they could be of use and I hope they serve you well! I think you chose the right option with the lettering inside.

Absolute pleasure to do a deal with you.

[Peaklander]

Looking good. I have some genuine, unused Wolf rims sitting waiting for mine. I am currently on 235/85 BFG AT on Boosts but they have been on for six years and are definitely wearing. I would love the 255/85 profile too as I like the slightly taller stance. I see you have opted for MT. What mix of tarmac, gravel, sand etc. are you expecting? I wonder if I would notice a change in noise from AT to MT and would a brand change at the same time also affect it?

[western]

52 minutes ago, ThreePointFive said:

Wolfs and 255s are a classic combination, I'm glad they could be of use and I hope they serve you well! I think you chose the right option with the lettering inside.

Absolute pleasure to do a deal with you.

Same size [255/85 KM2 MT's] tyres & wheels I have on my 110CSW.

[Badger110]

8 minutes ago, Peaklander said:

Looking good. I have some genuine, unused Wolf rims sitting waiting for mine. I am currently on 235/85 BFG AT on Boosts but they have been on for six years and are definitely wearing. I would love the 255/85 profile too as I like the slightly taller stance. I see you have opted for MT. What mix of tarmac, gravel, sand etc. are you expecting? I wonder if I would notice a change in noise from AT to MT and would a brand change at the same time also affect it?

They're a stop gap until the end of the year when we'll put something new on

I wanted to get a feel for these as I've only heard good things about them, but I'm undecided on Toyo Open country and these but I was lucky that Threepointfive had some available at a good price, so here we are

 

I've used standard factory tyres, Insta Turbos, XZL's and now these.  

 

XZL's were my favourite so far

[ThreePointFive]

43 minutes ago, western said:

Same size [255/85 KM2 MT's] tyres & wheels I have on my 110CSW.

I know Ralph, you have excellent taste.

[deep]

For breaking the bead in the bush, using a Hi Lift jack and the weight of the vehicle allows the force to be concentrated exactly where it's needed.  Well done for learning that skill!

255/85 BFG muds are my favourite tyre.  I used the All Terrains when I explored Australia and found they were prone to getting cut up on sharp stones and dug in too easily in sand.  You'd think mud terrains would dig more but, in sand, they're better, due to the strange physics that applies (fewer but bigger spades).

[FridgeFreezer]

2 hours ago, Badger110 said:

XZL's were my favourite so far

That's odd, I found my XZL's fairly mediocre although undoubtedly bulletproof. Felt like they were designed to cover a million miles on a 17 ton truck and not really do much on a Land Rover off-road.

[miketomcat]

We run 255 bfg km2's on the wife's 110. Personally I've never seen the point of all terrain's, the muds are fine on road if a little noisier (not that you can hear anything in a land rover). You either need muds or road tyres will surfice.

Mike

[Badger110]

12 hours ago, deep said:

For breaking the bead in the bush, using a Hi Lift jack and the weight of the vehicle allows the force to be concentrated exactly where it's needed.  Well done for learning that skill!

I did try the jack idea with a scissor jack as I don’t have a hi lift, but couldn’t get the bead to break.  

 

I attempted different areas of the tyre and used some wood to spread it to see if that helped but all I did was end up lifting the truck up! 

I’m sure they’re is a knack to it including working my way around the wheel with the jack and if it comes to needing to do it ‘ out there ‘ without the standard flip flop wearing local changing the tyre with a crowbar and screwdriver I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it now I know the practical sides to it.  

 

Thinking back on it today I reckon removing it via the facing side will save some tyre lever scrapes to the wheel face but other than that I can’t see much of a benefit to going either way?

 

Overall the idea is to carry one spare wheel and a spare tyre; wheel for emergencies and tyre for other times when we have time to change it.

[Retroanaconda]

4 hours ago, miketomcat said:

We run 255 bfg km2's on the wife's 110. Personally I've never seen the point of all terrain's, the muds are fine on road if a little noisier (not that you can hear anything in a land rover). You either need muds or road tyres will surfice.

Mike

I look at it from the opposite direction - decent ATs give no negative impact to noise or MPG deficiency over road tyres and so for me it’s a choice of them or MTs.

While I agree the grip performance of ATs over road tyres is less of an improvement than say MTs compared to ATs, for me it’s more about durability and longevity of the tyre and this is far better in an AT.

[Badger110]

I need another rim as the spare is a standard steel tubed and not suitable but it has thrown up a discrepancy.

 

The markings on the rims are standard wolf numbers

 

but the size stamped doesn’t equal the actual measurement of the rim

 

 

Searching around the tinternet Wolfs came in the 6.5” rim, as stamped, but not 7.5?

 

 

[landroversforever]

Wolfs are 6.5" which is measured as the width at the bead, not the entire width of the wheel if that makes sense?

[Badger110]

19 minutes ago, landroversforever said:

Wolfs are 6.5" which is measured as the width at the bead, not the entire width of the wheel if that makes sense?

Makes perfect sense, cheers 👍

[deep]

10 hours ago, Retroanaconda said:

I look at it from the opposite direction - decent ATs give no negative impact to noise or MPG deficiency over road tyres and so for me it’s a choice of them or MTs.

While I agree the grip performance of ATs over road tyres is less of an improvement than say MTs compared to ATs, for me it’s more about durability and longevity of the tyre and this is far better in an AT.

That's a heck of a generalisation!  I've had 60,000 miles out of BFG MT KMs and they were still legal.  Some mud terrains are much worse than that but the same applies with many all terrains.  Don't forget mud terrains generally start with a deeper tread.  All terrains that don't impact road noise or m.p.g. compared to a road tyre tend to be little more than a dressed-up road tyre and perform like that when you ask the Land Rover question off road...

[Retroanaconda]

My comparison of durability and longevity was between road tyres and ATs, apologies that wasn’t particularly clear.

My experience is with the three sets of BFG ATs (both old and new style) that I’ve worn out, and I’ve found no discernible impact to noise and MPG compared to the road tyres I’ve also used (Continental Cross-contact and Michelin XPC/Latitude Cross) but off-road grip is definitely improved.

This is on a 200Tdi 90 - of course the results may be different on other vehicles, particularly in terms of noise.

[Snagger]

I found big differences between road tyres, sand tyres, aggressive mud (PS40s) and good ATs.  The road tyres were bad at everything other than dry road, and not especially good at that either.  The poor ATs (Hankook) were about the same as the road tyres for everything.  The sand tyres (Pirelli Dakar) were generally ok, better than the road tyres and Hankooks.  The Pirelli FS40s were plain awful on road, but that’s not what they’re for.  The BFG ATs were superb on dry, wet and snowy roads, gravel, dirt and clay tracks, dry grass and wet or dry wood.  
 

A long trip around the Alps with several other vehicles saw only one struggle for grip, and it occurred several times.  It was the one vehicle with MTs, and it slithered all over the place on the wood and on the shale tracks that all the ATs took without a single slip.

Not all ATs or MTs are equal; we know that.  But it was a good lesson to only have MTs if the conditions really need them.  They are for mud and work better on wet grass than others, but most other surfaces are less difficult with a reputable AT.

[FridgeFreezer]

The problem with all internet discussions about tyres is that none of us can possibly drive enough miles on a whole range of tyres but fitted to the same vehicle and encountering the same conditions to ever make a useful judgement. Some folks running fleets of vehicles may have useful feedback but even then, you are not really guaranteed a scientific study.

And, as others have touched upon - RT, AT and MT mean very little as tyres vary massively across manufacturers. I've had fully road-biased tyres that were worse on road than MT's and I've had mud tyres that were no better in mud than a road tyre.

Would anyone compare a set of Pirelli P-Zeros to Kwik-Fit's cheapest Nang-kong Ditchfinder?

Can you compare a cheap set of remould MT's that begin to disintegrate above 50mph to BFG's that will last longer than some people's vehicles? I remember Moglite calculating his Simex wore so quickly they cost nearly as much per mile as some folks spend on fuel...

@miketomcat makes a decent point about AT's being pointless for a lot of folks as BFG MT's require almost no additional sacrifice in the average Defender. However, for other vehicles (EG Freelander) and vehicles that are never going to be off-roaded seriously but would still like a robust tyre with a bit more grip off-piste they're a reasonable choice. They also serve to stop you getting too carried away off-road in your daily driver

[ThreePointFive]

It's not even possible to compare tyres based on how far each can get along the same track/up a hill, by the time one vehicle has passed over a peice of ground it is changed for the next vehicle; sometimes for the better (soft ground with a harder base layer uncovered by the first) , most times worse (deeper ruts, momentum-destroying exposed roots and rocks, etc). It really is down to personal preference, which is no yardstick at all.

[Anderzander]

Yep - buy the ones you like the look of 😂

[Badger110]

1 hour ago, Anderzander said:

Yep - buy the ones you like the look of 😂

What he said 👍

[FridgeFreezer]

5 hours ago, Anderzander said:

Yep - buy the ones you like the look of 😂

Yes and no - you can certainly form a vague impression from clubs & forums of which tyres seem to work well / be popular or are useless & unpopular (for example most people agree that BFG MT are a pretty reliable all-rounder that's hard to fault) but you can't really definitively say X is better than Y...

I was very pleased with my General Grabber AT's on the Freelander just as I'm very pleased with the BFG AT's on the Ambulance but it's impossible to compare the two vehicles or really say how those tyres would perform if you swapped places.

[smallfry]

As an aside, tyres should always go on, and come off the front (outside) of a one piece roadwheel. The well in the rim is shaped the way it is for this purpose.

The rear bead is nearly always harder to break, and I believe the inner rim might be slightly bigger. Not sure though, and its definitely harder to get a tyre off the back

[Anderzander]

On 7/1/2021 at 11:09 AM, Badger110 said:

I did try the jack idea with a scissor jack as I don’t have a hi lift, but couldn’t get the bead to break.  

 

I attempted different areas of the tyre and used some wood to spread it to see if that helped but all I did was end up lifting the truck up! 

I’m sure they’re is a knack to it including working my way around the wheel with the jack and if it comes to needing to do it ‘ out there ‘ without the standard flip flop wearing local changing the tyre with a crowbar and screwdriver I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it now I know the practical sides to it.  

 

Thinking back on it today I reckon removing it via the facing side will save some tyre lever scrapes to the wheel face but other than that I can’t see much of a benefit to going either way?

 

Overall the idea is to carry one spare wheel and a spare tyre; wheel for emergencies and tyre for other times when we have time to change it.

I’ve just done that to take some tyres off. Jacked it from the front so it has the engine weight, used the hi-lift for the small footprint so the load wouldn’t spread.

It wasn’t too bad - but getting the tyres off with my short levers afterwards was really really hard work …