Member Since: 20 Sep 2008
Location: Manchester
Posts: 1416
Off-road rims & tyres - worth the effort?
It's become clear to me the Pzero Scorpion the D3 came with (on the stock '08 HSE 19" rims) is great for the road but leaves much to be desired off of it...
A thought I've had since the Scorpions are rather new (5k on them) and the fact I dread another knick on the alloys (which I'm not even sure is repairable), is to get a second set of 17-18 or even 19 "cheaper" rims with a good off-road tyre.
My reasoning is that the car spends 85% of it's rolling life on tarmac, so from what I've read on here a proper off-road tyre would be too noisy and too costly in additional fuel. And when I do go off-road, it is more likely to be in "rough" conditions (snow, mud, gravel and the occasional grass field ) on which the Scorpions do well enough as long as no serious angles come into play. I would be willing to prep the car an hour before an after each trip (in changing all wheels).
Been thinking of simple rims (not necessarily alloys) with good tyres (which I will research some more on this forum topic) as the solution. Having replaced one of the Scorpions recently at 350 Euros , am a bit scared of the cost too TBH (don't ask, the incident involved the missus tearing the rear tyre when clipping a curb... )
Anyone have implemented a similar thought and what size rim would you recommend for off-road driving? Am I looking at well over a grand for all four corners?
Any advice will be most welcome
21st Jan 2009 2:19 pm
frenchy
Member Since: 05 Dec 2007
Location: Liverpool
Posts: 1038
Hi Biz,
had the same thoughts myself.
Recently took the disco off road at the Land Rover Experience centre in Snowdonia, and, with 18" Scorpions it did OK, but not great.
Anyway, we are going to the same place this Sunday but this time I have bought a set of 17" rims (Standard d3 issue) off ebay for about £100 and then have fitted a set of Maxxis Bighorns to them. I chose the rims because there there seems to be a larger choice of tyres at 17" and they also appear a little cheaper. I paid about £75 each from Camskills via the internet.
Will report back after the weekend and let you know how thay performed.
Good Luck
I run 19" alloys with MTR on the road (90%) a little extra road noise and a loss on 1-2mpg are the only down sides, handling is in my opinion unchanged. in fact it's less effected by lorry ruts and life experience is reported to be double.
"I know that you believe that you understood what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you read is not what I meant"
21st Jan 2009 10:49 pm
Roel
Member Since: 16 Aug 2008
Location: home
Posts: 1215
The G4 came with a set off wrangler HP's and they were new so I use these as long as they live for road tyres and both a cheap set off 19" FFRR rims with some scratches for putting wintertyres on. But I had a little luck these were fitted with MTR's I good have the tyres for 50 euro more so I did that offcourse.
So I ditched the idea off winter tyres and have now a road and offroad set.
I will use the MTR's also if I have to go to an area were winter tyres should be used like Austria. My experience is they more or less accept MT's as wintertyres too.
I edited as I forgot to mentione that it's easy to have a spare set as I had some problems with sand working it's way between the rim and tyre and causing slow leaks. With a dedicated road set I am not in a hurry to repair the tyres if needed.Roel
1997 Camel Trophy Disco ex-P101JWK (traded it for a Britains 42101)
1984 90 TD5
2005 G4 Disco 3 BN55WPT
Also member of club MTR
and Club Faultmate
Interested in my 4x4 history see my website: www.mudmachine.webklik.nl
Sorry it's in Dutch and with google translator it gets funny.
22nd Jan 2009 8:10 am
jacob
Member Since: 12 Jan 2006
Location: athens
Posts: 145
tyres
Biz, hello and wellcome to the forum.
If you have the 18' rims, then put on the general grabber AT2, and
you will be more than satisfied....
very good on and off road with very low noise very good mileage, and not to mention the perfect look
of them.
+++
although i have a second set with 17' rims and cooper stt on, for rough conditions, but
when i bought the car almost 3 yrs back, there were no a/t tyre avail fr the 18' rims, and the pirelis
gone for good after almost 12000 kms.
Biz - this weekend was my first experience with proper offroad tyres. I bought Cooper STT's on 17" rims. They worked very well in all conditions (mud, rock etc). After this weekend i would recommend offroad tyres if you want to enjoy your day rather than struggle (which is what i did before).The next American ex-pat that calls it a "truck" is going to find out what 2.7 tons feels like on their foot...
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26th Jan 2009 12:05 am
DiscoDunc
Member Since: 08 May 2006
Location: Bristol
Posts: 16390
Duncan
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Last edited by DiscoDunc on 26th Jan 2009 7:49 am. Edited 1 time in total
26th Jan 2009 12:37 am
frenchy
Member Since: 05 Dec 2007
Location: Liverpool
Posts: 1038
Reporting back from Snowdonia Off Road event - new Maxxis Bighorns worked a treat and don't cost the earth. Will be changing back to the road tyres this week but for special events like this, these 17 inchers are great and look ACE as well!
26th Jan 2009 1:07 am
diamond
Member Since: 17 Jan 2009
Location: Dusseldorf, Germany
Posts: 49
Since I'm in the line to order the Disco, will it be clever to exchange the standard 18" that come with SE model for 17"
The car is going to be used for trips and 4wheeling.
I don't know yet what are the price difference between 17" tires and 18" but I assume that 18" AT tires will be difficult to find and more expensive
26th Jan 2009 2:30 pm
SJR
Member Since: 09 Aug 2006
Location: East Manchester
Posts: 4030
Keep the 18" wheels and get a second set in 17, 18 or 19" to put AT or MT tyres on
Plenty of sets of spare rims on ebay or on here
26th Jan 2009 2:33 pm
diamond
Member Since: 17 Jan 2009
Location: Dusseldorf, Germany
Posts: 49
I got a set of 9" wide 19" wheels for my D3 and learned the hard way, that the road tyres should be on the wide rims and the off-road tyres on the narrower rims. When running tyres at low pressures, the wider rim does a great job of pinching the sidewalls but the narrower rims are more forgiving of this.
And a trick on more quickly changing out the tyres. Just raise to maximum height then drive on to diagonally-opposite (ie, front-left tyre and right-rear tyre) onto either truck ramps or suitable logs. It takes very little jacking to lift the other tyres off the ground allowing for an easy change to 2 tyres. Back off the logs, go to normal height then back to maximum height and do the same thing on the other tyres. In Western Aust we tend to drive long distances on melting-hot roads, then onto rocks or sand. Having a road-set and an off-road-set of tyres works wonderfully.
I'd suggest NOT driving the other 2 tyres onto ramps immediately (ie, don't cause the 2 low-slung tyres to go onto ramps before the D3 can re-acquant itself to level ground) or you'll cause a symphone of sounds and alarm lights to activate. This causes some kind of bi-polar moment to the D3's brain.Jim Dowell - D4 HSE TDi, 12,000 hydraulic winch & hidden winch mount, MTRs, TyreDog, Traxide 2 x aux battery system, fixed air compressor, Dolium roof rack, MitchHitch.
RIP 2005 D3 HSE V8 5 seater gold (stolen and torched)
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) on which the Scorpions do well enough as long as no serious angles come into play. I would be willing to prep the car an hour before an after each trip (in changing all wheels).
, am a bit scared of the cost too TBH (don't ask, the incident involved the missus tearing the rear tyre when clipping a curb... 
)
When running tyres at low pressures, the wider rim does a great job of pinching the sidewalls but the narrower rims are more forgiving of this.
