Discovery 2 Wheel Dia for just Offroad use..?

Hi Folks,

Just bought a set of new 18" rims for very cheap on a local auction site in NZ. How does 50 quid for a set of four brand new genuine 18" LR alloys sound by the way?

But not really thinking before I put my silly bid on about tyre choice. I thought I would be outbid, but was not and so now I own the full set. But looking at tyre options for the diameter they are a fortune!

I would be looking at just off road tyres for these and swap the rims over when ever back to road use. But is it worth paying the extra cash for the larger tyre? Are their benefits for fitting a small diameter rim and therefore cheaper tyre?

Would the larger diameter and offroad tyres in fact be a good call or have disadvanges?

What size do you folks run and what would you suggest?

I could always try to flog them on again and buy a smaller set.

Cheers for now

Dave...

18" off road tires are strting to become more availible.What tires are you looking at and what are the prices?How does that compare to say a 16" tire?

To be honest I never looked at a particular brand. I just looked at online tyre suppliers in general and they all seemed to go up in price as the diameter increased.

18" tyres seem readily available, just heaps more expensive. I suppose I could write this off against the cost of the rims atthe end of the day.

Does anyone see an advantage of larger or smaller rim diameter for offroad use? Thinking about it, the only thing I see is the larger the diameter rims will limit the actual profile of the tyre within the standard height arches. If this is a problem or not?

Cheers

Dave...

Large diameter wheels are fine for off road, as long as you still have plenty of sidewalk. Let me rephrase - low profile Tyres off road are no good.

20" wheels are fine with 40" Tyres, but on a disco you really need 16" for off road, 17" max, 15" preferable!

The thing is that off road Tyres need lots of sidewalk flex, to sculpt themselves around the terrain. A low profile will just contact the rim, worse still the sidewall will easily tear.

For the same reason, you are much more likely to incur terminal rim damage.

Also, off road Tyres provide lots of grip from their sidewalls. Small sidewalls will be less competent.

Id be looking to buy a set of 16x8 steels for a disco 2, 16x10 if I was feeling beefy.

Hopefully you can sell the 20" for a large profit if you get your chance!!

Cheers

you could use the new rims as your road wheels and your old ones as the off road ones?

that way you get nice rims for day to day driving

Cheers folks. Trouble is that I already have 18" nice alloys fitted with the road tyres. I bought the new set with the intention of having a spare set for offroad tyres, not really thinking it through before I bid. I got them cheap enough so they are handy for spares I suppose. I will just put them with all the other alloy wheels I have stashed in my shed (upto 38 now... oops!)

Can i quickly ask if the Disco 1 16" rims will fit straight onto Disc 2 hubs?

Cheers

Dave...

Hi mate

Disco 1 has much larger bolt Pattern so will not fit.

Disco 2 16" wheels are what you need maybe?

Thanks for that. I will try and find some.

Picked the new wheels up on Saturday down in Auckland. Turns out the seller is parts manager for Land Rover and they were having a sell off beofre moving to a new wharehouse. The 18" rims I just got are all brand new and still wrapped up from the factory!!

Not bad for under 50 quid for the four!

Cheers
Dave...

ebay!!!!!!

Mr Noisy said:

Large diameter wheels are fine for off road, as long as you still have plenty of sidewalk. Let me rephrase - low profile Tyres off road are no good.

20" wheels are fine with 40" Tyres, but on a disco you really need 16" for off road, 17" max, 15" preferable!

The thing is that off road Tyres need lots of sidewalk flex, to sculpt themselves around the terrain. A low profile will just contact the rim, worse still the sidewall will easily tear.

For the same reason, you are much more likely to incur terminal rim damage.

Click to expand...

Terminal rim damage is to be avoided at all costs

there's always someone who lowers the tone...

You should have heard us at the weekend when we were deep in the forrest and one of mates had an incedent with his quad... "My back end seems to have collapsed!"

It went rapidly down hill from there as we spent an hour fixing it up with number 8 fence wire "borrowed" from one of the local farmers.