Freelander 1 All terrain

im wanting to put some all terrain tyres on my hippo, currently running normal road tyres. However I cannot afford all 4 at once, will I ?

1. Look stupid with 2 all terrain on the back.
2. Ruin anything mechanical

Cheers in advance
Steve

Yes to both.

You will trash your Freelander if you don't run 4 identical (make & model) tyres all pumped to the same pressure. You have been warned! I suggest you read up on how the Freelander's transmission works.

Yep, thought so.
I'll have to scout flea bay see if I can pick up 4 used or wait an extra month or so before putting all four on.
Cheers
S.

Well done for asking. You get a silver star from me for that.

As above, you will need all 4. Normally the Freelander is front wheel drive so keep an eye on tyre wear. All terrain tyres seem to have about 10 mm of tread depth - don't let them get more than 5 mm out of whack. Or don't buy 2nd hand ones that have a big difference.

If you can't afford 5 tyres in one go. Simply buy the tyres from an online supplier individually. Then when you have all 5, get them fitted at a local tyre fitter that is happy to fit them for a nominal charge
Oh and if you are sensitive to tyre noise, don't go too mad with tread patterns as the Freelander's body does transmit noise really well.

I would strongly recommend against 2nd hand tyres - you do not know their history.

I once bought 2 used tyres for my Discovery and both were death traps.

As said - wait until you can replace them all.

Nodge68 said:

If you can't afford 5 tyres in one go. Simply buy the tyres from an online supplier individually. Then when you have all 5, get them fitted at a local tyre fitter that is happy to fit them for a nominal charge
Oh and if you are sensitive to tyre noise, don't go too mad with tread patterns as the Freelander's body does transmit noise really well.

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I say 5 tyres because the Freelander's drive train is so sensitive to odd tyre sizes, all tyres, including the spare must match.

Really this only hi lights the weakness in the design feature laid out by LR to allow failures likely to develop on general road usage. Its like saying a car engine works better if the parts are made cheaper material.

saxavordian said:

Really this only hi lights the weakness in the design feature laid out by LR to allow failures likely to develop on general road usage. Its like saying a car engine works better if the parts are made cheaper material.

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Most modern AWD vehicles need to have tyres that are within 5mm of each other or the AWD system is at risk. Nothing wrong with rotating the tyres so thay are all changed at the same time.

But surely LR being seriously noted for robustness on all vehicle regardless why design a drivetrain that can fail on simple things tyre wear. Freelanders are good vehicles and very solid and could be the next all time classic car. It just when failure come they seem to be a canny knack at the expensive end or downright awkward.

saxavordian said:

But surely LR being seriously noted for robustness on all vehicle regardless why design a drivetrain that can fail on simple things tyre wear. Freelanders are good vehicles and very solid and could be the next all time classic car. It just when failure come they seem to be a canny knack at the expensive end or downright awkward.

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I think if you look into it all 4WD manufacturers have similar issues with the tyres. I suspect the reason why Freelanders should always have the larger diameter tyres on the back is because they are basically FWD. This means the front tyres will always wear first therefore LR designed the drive train to cope with the fronts being smaller then the rears.

Presumably permanent 4WD will wear tyres pretty evenly - that's mainly the 'big' landies. The Jap 4WDs (eg Hilux, older Vitara, Terrano etc) are basically RWD, only switching to 4WD when offroad and its 'safe' to lock the axles together. However, most 4WDs (these days) are actually AWD - like Freelander, and older ones will use a viscous coupling while newer ones will use a Haldex. These will presumably all wear the tyres on the axle driven by the VCU/Haldex less than the other.

I don't think Land Rover's "clever" IRD gearing was to address this tyre wear imbalance, rather to try and provide a FWD feel. From Rave...

"...The rear wheels are 0.8% under driven, so in most conditions the vehicle is effectively front wheel drive, with the rear wheels turning the rear propeller shaft slightly faster than the IRD drives the front propeller shaft..."

The 0.8% gearing is roughly the difference between a new (road) tyre and one that needs replacing. If it were to address faster front tyre wear, you'd think they would have chosen a gearing a lot closer to real life differences. However, I did say it was "clever"! I wonder if any other VCU enabled cars had this "clever" gearing difference.