help wanted with fitting bigger wheels

Hi all,

after a good few weeks of looking at different tyres i have decided the look/capabilities i want from my D90. I have decided to go for 315/75/16's. What im looking for is advice on whether a 2" lift kit with spacers will be enough or do i need to look at going further? baring in mind my D90 is currently completely stock.

I am not very mechanically minded (far much more now than than before i owned my defender!) so i dont fully understand what i need to make this work. I have a friend who is a technician and owns a disco which he uses for off roading and i will undoubtebly be using him for the work as i know if i tried, i would mess up. But also if i give it to a specialist i might be told i need bits that aren't truelly needed.

I don't want to compramise off road capability (im not too fussed for on road performance with turning circle and less power etc, doesn't bother me!). If anything, i would like to make it better with a higher ride hieght and a mean set of mud tyres.

Im sure some people will just say something like 'just get 285's' but thats not what i want and with the greatest of respect i don't really mind what it takes to get it to work .

All advice welcome!

Cheers!

With those tyres you wont need any lifting, they are very wide though so spacers will prob be needed, you will be adding excess strain onto bearing though and the steering may suffer as the pivot wont be centered anymore...

ok Thank you. i was under the impression i would get rubbing if i did not lift the car. when you say added strain on the bearing is there any way i can relase this strain? and what are the negatives of this?

Thanks for your help!

peteziola said:

ok Thank you. i was under the impression i would get rubbing if i did not lift the car. when you say added strain on the bearing is there any way i can relase this strain? and what are the negatives of this?

Thanks for your help!

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fit smaller tyres,

negatives are you will either be paying for a garage to do the bearings quite often, especially if you take it off road, or learning to do it yourself-its an easy enough job after the first 8 or so bearings

Hi you will need big negative offset rims or at least 30mm+ spacers so that your wheels clear your chassis etc on full lock, these items will put stress on your bearings. I'd go for some 10jx16 rims with tyres that wide, but then you'd need extended wheel arch flares.

Its a vicous circle fitting larger tyres to a stock defender, it will look the dogs when done tho

Wider tyres will need to be pushed out inorder to stop them rubbing, this moves the pivot point away from the center line of the wheel and puts excess strain on the bearings as they now have a 'leverage' affect on them. If you wanted to you could get extended half shafts and put the spacer between the hub and the axle but I have never seen any available so would be a custom jobbie.

Have you ordered them? Make sure you get some photos up when they are fitted and report back.

The dreaded wheel spacers haha. Make sure you check them tight quite often! And will need new wheel bearings all the time lol like mentioned.

315/75r16 = 34.6 inches high and 12.5inch wide so you will need a lift at the very least 2 inches but possibly a little more. Saying that have you considered 255/100r16? They are 36 inches tall but narrow enough to fit under the guards so not so much pressure on the the steering etc.

Moondog62 said:

315/75r16 = 34.6 inches high and 12.5inch wide so you will need a lift at the very least 2 inches but possibly a little more. Saying that have you considered 255/100r16? They are 36 inches tall but narrow enough to fit under the guards so not so much pressure on the the steering etc.

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and where the fook would you get them

Jongould said:

With those tyres you wont need any lifting, they are very wide though so spacers will prob be needed, you will be adding excess strain onto bearing though and the steering may suffer as the pivot wont be centered anymore...

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think your wrong there jg..i have those tyres on my disco there 35/12.50/15 and believe me you wont get them on a stock fender on my disco i had to do a body lift aswell as the suspension lift

wiltshire landyman said:

think your wrong there jg..i have those tyres on my disco there 35/12.50/15 and believe me you wont get them on a stock fender on my disco i had to do a body lift aswell as the suspension lift

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Yeah your right they are 12.5's. i worked that out wrong. I know someone running 33's without a lift on a fender though and they dont rub, I think they are spacered though. I had to lift my disco for 31's but the 31's on my fender have loads of room left...

wiltshire landyman said:

think your wrong there jg..i have those tyres on my disco there 35/12.50/15 and believe me you wont get them on a stock fender on my disco i had to do a body lift aswell as the suspension lift

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Good to here some one has the same tyres as im considering on getting. Do you have any problems with those tyres? i think a 2/3" lift kit with 30mm spacers should allow them to fit from research/recommendations.

I have 305 75 16 on offset wheels on my Discovery 50mm body lift 75mm
suspension lift , they don't rub.

This is on 33's and standard suspension:

36s with a 2 inch HD lift




only rub a little on full articulation

Jongould said:

This is on 33's and standard suspension:

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No spacers used on this, just had to adjust the stop locks as they rubbed on the radius arms

Some great pics guys. So excited to get mine done now! Will repost a before and after pic once done! Cheers for the help