Question about wheels from sunny Suffolk

Hi everyone,

New to all this, so I am hoping someone can help me with these questions:

I have a discovery 3 TDV6 HSE on a 56 plate. It has factory fitted 19 inch alloys and 255/55/19 tyres. I have been offered a set of Range Rover Sport 19 inch alloys with 225/50/19 tyres.

If I use these on my Discovery, will it suffer any ill effects? Some folks have been shaking their heads at me sagely, and others have said it may actually improve the handling on-road. I understand that changing the overall combined wheel and tyre size would effect the speedo and gearing. Would the above new RRS wheels and tyres still produce the same overall wheel size as my current set-up or are the Range Rover Sport wheels smaller overall due to the lower profile tyres?

Another final question or two: What would you chaps recommend as a good tyre and wheel combination for the above car as a spare set for off roading in the mud and fields etc. Would I be best to use the existing alloys and tyres on-road and get a good set of off road tyres for the Range Rover alloys or do it the other way round? Or do I need a completely different set of wheels and tyres for off-roading?

Help!

Are you sure you've got those tyre sizes right, I'd expect the Sport to have 265/50/19, 225s seem very small.

That's what I was told. I will check with him.

Hi Davec

Having checked with him he has admitted he made an error and the RR sport wheels have 255 /50/19 tyres.

How does that effect the response you would have given to my original question?

Nick

Had a chance to check ours today and was surprised to find they were 255s. Yes they will be a sightly smaller rolling diameter, so it will effect your speedo and gearing (in theory better acceleration, worse top speed, in practise I doubt it will make much difference). The ride will be slightly harder, possible more vibration from the road. Possibly a very slight improvement in handling. Slightly more prone to punctures in the rough.
All in all, probably not a lot of difference, why do you want to do it?
In a "blind test" I doubt many would notice the difference.

Primary intention was to wear the tyres up then use the RR sport wheels as the base for some off road tyres - hence second question about off road tyres. As I do most of my driving on tarmac and only go off road from time to time I thought it would be a good idea to keep my off road tyres ready mounted on a set of spare wheels, so that I could just swap them over when I wanted to do some more serious off-roading.

Is this a good idea or would I just be better to try to pick up a set of off-road tyres already mounted on steel wheels or alloys?

Nick

I'd check what off road tyres you can get, as I believe the choice is a bit limited on 19" wheels. But if you find some you like, then go for it, as I said I doubt you'll feel a lot of difference. If I'm wrong I'm sure you'll let us know!