Wheels & Tyres - An Idiot Needs Help!

I'm really struggling to understand wheels and tyres!
I have a J Reg Defender 110 which is my first one and I am working my way through a renovation.

It appears to have the original steel rims on them.
My intention is to remove the current tyres, sand blast and repaint the wheels then fit new tyres as 2 (at least) out of the 4 have cracks in the walls.

How do I know what size the rims are, and what tyres can i replace them with?

The current ones say 7.50R16.

Looking at those available (at places like John Craddock) I can't seem to find anything the same.

All and any help and advice gratefully appreciated

Mat

Matchew45 said:

I'm really struggling to understand wheels and tyres!
I have a J Reg Defender 110 which is my first one and I am working my way through a renovation.

It appears to have the original steel rims on them.
My intention is to remove the current tyres, sand blast and repaint the wheels then fit new tyres as 2 (at least) out of the 4 have cracks in the walls.

How do I know what size the rims are, and what tyres can i replace them with?

The current ones say 7.50R16.

Looking at those available (at places like John Craddock) I can't seem to find anything the same.

All and any help and advice gratefully appreciated

Mat

Click to expand...

Rims will be 16".

People often use 235/85/16 as an alternative to the 7.50/R16. They will be considerably wider however.

Matt J said:

Rims will be 16".

People often use 235/85/16 as an alternative to the 7.50/R16. They will be considerably wider however.

Click to expand...

Thanks Matt

And would they fit on the same rims or would i need new ones?

Can you put different size tyres on the same rim?

Shouldn't have an issue putting them on the same rim.

7.50s are available if you'd prefer to stick with stock.

Matchew45 said:

Thanks Matt

And would they fit on the same rims or would i need new ones?

Can you put different size tyres on the same rim?

Click to expand...

The rim diameter 16 inches is the important measurement to make sure you get a tyre that is also for a 16 inch rim. the next important measurement is then the rim width. If they are stander land rover rims the rim width will be 6 inches you will need to check tyre manufacturer specifications to ensure the tyre you are looking at is suitable for the rim width and is not too narrow or two wide.

7.50R16 is an old imperial tyre size which has a 100% sidewall profile. This means the width of the tyre is 7.5 inches and the height of the side wall is 7.5 inches. The rim diameter is 16 inches.

235/85R16 is the nearest metric equivalent and has an 85% side wall profile. this means the width is 235mm (9.25 inches) and the height of the sidewall is 200mm (7.8 inches) the rim diameter is 16 inches.

As said above 7.50 tyres are still available but not as many choices. 235/85 is a very common size fitted to defenders and will fit on the original wheels with no problem. I will also say that where the measurements I have given above are the "true" measurements you will find there is a variance between different makes and models of tyres with some being larger and some being smaller despite all being in theory the same size.