Effects of fitting none standard tyres

[shawthorn]

Driving a 1996 3.0 KZN185 and thinking of changing from 265/70/16 tyres to something narrower but deeper.

Maybe a 235/80/16. Why.....cheaper tyres (slighty), better if deflating for sand driving (acc. Chris Scott - vehicle lives in Morocco), and to give a bit more height.

Concerns - fouling on bodywork - negative effect on geometry somewhere, - won't make any difference.

Anybody out there have any experience of this...the guy at my local tyre shop advised reading the forums.

Cheers.

[TonyN]

Surely sand tyres need to be fat and soft, its all about the size of the footprint on loose surfaces.

Narrow tyres cut down to find solid ground, this isn't an option on sand, you'll just sit on the axles going nowhere??

Don't wear high heels on the beach!

[shawthorn]

Well, according to Chris Scott author of Sahara Overland
http://www.sahara-overland.com/edition2/
The foot print is enlarged more by the lengthening of the trye to form a kind on track effect, rather than a widening effect as you deflate the tyre.

We drove in some deep soft sand with the 265/70 at slightly reduced pressures about 30-32 PSI and it worked out ok.

Sounds like you would stick with the original size?

[TonyN]

Hell no!

In all honestly, on a truck that has to cover thousands of miles, I'd only go a little bigger, like a 2" lift and the next size tyre up, its really easy to make the truck uncomfortable and more importantly stress drivetrain component with to much lift or the effort of spinning a bigger diameter tyre.

Brand and type of tyre is far more important than size IMHO, I'd want a big name (BFG, Grabber, Bridgstone, etc) A/T, 33x12.5" (or metric equivilent) max, but even that might to much, on an overland truck with new shocks and +40mm ish springs, for laod carrying as much as lift.

I'd say reliabilty is all, you can get unstuck with winches or tows, if something breaks its a major PITA.

Most of the trucks I've prep'ed for people going abroad (usually Morrocco) have been on 31's, or 265's and no one has really been undertyred.

I'm not going to argue against anyone who has actually been there, but basic common sence and physics tells me wide soft A/T's are the way to go in deserts (obviosuly we're not Dakar racing here, just cruising around), Narrow M/T's are just going to dig, its what they are designed to do, which isn't good in soft sand, and on firmer surfaces it dosn't really matter.

[Koi]

Have to agree with Tony here, be like wearing ice skates on the sand just thinner so sink more, guess thats why people wear tennis rackets when walking on deep snow bigger footprint.

[Ploddit]

Surely a MT would be too aggressive and cut into the sand, in many places around Morooco you find the sand has a semihard crust which once broken makes you sink.

Hmm not really:

http://www.kartek.com/Product/Tires/Sand%20Tires.html