Tire selection - Page 4

EMrider · 02-27-2008, 11:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deminimis

Regardles OCLV, I'll answer your question. I was running Toyo Open Country E rated tires on my Landcruiser (siped) and I'm running a new set on my Chev 1-ton crew cab (didn't sipe them). Frankly, they work great. Fairly quiet, and on the LC, they worked great in Baja. As the Sportsmobile I purchased will need a new set of shoes, I'm in tire shopping mode right now as well. I should probably stick with the Toyos as I can't see much room for improvement, if any. That said, I'm always trying to fix what ain't broke, which has me considering Nittos (great reviews) and perhaps BFGs (I run Muds on my buggy and ran a set of KOs on my former Westy). When the dust settles, I'll probably go with Toyos again due to my expience and avaliability (Les Schwab stores carry them in stock). We get lots of snow here, by the way. I believe siped tires are on there way back. I know its an old school notion (cutting lines into a perfectly good tire makes as much sense as parachuting), but proponents claim lower tire temps, resulting in longer life, and much better traction. Something to consider, perhaps. Now, if I may....

Having a '03 delieved in a couple of weeks (assuming no big disconnects). Appears to have the SMB 4x4 conversion (assuming this as the build sheet lists "4x4" but did not list "Quigley" which appears to be the case when its a Quigley conversion, but I'm pretty much guessing). Currently has 265/75 16s. Not changing wheels. In pouring over many build sheets, I noticed one build (quigley) listed a rocker mod to allow for 285/75 16s. Really? Don't you guys think 285s should fit without issue on a SMB or Quigley 4x4? I suspect I'll leave it up to the tire store to tell me, but what's your experience? Thanks for letting me play through.

FWIW, I've got 285s on my 06 4X4 SMB with no clearance problems. They came stock on the van. Stock tires were the BFG A/Ts and I just replaced them with the Goodyear silent armor E rated 285s. The Goodyears do seem a bit smoother on the highway with a bit less road noise.
R

deminimis · 02-27-2008, 02:45 PM

Thanks. I'm a moron. Vehicle already has 285s. Doah. Don't know where I got 265 from.

oclv · 02-27-2008, 06:54 PM

I thought Sportsmobile automatically went to 17" to fit around the brake upgrade that they do in their 4X4 conversion. I am surprised your van still has 16". oclv

deminimis · 02-27-2008, 07:30 PM

Its a '03. Someone mentioned the ease of finding 16" tires in Baja. Since that's a concern of ours as well, I'm gonna stick with 16s. That, and I'm now on a Ramin noodle diet for the next seven years (which just happens to be the length on my loan on my SMB).

jage · 02-27-2008, 09:03 PM

Better ramen noodles in an SMB than steak in a tent.

surfgeek33 · 02-27-2008, 09:42 PM

Well put Jage!

deminimis · 03-03-2008, 01:47 PM

Just a FYI (and somewhat related to the tire thread): Susquehanna Motorsports has the Hella TPMS for cheap. Expandable to 7 monitors. Since I have two spares, seems like a no-brainer: http://www.rallylights.com/hella/Tire_P ... TC-400.asp

sdwindansea · 03-03-2008, 02:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deminimis

Just a FYI (and somewhat related to the tire thread): Susquehanna Motorsports has the Hella TPMS for cheap. Expandable to 7 monitors. Since I have two spares, seems like a no-brainer: http://www.rallylights.com/hella/Tire_P ... TC-400.asp

I think it is even $100 cheaper at Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Hella-Pressure-Mo ... 208&sr=8-1)

Steve_382 · 05-19-2008, 03:07 PM

Well, we ordered tires and wheels today for the new van. Since we will be on the road 99% of the time, we went fairly conservative. We won't be doing any hardcore offroad, but would like to get to rough campsites and also have decent snow performance. As you may know, the new Quigleys require 17" wheels to clear the larger brakes that come with the F-350 front axle they install, so we needed to at least go with 17". The hard part was trying to figure out what offset to get for the wheels. Quigley recommends that you stay near the factory offset, but what is that for their conversion? The numbers for a Ford van may not be correct when the front axle is really from an F-350 truck. According to Discount Tire, the factory offset for the F-350 is +45(mm?). You can't really find any wheels that have this offset, so we had to get 0 offset. Does anyone know if this is OK. My understanding is that a 0 offset moves the tire out farther from the van than a +45 does. Correct? That would be about 1.75 inches? How does this compare to what others are using?

Thanks,
Steve

We ordered American Racing wheels 672-7870, 17"x8".

http://asp.americanracing.com/wheelssol ... %20(Chrome)&style=672&desc=1-piece%20chrome%20plated%20alloy%20wheel&section=C

For tires, we stayed with the AT/KO BFG tires and went with 265/70R17 E rated tire.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/Spec.jsp? ... n+T%2FA+KO

twotimer · 08-19-2018, 04:24 PM

This is a warning to anyone considering Toyo Open Country AT II 285/70/17 tires on their SMB. I purchased a set in 2016 and since then I have had three tires separate. These are a load class E tire and should be more than capable of carrying the weight of a fully loaded SMB, but I have had nothing but problems. The distributor refuses to compensate me for tires that have less than 20K miles on them and I just had to change out two tires this past weekend during a trip from South Florida to SC. And, one of the tires was only two months old. I am taking my van back to the tire dealer tomorrow and having all the tires removed and a solid name brand tire (e.g. Michelin, etc.) highway tires installed. No more off-road, mud & snow or all terrain tires proclaiming to be an excellent tire for on or off road for me!! This has been a very expensive mistake for me, so don't make the same mistake!!!