Off-Road Tires on Standard Rims

[Brett H.]

Hello All,

It's been a while since I posted. I guess I've been having too much fun in my Grand Vitara. I've now got about 44,000 miles on it and the incessant droning from the Yokohama's means it's time to start thinking about replacing the tires.

I guess I have two questions - the first would be how much life did you get out of your stock/factory Yokohama tires? With 44,000 miles the front tires have a bit more tread on them and the rear ones have slightly uneven wear due to running with the Rocky Road 2" lift kit for the last 36,000 miles or so.

I heard of some GV's with rear tire wear problems, but don't think this is one of them.

Second, I'm looking to put some BF Goodrich All-Terrains on there, but the closest size that's available is 235/70R16. 225/70R16 is a pretty hard size to get a hold of.

Can I put the 235/70R16 on the stock Suzuki rims? It's a 2007 X-Sport with 16" Alloys.

-Brett.

[Taras]

235-70-16 goes easily on stock rims! I was running 255-70-16.

[ISUPhiPsi1052]

44,000!!! Two of my tires were replaced by the dealer at 14K (the rears). Now the OEM tires that are on the rear are bald at 19,500 miles. Working with Yokohama on some resolution. Hopefully will have 2 new tires by week's end. Read the reviews on the OEM tires at tirerack.com, every single one slams the tires as junk...

[wookee]

I can't believe you got 44k out of those POS tires. I got 17k and they were onion skins. Anyway, since I drive mainly on the streets, but do some offroading, I went with a more street oriented A/T tire. The Firestone Destination A/T. They were a lot cheaper than the BFG's and supposedly last longer. They were higher rated on tirerack.com as well.

Firestone Destination A/T

Survey:
Consumer Survey Results By Category

I'm running them in the 235/70-16 size. No problems what so ever. Kind of wish I had gone to a 235/75-16.

[GV88]

Originally Posted by Brett H.

Second, I'm looking to put some BF Goodrich All-Terrains on there, but the closest size that's available is 235/70R16. 225/70R16 is a pretty hard size to get a hold of.

Brett, have you considered getting 225/75/16? They're more common and widely available in most AT range. Also, when comparing tyre size it is only 5 mm larger (in radius) than the 235/70/16.

[Brett H.]

Thanks very much for all of the great replies. I am feeling much better now about moving forward with the non-standard size. I am glad to know I got some good mileage out of the junk OEM tires.

For what it's worth, I didn't give the OEM tires a very easy life. They have done their time off-road including some moderate 4wd trails in the deserts of southern California which included some pretty steep, rutted and rocky roads. I have had to back off on that a bit recently since I'm a bit worried about puncturing the OEMs as they're getting a bit thin. They have also shown to be very soft, with chunks of the tread coming off in places due to some of the use off-road.

Let's see what Santa brings.. :-)

-Brett.

[ISUPhiPsi1052]

Well, at 19,000 miles my 2 remaining OEM tires are going to be replaced. Since the car dealer didn't want to offer any assistance, we ended up dealing directly with Yokohama. They're going to give me a 40% allowance towards replacement. Instead of the G92's that are on the back, they're suggesting the A/T-S. Cost to me (installed) will be $95/per tire. Seems fair to me...

[themeat424]

I'm currently running 255/70/16 General Grabber At2s and they are a really great tire. They are also a lot less than the BFG ATs and it's basically the same tire.

here is a few links of some options...

General Grabber AT 2

• General Grabber AT2

Pirelli Scorpion ATR

Dunlop Radial Rover R/T

[FUBAR Noob]

Hey all I just figured I would perhaps add my 2pents worth of useless info. I just upgraded my stock yoko tires on my '08 GV 4x4 original size 225x65-17 to 225x70-17 and went to the BfGoodrich All Terrain T/A KO tires so another 1/2 in just for the added tread. Now to the calculation part for tire sizes in the U.S.
How to calculate the simple way:
Take the original tire size ie for me it was 225x65-17
Now use this formula: 2(225x0.65) then divide that value by 25.4 since 1inch = 25.4 millimeters then add the rim size for me that was 17inches so let's calculate that:
2(225x0.65) = 292.5
292.5 / 25.4 = 11.52
11.52 + 17 = 28.52 inches of rolling diameter

Now the new size I went to was 225x70-17
2(225x0.70) = 315
315 / 25.4 = 12.4
12.4 + 17 = 29.4 inches of new rolling diameter

So the increase in height of the tire just by size was:
29.4 - 28.52 = 0.88 inches and since this is for 2 sides we divide by 2
So my actual added height off the ground or added ground clearance by the tire size increase was 0.44inches but since the new tread on the tire is 0.5inches taller than that of the yoko tires my actual ground clearance improved by 0.44 + 0.5 = 0.94inches

And thats how you figure out what the height increase is for adding a bigger tire size. So far no scrubbing I am not using a lift kit or spacers still have the stock suspension on it. Will post pics of it in the near future as soon as my custom skid plates are finished next week.

[latif]

Check out these links


Tire Size Calculator - tire & wheel plus sizing

Wheel / tire size calculator / comparer - WHEELSMASTER


I am currently having 245/70/17 tires (Hankook RA07) fitted to the original 17" wheels. Only a bit of scrubbing at the front wheeel wells but these were sorted out by using the heatguns.


Ciao!