38" Tyres on 78-Series LC, like Artic Trucks?

I am trying to decide between 35 and 38 inch tyres for my HZJ78 LC Troopcarrier campervan.

Does anyone know what modifications Artic Trucks made to their 78 series cruisers to enable fitting of 38 inch tyres?

This is what the Artic Trucks 78 series rigs look like...
http://www.geocities.com/landcruiser75/equipment/at.html

35's...
at7811.jpg


38's...
at7812.jpg


44's...
at7810.jpg
 

Bcghosttowns

Adventurer
IMO the 35's are the way to go.They look silly with the 38's and the 44's are just plain dumb looking.Unless they are functional for your partiquliar scenario.
 

mountainpete

Spamicus Eliminatus
Arctic Trucks does a considerable amount of modifications to fit those larger tires - which are necessary for the snow covered terrain of Iceland. The mods include cut fenders with custom flares, new gears, usually new differentials with custom electric lockers (airlockers are troublesome in extreme cold), spacers, etc. Sorry don't have the specifics...

Unfortunately their English site isn't as comprehensive as their Icelandic one.

http://www.arctictrucks.is/
 

BiG BoB

Adventurer
I'd suggest sticking to a fairly normal size offroad tire for a campervan. I get around aus a fair bit, and I've never seen a roadhouse with a 35 or 38" tire in stock.

Just what sorta terrain are you considering using this camper on???
 
It is for accessing remote locations for snowboarding, it will be driven on snow covered tracks (not roads, but dirt tracks that are not used in winter, with a full cover of uncompressed snow), mostly solo, so want to minimise the chances of getting it stuck.

The idea of the 38's is to give maximum footprint/floatation/traction on the snow, and maximum clearance over any unseen obstacles underneath the snow.
 

Rallyroo

Expedition Leader
They also move the axle further back (lengthen the wheelbase) to accommodate the larger tire sizes.
 

taco chaser

Supporting Sponsor
Hey Simon, nice rig. Personally I know that 35" tires backed by front and rear lockers can plow through 3 feet of snow depending on the snows condition. I run 37" tires, but I also have the suspension lift to fit them. A friend who has a FJ60 on 35" tires, S0A conversion, only has the rear locked for now and since the front is not locked he just carries a set of chains for when the 60 starts to dig in and sink. If your rig is sprung under than get the bare minimal lift spring and shackle combo to fit larger tires so you don't end up feeling the lift with such a top heavy rig. Big balloon tires are not always the best choice, most of the time a tall thin aired down tire has shown the best performance in my experience, but I also have never driven over the frozen marsh and tundra. That would be the only reason for those ballon tires I would think. Here's a few photos from last year:

kitchenportfoliopics010.jpg

Snowwheelin016.jpg

Snowwheelin037.jpg

Snowwheelin027.jpg
.


All right there's just a few more photos than i planned on posting, but once I started looking thru them I got the bug for some snow wheeling.:rolleyes:
All the rigs posted are running 37s or 35s and this trail is all old dirt logging road.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the snow pics, very (very) nice, makes me so jealous of the real snow and mountains you guys get to play in!

Our snow is very wet and heavy, and nowhere near as deep, compared to the light/dry pow you guys get in the US and Canada, ours is probably more like late spring snowfalls in your coastal mountains. We get fresh snow, but nothing I'd call powder, maybe one or two days each year you might get a little pow if there on the day it happens.

And some of the tracks are much poorer quality than the sorts of roads I imagine logging trucks would use, rougher, less defined, ungraded, and steeper for short sections.

No idea yet how my truck will go on it with aired down tyres on our snow, but I do plan to get front/rear diff locks, and internal bead locks to allow the tyres to be aired right down. I also want to have the chains in case I can't get up the short steeper sections just by airing down, as well as a creek crossing up to above the bumpers I will have to get into and out of with snowy banks on each side.

I am leaning towards the 35's, due to the much cheaper cost of the tyres and the mods to make them work, but would still like to be able to go for the 38's.

Wanting to have clearance for the snowchains probably adds an inch or two onto the clearance requirements for whatever tyre size I choose to go with as well.

Stepping up to 35x12.5 from my current 33x12.5 isn't much of a jump in cost, but going to the light truck sizes such as 36x15.5, 37x13.5, 38x15.5, etc. is a massive jump, nearly twice the cost for the tyres in 38x15.5 compared to 33x12.5.

I do not really like the look of the high sidewall balloon style tyres, if I went 38's I would like to go with larger than 16" rims, something like 18" or 20" rims to reduce the sidewall height. Something like these 38's on 20" rims that ujoint has on his truck...
l_eb53ea9f69a56422922aede586fd57c5.jpg


...I think they look much better than really high balloon style sidewalls, but I can not find any custom rims, steel preferrably, in larger sizes than 17".
 
You may not like the look but high sidewall tires behave MUCH better aired down than low profile tires. Much more lengthening of tread contact patch, more sidewall bulge for even more flotation and more rim protection.

Charlie
 

BiG BoB

Adventurer
It's not about how a mod looks, it's a case of if it'd doing the job properly.

You really need to consult an engineer before you buy these tires, they'll need a certificate to be legal (being oversize) and if you end up doing the arctic truck mods to fit them, they'll need engineering too.

It's only a guestemation, but I dare say that in a LEGAL move to 38" tires, the rubber will be the cheapest bit.

Sean
 
Yep, I understand that point.

But, in comparing the sizes I am interested in, a 38" tyre on a 20" rim has 18" of sidewall height, 9" on top and on bottom of the tyre.

While a 35" tyre on a 16" rim has 19" of sidewall height, 9.5" on top and on bottom of the tyre.

Is the 9.5 inches of sidewall on the 35/16 combo going to bag out much more than the 9 inches of sidewall on the 38/20 combo?

And anyway, isn't an aired down 38x15.5/20 combo going to give me a much larger point of contact than a 35x12.5/16 combo anyway?

Is the extra bagging out of a 38 on a 16 inch rim going to provide much more traction than the bagging out of a 38 on a 20 inch rim, and is the difference going to be worth worrying about when you already have the amount of traction provided by a 38x15.5" tyre?
 

Forum statistics

Threads
188,341
Messages
2,905,789
Members
229,959
Latest member
bdpkauai
Top