Long road trip to arctic circle, tire reliability?

[youkefei]

Hi, I'm planning a road trip with my 2011 4Runner into arctic circle, about 8000km(5000Mi) round trip. I currently have 275/55R20 Nitto TerraGrappler on 4 stock rims. I'm considering to buy another same Nitto tire mounted on the spare rim.

A couple of questions:

• According to Nitto tire spec, the tire is supposed to be mounted on 7.5"-9.5" rim, my Limited stock rim is only 7" wide, do I have to worry about tire blowing off when doing a 8000km road trip?
• Do you guys think a second same size spare tire is necessary?

I know the "best" solution is to replace all stock rims to wider ones, but cost wise, it might not be the best.

Thanks in advance!

 

[RMP&O]

Hi, I'm planning a road trip with my 2011 4Runner into arctic circle, about 8000km(5000Mi) round trip. I currently have 275/55R20 Nitto TerraGrappler on 4 stock rims. I'm considering to buy another same Nitto tire mounted on the spare rim.

A couple of questions:

• According to Nitto tire spec, the tire is supposed to be mounted on 7.5"-9.5" rim, my Limited stock rim is only 7" wide, do I have to worry about tire blowing off when doing a 8000km road trip?
• Do you guys think a second same size spare tire is necessary?

I know the "best" solution is to replace all stock rims to wider ones, but cost wise, it might not be the best.

Thanks in advance!

You are fine with the 7" rim unless you plan to run really low pressure.

You don't need 2 spare tires, yes I would have 5 matching though. Take a tire plug kit and you should be fine. Carry a compressor too or some way to fill your tires. Fix a flat is worthless, go with the right stuff not junk like fix a flat.

I would only worry about rims + 2 spares if you plan to do a lot of off-roading, especially with low pressure and in say rocks. If all you plan to do is some gravel/dirt roads and maybe some snow I wouldn't worry about what you have now. I can't speak for the Nittos though as far as quality, never used them before.

I have been to Panama and back 2x on the same set of BFG A/Ts and never had a single problem with them. It is nearly 5,000 miles each way for me to Panama. I have done 40k+ on these tires with 25k of that in Latin America. Granted not much off-road or airing down but some and lot's of pothole torn up roads plus washboard. Some people advised me to take 2 spares with me, I didn't. Had I it would have been wasted money and extra not needed weight. I have used my tire plug kit a lot though, just not to fix my tires!

my 2 cents

 

[The Adam Blaster]

Personally, I'd take 2 spares with me, but I do tend to over-pack.
The roads up north are mostly gravel, and sharp gravel at that. Some people have made the same trip with no issues and others have lost 2-3 tires on their journey.
The newer your tires and the more tread on them the better.
It's totally a personal call though.

 

[youkefei]

Thank you guys for the helpful information!

 

[Mr. Leary]

Meh... I'd bring 2 spares... but I'll agree with Ian that its probably overkill.

 

[nucktaco]

i dont know what your experience with the terra grapplers has been like but i ran them on my tacoma 2 years ago and i would never run them again.

they wore out rediculously quick and i had to patch one of them 3 times just from doing FSR's. i found they had chunks missing and started looking real brittle after a couple runs down some gravel roads. i know you werent asking if you should change tires but this is just my opinion.

 

[1sweetvan]

X2 on the Real sharp gravel. I would take 2 spares.

 

[haven]

X3. The Dalton Highway / Prudhoe Bay Haul Road is 400 miles of gravel, much of which is shale that breaks down into little chisel-like shards. They get up between the treads of the tires, and are hammered through the body carcass as the tire rotates.

Another hazard along the road is the gravel thrown up by the yahoos driving fast in what appear to be rental cars. At times, you'll feel like your vehicle is being peppered by light machine gun fire. Be prepared to replace your windshield once you get back to civilization.

 

[the dude]

Having been there twice and never had an issues with tires I think the key is a large side wall and lower tire pressure. If you run at 40 psi with a low pro tire you are asking for trouble. I went up on a set of michelin XMLs and a set of Toyos. No issues. Took one spare. (also had compressor and patch kit, which does you know good if you don't know how to use it) We rocked the Dempster in some of the worst conditions I have ever seen at 15psi in our tires.

On the windshield comment, this is true. We had large lifted trucks so generally where above the thrown rocks, but everyone else had issues. Check out this contraption we passed in Alaska!!

 

[raintoy]

Wow!

Having been there twice and never had an issues with tires I think the key is a large side wall and lower tire pressure. If you run at 40 psi with a low pro tire you are asking for trouble. I went up on a set of michelin XMLs and a set of Toyos. No issues. Took one spare. (also had compressor and patch kit, which does you know good if you don't know how to use it) We rocked the Dempster in some of the worst conditions I have ever seen at 15psi in our tires.

On the windshield comment, this is true. We had large lifted trucks so generally where above the thrown rocks, but everyone else had issues. Check out this contraption we passed in Alaska!!

 

[jeff parker]

A couple of years ago Car and Driver made it to the end of the Dempster and back in a new Corvette.

 

[JCMatthews]

Does that shield off the large mammals as well?

My in-laws traveled that way 7-8 years back and had trouble. They had to buy some new rear tires for their truck because of flats on the sharp gravel.

Reread my statement... they had to buy tires. Tires can be purchased all along the route if something really bad happens. I traveled there a decade ago on BFG ATs and had no issues at all. Take one spare and if you run into trouble, you can get whatever you need.

I like the windshield screen that was used on the Turtle Expedition early 90s Ford.

 

[Arctic Taco]

I don't know much about Nitto tires. Tough call on the extra spare, I would personally, but that depends on what tires, and what ply rating. Load range E are the bomb but that is a heavy tire for a yota. Try to keep the weight down as you will definitely need to carry and buy extra fuel. Another key I think is to keep your speed down somewhat, I drive a 85 mile gravel road to work weekly and I get fewer flats when I keep it down to around 35. Only time I have ever driven the haul road was almost 9 yrs ago in a company 1 ton so I don't remeber what the speed limit is posted at. Bring a good quality air compressor, mine has real long wires with clips for hooking up to the battery, small square of 3/4" plywood for a base plate for your jack which should be a decent one and a plug kit- Napa has a good one. Maybe some hardware cloth over the grill, rocks can be hard on plastic. Good luck, Swing by the park while you're up north. Cheers

 

[stonepa]

I think it really depends on what size tires you have on your truck. If it is an uncommon size (and I mean uncommon on the Dalton) then they may not have your tire size in either Coldfoot or Deadhorse. Then you will wish you had 2 spares. IF they do have your size, you really don't want to have to pay the rack rate.

That being said, I never had any issues with my BFG MT and ATs on any trip up the Dalton. Headlights, windshields, and fuel are another matter.

Dempster highway wasn't too bad either, although was a little rough on my body after a lot of miles in my old FJ60.

 

[EricM]

When we took the Dempster hwy to the arctic circle we carried two spares. We didn't use either.




We were on kuhmo tires




I still recommend two spares we heard of people that traveled th same day as us that needed three, though I don't know what they were rolling on.