LR3 Wheels & Tires 17 vs 18 vs 19

[Teamjeff]

Hello,

I recently bought a new to me 2005 LR3 HSE, it has the 19's with Michelin Syncrones. I had planned to sell the tires & wheels that came on it, buy a set of 18's and mount some BFG AT's and call it good. But, I got a little ahead of myself the other night and decided to take a little off highway excursion, in the rain, with rocks, ... sharp rocks that sliced up the Michelin's and gouged the wheels pretty heavily. So now that I've "broken in" the 19's should I just put some Goodyear MTR's on them and forget about the 18's or even 17's?

How much difference in off road performance or comfort will the 17's or 18's afford?

I'm also not sure if Ill be ok with the noise of the MTR's, I had a Superduty with BFG Mud terrains and swore I'd never buy another set of muds for a daily driver.Cost is a definite consideration here, so what do you think?

1) Try a set of MTR's and if they're too noisy trade them for something else. Probably the less expensive option but still around $1400 for four tires.

2) Or, find a set of 17 or 18 inch wheels and use a tire I know I'll like.

 

[cruiser guy]

A higher profile tire is better off road. Low profile tires are a recipe for numerous flats as the side wall gets creased and folded over.

 

[Antichrist]

So now that I've "broken in" the 19's should I just put some Goodyear MTR's on them and forget about the 18's or even 17's?

I think you answered your own question.

it has the 19's
...
gouged the wheels pretty heavily.

Eventually they'll be so destroyed you'll be stranded.

 

[michaels]

you can't fit 17s if you have the V8. buy some discovery 18s cheap and have the centers bored out a little by a machine shop. put tires on those and swap them out when you want to go offroad. overall price wouldn't be that much more. i sold 5 18" wheels for $175 and they go for that cheap often.

you can fit up to a 32" tire i believe....

 

[hovenator]

Trust me.....find a set of 17's. I have 18's on my Titan and the tires are always about $100 more than the comparable size in a 17" rim. I am going to a 17" rim when I wear through my 325/60/18 Nitto Terra Grapplers. You can usually buy 5) 17" tires for the price of 4) 18" tires. Plus, there are many more choices in a 17" rim than the 18". I could not imagine how limited in choice you are with a 19" size rim. Just my .02.

 

[FortyMileDesert]

Trust me.....find a set of 17's. I have 18's on my Titan and the tires are always about $100 more than the comparable size in a 17" rim. I am going to a 17" rim when I wear through my 325/60/18 Nitto Terra Grapplers. You can usually buy 5) 17" tires for the price of 4) 18" tires. Plus, there are many more choices in a 17" rim than the 18". I could not imagine how limited in choice you are with a 19" size rim. Just my .02.

The brake discs on a V8 LR3 are too large to fit inside 17 inch wheels!

 

[Teamjeff]

Thats right, I forgot about the bigger brakes on the V8... so forget the 17's!

I know the 18" wheels will work better off road, but HOW much better? And how much difference in streetability will there be with BFG AT's VS MTR's?

The 19" MTR's from tire rack are $1,252, the 18" BFG's are $984, so if I can find a set of 18's for a couple hundred it will be a wash. Then I could use one of my 19's as a spare!

 

[nwoods]

1. Probably not going to get very relevant LR3 answers on this forum. Its too new to most folks on ExPo. Try www.disco3.co.uk or www.landroverworld.org/forums/, or even www.lrrforums.com.

2. Can't fit 17" wheels unless you opt for the V6 (petrol or diesel) brake rotors. Even if you do that, you won't find 17" OEM rims in the USA, but you can get them from Australia and other places, and there is one mfr that I know of that makes an aftermarket 17" rim (also Australian).

3. I don't have much first hand experience with the 19" wheel sized MTR's, but I know several people who do and they love them. I have driven one LR3 with the MTR's on pavement and trail, and I did not ever notice the tires compared to my Nitto Terra Grapplers in 285/60/18 that I was running in my LR3. My experience with them was on Black Bear Pass coming down into Telluride, and then the 2 lane highway north out of Telluride during a rainstorm. They seemed fine to me.

As stated, I know several people with them, and the majority of the UK folks who get their D3's dirty on Disco3.co.uk use the MTR's, and have not seen much if any puncture issues.

4. On the 18" rim, I know several people that have punctured their Nitto sidewalls, but personally, I have not. I have taken mine on extensive trail use in rocky areas and I did blow a bead once, but never a puncture. I put 30,000 miles on my Nitto's, and then they needed replacement. They were worn out, and heavily chunked. Here is a photo of them at about 15,000 miles:

I switched to the Cooper Zeon LTZ's and have dozens of aquaintences who have also migrated to this tire. I have about 32,000 miles on mine, and they are holding up great. I really like them. Soft ride, long wearing compound, excellent grip, superb rain performance.

Another well regarded 18" tire to look at is the Hankook Dynapro ATM RF10 (similar to the Cooper/Nitto) or the Goodyear Silent Armors.

I have a blog with a heavily trafficed article on LR3 tire choices. Please be sure to read through the comments as there is a lot of info in there:
http://blog.nextstepdesigns.com/?p=46

Here are my Coopers after 32,000 miles on them, lots of them off road:

Here are some recent photos of two LR3's on one of the more difficut trails in SoCal's Big Bear area, called the John Bull trail. One has BFG AT's, one has GY Silent Armours. They both did fine, though the BFG were observed to have slightly better traction on wet rocks than the SA's (as one would expect). My point is that for a street tire, the SA's seem pretty good if thats the direction you are leaning towards:
http://landroving.shutterfly.com/323

 

[Teamjeff]

Thank you very much for the info Nathan, I think given the huge selection of 18" tires available it would be foolish of me not to go that route.

 

[protohyp]

this is incorrect. I just recently put 17" rims on my 07 LR3 HSE. I will be posting a video on this. No brake change necessary

 

[Howski]

this is incorrect. I just recently put 17" rims on my 07 LR3 HSE. I will be posting a video on this. No brake change necessary

Do you have a V6? Land Rover 17” wheels?

 

[protohyp]

Do you have a V6? Land Rover 17” wheels?

I have a V8. I’ll be posting a video on my YouTube channels. Search my username on YouTube. I’ll have it up in the next couple of days.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[protohyp]

Here’s the link to my video to get it done



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[garrycol]

So 17" only fit if you use spacers. All well and good in the US but in many countries like mine (AUST) they are illegal. So on an un modified vehicle 17" will not fit on a V8 - they do however on 2.7 TDV6.

 

[protohyp]

So 17" only fit if you use spacers. All well and good in the US but in many countries like mine (AUST) they are illegal. So on an un modified vehicle 17" will not fit on a V8 - they do however on 2.7 TDV6.

This would mostly depend on the offset of the wheels but if you're running factory 5x120 you will always be limited to the available rims made to that spec. I haven't seen many of the big wheel manufacturers like KMC, Method, Fuel etc making a 5x120. A BMW or Honda would fit no problem since a lot of them use 5x120 but you aren't going to get the necessary load rating out of them. Using a spacer at least here in America gives you the options to run many different types of rims.