I have no experience with Hutchinson but everyone talks about the weight of them. Can you talk a little about the driving characteristics of the heavier wheel? Can you notice any handling differences? Or does the vehicle have enough power that it isn't noticeable? Also what did you decide to do about the spare tire, can the mount handle the additional weight or did you decide on a bumper mount of some kind?
All great questions.
The "typical" Hutchinson's you see on most of the military G's (#0492--according to Bill at Hutchinson, most are now cast vs forged) are about 12.5lbs/ea heavier than mine, so this makes me feel a bit better, although the military W461's probably have stronger axles than my rig. All in all, I'm not going to abuse this truck(read: do stupid stuff) so I'm hoping the extra unsprung weight won't cause an issue down the road. I am expecting that I'll need to replace wheel bearings sooner than later, brakes will wear quicker than normal, etc. But I can deal with that stuff.
Driving characteristics with them; the G is already a heavy beast, but doesn't feel fully truck-like to me (like our F350 DoKa long bed). I will say that I did notice that with the Hutchies on, the steering felt a tad bit heavier, but nothing that is a bear to deal with. On the road over bumps, I can sense that there's a lot more unsprung weight at each corner. The best way to explain it is that it feels like the wheels/tires are stuck to the road more(well yeah, because they're so much heavier hehe).
Handling differences with them; I don't really notice huge degradations in handling, probably because I don't drive it like I drive our Porsche 997S. I drive the G like a codger a lot of the time, especially in corners as I'm trying to prepare for when I get my rack/RTT on top. The truck is very close to 3tons now so I'm finding myself usually driving at or under the speed limit. That's not to say that the truck won't haul some serious *****(for a 3ton truck) when you need it to, but the gas pedal is pretty heavy/stiff, so you really have to mash the throttle if you want the truck to scoot. It's not blazingly fast like my old '03 E55, but the 336ft/lbs must be underrated.
I'm still impressed with the braking. I've driven Karl's old '91 300GE quite a few times and the brakes could use some improvement. The G500 brakes are very good, good modulation, confidence-inspiring.
From a few G veterans, I'm told that the factory spare wheel mount on cargo door will be able to handle 104lbs (a few know a few who've had 110lbs on there for tens of thousands of miles over very rough roads, no issues). Daniela at ORC says that the 2 factory door hinges shouldn't break, but that the door will need to be adjusted for proper fitment more often(understandable). So for now, I'll be using the factory location. But I was just making my plans last night for a possible custom dual-swingout rear bumper with everything I want back there. I still need to talk to the local Toyota offroad bumper fabricator to get a roundabout quote, but I'm hoping that a custom rear bumper will be less $ than the factory W461 rear bumper, ladder, etc etc I was planning otherwise...plus the custom bumper would be stronger to hold everything.
LMK if you have any other questions,
Jeremy
PS--will you be making it to WA Overland Rally?
