Ya, I was a bit worried about this. Had the same type of issue in my previous vehicle. I'm running a Kuat rack very similar to yours.
Tire Upgrade ?
- Thread starter JPATTERS
- Start date
And…..he’s gone. Prolly took his toys and went home to play with his jeeps.
For another data point, I didn't have any luck with my 245/70R18s, and they're still sitting in my garage waiting for... something.
That size only comes on one vehicle, and everyone with that vehicle is here debating what to replace it with.
The 7" takeoff from the 1958 are available. But the stock 7.5" are perhaps the ideal width. That can go to wide-ish tires if desirable. I think the 275 are a good size for people who want a little wider. But the 11" + widths are going to spray mud down the side without a wider mud flap.
I don't even know the width of my 20" rims. Are they 7.5"?
That's interesting too. Although no one overlanding internationally runs 35" tires. Ironically the big tires on just about all the vehicles at Overland Expo never show up in Africa on a 30,000 mile trek. Heavy suspension yes. A little lift yes. But never 35" or bigger tires. Never wide tires sticking well outside the body line. It's 33" usually on steel wheels, which can be repaired by locals and are less likely to attract theft in the poorer countries.
I do think that 35s look best o the LC. And that a lot of the harder trails in the SW are made for 35"+.
You got the E load or SL load? SL being a 4 ply tire
I wanted to share my experience with trying out a fairly new A/T tire on my LC.
I've run Nokian winter tires on previous cars, and they were the best performing I've had (Blizzaks were right up there too). So I thought I'd try Nokian's Outpost nAT. I got their 285/70R17, which only come in passenger rated or E, so I got the E (10-ply). 6-ply would have been the sweet spot IMO.
I noticed they rode rougher, but to be expected with an 10-ply. But I also noticed some vibration/hopping above 65mph. Got them re-checked with a road force balancer and they found one tire had a hard/heavy spot that made balancing impossible. On the road force machine it made a thump every rotation, and the guy was surprised I didn't hear it when driving. Another tire had one side that was heavier and made balancing difficult. They recommended getting Nokian to replace those two tires.
At this point I wasn't happy with the Nokians so they did a customer satisfaction refund on the whole set, and I put on Toyo Open Country AT3, C load (6-ply) in the same size, 285/70R17. The difference was immediately noticeable! The 6-ply Open Countrys rode very smooth, and no issues with vibration above 70mph. They said they were easy to balance. I feel the 6-ply offers a good balance between some off-road protection and load/towing capacity, while not sacrificing ride.
I still think Nokian makes a superior dedicated winter tire (Hakapalita) but won't be running their ATs again. Just wanted to share my experience as another data point with tire upgrade on the LC!
EDIT: To be thorough I should also mention the Toyos have more road noise at highway speed. But it doesn’t bother me as I always have music on anyway.
I've run Nokian winter tires on previous cars, and they were the best performing I've had (Blizzaks were right up there too). So I thought I'd try Nokian's Outpost nAT. I got their 285/70R17, which only come in passenger rated or E, so I got the E (10-ply). 6-ply would have been the sweet spot IMO.
I noticed they rode rougher, but to be expected with an 10-ply. But I also noticed some vibration/hopping above 65mph. Got them re-checked with a road force balancer and they found one tire had a hard/heavy spot that made balancing impossible. On the road force machine it made a thump every rotation, and the guy was surprised I didn't hear it when driving. Another tire had one side that was heavier and made balancing difficult. They recommended getting Nokian to replace those two tires.
At this point I wasn't happy with the Nokians so they did a customer satisfaction refund on the whole set, and I put on Toyo Open Country AT3, C load (6-ply) in the same size, 285/70R17. The difference was immediately noticeable! The 6-ply Open Countrys rode very smooth, and no issues with vibration above 70mph. They said they were easy to balance. I feel the 6-ply offers a good balance between some off-road protection and load/towing capacity, while not sacrificing ride.
I still think Nokian makes a superior dedicated winter tire (Hakapalita) but won't be running their ATs again. Just wanted to share my experience as another data point with tire upgrade on the LC!
EDIT: To be thorough I should also mention the Toyos have more road noise at highway speed. But it doesn’t bother me as I always have music on anyway.
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Any rubbing?
Load C's? Hows the ride compared to Stock?
Nice. Jeff in the video I posted above mentioned he thought 6 ply was the sweet spot. Which wheels are you running? Have you found mud flaps to cover the wider tires?
For tire shoppers Falken has a similar size AT4 that is also C rated but weighs 10 pounds more.
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Still waiting for my Nokian nAT 275/65, should arrive by next week. Hopefully it's just an isolated issue.
So you are getting that much flex with a 1958 with the sway bar connected? The swaybar disconnect is one of the big things pushing me to the mid trim.
