New tyres on a GV.
Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2004 5:56 pm
OK - I did search for this info a few times, and didn't find much, so I'll post what I now know - whether you're interested or not. 
A mate of mine is a the proud owner of a (recently acquired) '02 (?) Grand Vitara, and uses it!
He very quickly discovered the stock tyres are a little lacking in the off-road stakes, so went looking for something better. As most of you undoubtedly know, there's little available in 235/60-16s. After finding a few comments, and obtaining advice from tyre dealers
this morning he had fitted a set of BFG muds in 235/70-16.
They fill the guards very nicely, but now the vehicle looks like it's been lowered.
The spare on the rear door fills the cut-out on the bumper so nicely you'd swear it was designed for it (was it?)
And we went for a play.
After taking 15 minutes to clear a fallen tree
we hit our first climb, and he quickly heard tyres hitting something. Eventually we discovered that under compression the edges of the lugs were catching the edge of the plastic trim on the rear doors, where they wrap around into the wheel wells. Some of the mounting clips are now broken, but it shouldn't take more than a few minutes work to cut back the trim for clearance.
We've also found that the tyres are sometimes rubbing down the face of the rear mud flaps - no big deal, although eventually he'll probably wear through one of the little plastic clips holding them in place.
We haven't identified any problems at the front - yet.
The extra weight appears to be too much for the shock absorbers to control - he was getting sideways on corrugated bends which previously didn't faze the car. But as he needs a suspension lift he'll replace the shocks then anyway.
His speedo is now 10% out. We don't know why that much, as from calculations we expected a 7% error.
He doesn't find the noise at all objectionable, even at 110km/h on the Bruce Highway.
The change in gearing is quite noticeable, both for pulling up hills and engine braking down hills. I'm about to search for info on crawler gears.
He's already noticed that the extra clearance means he doesn't bottom out where he used to - so a suspension lift will be even better.
The extra grip is awesome. The only time he lost traction was on a small rutted climb in a little play area that he previously wouldn't have contemplated - and that was only because his spotter gave him bad directions (my right - not his... )
So there you have it - lots of information you probably never wanted to know, but hopefully it'll help somebody some day.
Cheers,
Scott
A mate of mine is a the proud owner of a (recently acquired) '02 (?) Grand Vitara, and uses it!
He very quickly discovered the stock tyres are a little lacking in the off-road stakes, so went looking for something better. As most of you undoubtedly know, there's little available in 235/60-16s. After finding a few comments, and obtaining advice from tyre dealers
this morning he had fitted a set of BFG muds in 235/70-16.
They fill the guards very nicely, but now the vehicle looks like it's been lowered.
The spare on the rear door fills the cut-out on the bumper so nicely you'd swear it was designed for it (was it?)
And we went for a play.
After taking 15 minutes to clear a fallen tree
we hit our first climb, and he quickly heard tyres hitting something. Eventually we discovered that under compression the edges of the lugs were catching the edge of the plastic trim on the rear doors, where they wrap around into the wheel wells. Some of the mounting clips are now broken, but it shouldn't take more than a few minutes work to cut back the trim for clearance.
We've also found that the tyres are sometimes rubbing down the face of the rear mud flaps - no big deal, although eventually he'll probably wear through one of the little plastic clips holding them in place.
We haven't identified any problems at the front - yet.
The extra weight appears to be too much for the shock absorbers to control - he was getting sideways on corrugated bends which previously didn't faze the car. But as he needs a suspension lift
he'll replace the shocks then anyway.
His speedo is now 10% out. We don't know why that much, as from calculations we expected a 7% error.
He doesn't find the noise at all objectionable, even at 110km/h on the Bruce Highway.
The change in gearing is quite noticeable, both for pulling up hills and engine braking down hills. I'm about to search for info on crawler gears.
He's already noticed that the extra clearance means he doesn't bottom out where he used to - so a suspension lift will be even better.
The extra grip is awesome. The only time he lost traction was on a small rutted climb in a little play area that he previously wouldn't have contemplated - and that was only because his spotter gave him bad directions (my right - not his...
)
So there you have it - lots of information you probably never wanted to know, but hopefully it'll help somebody some day.
Cheers,
Scott
Ride is a little smoother now, and traction even better.