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235/75/R15 tyres - Beginner buying tyres

Tech Talk for Suzuki owners.

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235/75/R15 tyres - Beginner buying tyres

Post by Tyson »

Hi Guys,

I'm really interested in buying some chunky tyres, and I was going to speak to the local tyre dealer tomorrow.

But I don't know what tyres cost! I've never bought tyres before, and the ones I've had on my vitara for 8 months came with it when I bought it.

So do tyres cost $50 each or $400 each? I only have around $400 in the budget, would I be able to get 4 tyres for that ?

I'm really set on the Cooper STT's which I've done some research on this messageboard and others, but I heard Motorway muddies retreads are cheaper.

Any idea how much tyres cost, and will the dealer put them on / take them off the rims ?

Thanks
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Post by cj »

Around $400 should get you some Motorway muddies or you might pick some used name brand tyres.
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Post by -Mick- »

yeah brand name used ones are the go in that price range ;) I got 85 % or so stt's in that size for the gf's daihatsu for 400 off this very board :D
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Post by Beastmavster »

235's are a good starting size and suitabe for basic suspension lift - will give a big improvement for no real dramas or negative consequences.

Lots of people here will say shit like save for 63 foot tall monster truck tyres but seriously you need lots of mods to do that stuff.... and put up with it being used every couple of months for a competition and thats it.

There's a hell of a lot more web wheelers here than real drivers and I like being able to step out the front, put the key in the ignition and go

:D :finger:


235/75 is 29". I'd recommend from experience no more than 30" for a daily driver vitara unless you like coming home on a sunday to 6 hours in the garage to get to work monday. The extra weight of 31'S is enought to start making cv's and axles marginal.

It's a good size and you'll have heaps of fun - you should keep up with Cruisers and Patrols on 33"S with that size rubber.
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Post by Tyson »

Is there anyway I can get 31" on a Vitara without hardly doing anything at all?

I know you can bash the firewall, lift the body, or do a suspension lift or a combination of them all, but people seem to be differeing their opinion on whats the max you can fit under a Vit without any modification.

So can I fit 31" under there, or 30" is pushing it already ?

Thanks in advance
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Post by Tyson »

Hey Beast, I just reread your post and you recommend against getting 31"S, I think I should heed that experience and the most I should go is 29.7" or 30"

with 31"s it's easier to break axles ?
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Post by SiKiD_01 »

when i got my vit, i started off with the 235/75 which were GY MT/Rs. they were about $200 each new, but that was a while a go.

235's dont have many problems at all, and could probably say thats where the vit is confortable at.

before i went sus lift and BL, i fitted 31"s. all i did was cut the front fender a bit, and bashed the firewall in a bit too. if you really want, you can get some 1" coil spacers, and the 31"s should go on ok, dep on wheel off set etc.

i was quoted $280 for some 31" cooper Stt's about 2 weeks ago. this is the price of a 32" MT/r, or a 33" A/T. i'm in darwin though.

try out the 235s, they should be good for a while, and the retread muddies are even cheaper.
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1995 Vitara:
stock standard


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Post by Tyson »

Hi Sikid, just wanna say thanks cause whenever I ask stupid questions, u always give me good answers!

Your 235's look sweet ! But how come with the 31" it looks like the car is pointing downwards. Is that how the stock suspension works with big tyres on them. ( oh wait, I think its on a hill )

I'm not a mechanic, I can put together chairs from IKEA though :D

My dad taught me how to change all my car oils the other week, but I don't want to be fitting tyres that will cause me problems later.

No more discussions, I will definitely get 235's ( 29.7"s ) and save myself hassles !

Thanks again
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Post by SiKiD_01 »

yeah, that pic of the vit is on a dirt mound. well, the right back tyre is anyway. so the front left is in compression.

although, some vits will sag at the front with good use and age, so its not uncommon for the front to sit lower. you can get small coil spacers to level it out if it worries you. some people use coil spacers when fitting steel bull bars, and or winches too.
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Post by Beastmavster »

I went to 30" A/Ts straight up and the (SWB) vitara was pretty comfortable at 30" rubber too.

30" as opposed to 26" is a pretty big jump though - about a 17% gearing jump and a far far higher increase in weight.

At 30" it was ok on the highway although it did need a little more clutch slip to make a decent take off in first and a significant more clutch slip offroad.

When I went to 31"s (from 17% up to 20% gearing difference and about twice the original weight) the difference was immediate - the vitara struggled to hold 110ish highway speeds and spent more highway time in 4th gear.

Some of this was definately the extra weight of the 15x8 rims instead of the 15x7, but mainly it's the extra weight and extra diameter of the tyres.

There's no simple gearing options for the vitara to fix this - you can either replace Ring and Pinions to 5.83 (at about $600 a pop and they're highly breakable especially the front one) which corrects high and low by about 13%. Which would be pretty driveable again.

Or you can put a rockhopper in for about $1500 which fixes low for good but doesnt help high, unlike with the sierra.

Or of course with deep pockets do both.

Given the cost of those two swaps keeping your gearing as it is and putting something like a V6 Commodore (or vitara) motor in there deserves some thought too, which may fix the gearing/power issue.

Unfortunately it doesn't fix the strength.

As far as the breakages go - I dunno anyone regularly snapping axles (or front diff casings) on a Vitara with 30" rubber - either locked or unlocked. But I sure know a hell of a lot of people who have with 31"s and above, locked or unlocked.

Ask antt (16v EFI so better power/gearing combo than I had) why he's doing an SAS and that's one of the big reasons... or ask GV_Qld (V6 and 5.125 diffs so better again) why he's bought a shorty so he can keep his V6 GV on the road :P

It isn't the power to weight or gearing or any of that stuff - they just put too much load on the axles and the front CV's.

Sure, there are always solutions, but my recommendation is that for the minimal difference in clearance you'll get from 30" to 31" it'll cost you a heap in time in the garage.
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Post by Beastmavster »

Tyson - as far as 31" go - I needed 2" suspension lift, 1 1/4" body lift and some front end encouragement (hammer and some trimming) to clear the 31"s on 15x8 with -25mm offset.

Slight rubbing still occurred when front wheels were on lock off road.

Standard sierra offset (around +6mm from memory) and 2"+2" Body and suspension lift should clear without the butchery, depending on spring rates - not all 2" lift kits are equal in height.

I cleared 30"s on 2" suspension with my tired A/T's but needed an extra 1" body lift to clear the new 30" muddies. Partly due to the extra height due to tread depth, and partly due to the M/T's chunky pattern being more likely to catch on the lip of the rear guard rather than brush past.

235/75/15 is about 1/2" under a 30" so you're only gaining about 1/4" clearance under the diffs but it's at least 3/4" more space to stop rubbing on the body due to the narrower tyre width. General consensus is that the should clear fine with 2" and probably will clear with no lift at all - see a lot of Vitaras that *appear* to be running stock suspension running them here.

If you're really tight for budget some 30mm coil spacers for the rear and 15mm for the front will clear 235's easy.
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Post by Tyson »

Thanks for the info beast. I was pretty happy being set with 30", but I saw a sierra down the road that looked like a freakin monster truck and you can't help but love it.

But I am definitely not willing to spend alot of hours in the garage ( for starters I don't have one ) and I saw a Rav4 parked in Russel St Melb wearing 235/75/15 BFG's and they looked pretty darn nice for their size.

I think I could focus on alot of better things rather than making my own monster truck. One issue I have is I hate the stock front bumper, and would like to replace that with a Bullbar that replaces the whole front bumper.

Also looking at getting something knocked up so I can mount 4 spotties above the sunroof/soft-top.

All these things costing time and money, but I got a new job just to mod my car. ( I'm a student )

I can't wait to take it into the gravel paths and mud, but I don't wanna go yet till I'm better prepared.
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Post by Beastmavster »

IMHO Better mods than the extra effort of 31"s.

A snorkel (trust me on this - I lunched a motor cos the intake is really exposed on the vitara).

Disclaimer : Of course the desire to repeatedly drive through 4' of water cos I could probably helped. :shock:

Some petrol tank protection (also a must have).

Longer rear shockers (also a huge improvement).

Bullbar (an old 82ish Jackeroo bullbar with some modified mounts worked good for me for a number of years)

A locker, traction control or LSD. Preferably something without too many on road consequences (eg airlocker)

An upgraded clutch.

A better exhaust system.

A decent stereo

Breast implants for the G/F :D

A whole heap of beer :armsup:
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Post by Tyson »

if you skipped all those mods you could buy ALOT of beer :armsup:
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Post by mistaboz »

I just got a 2" suspension lift on my 92' suzuki sierra. I rolled a 235 tyre up to it and it seems that under full suspension compression the tyre will rub, regardless of wether or not I have flattened the seems down.
What do you guys think?
I want a 235 or 30" mud terrain.
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Post by nicbeer »

mistaboz, you can fit them to std suspension. Full compression - bump stop spacers help with this

go the 30's at least and hammer some seems, you may have a prob with the bumper brackets as well but nothing a grinder can't help.

I run 31's on 2.5" lift.
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Post by Pinball »

i'll back nicbeer,

we got a lwb runnin cooper stt 31's... flatten the seams, and add some flaring.. it's a hell of a mean look.

stabilised it nicely to.. hmmm looks like the gallery is under modification, no pics at the mo... sorry.

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Post by mistaboz »

Thanks for the info. Will get some tyres soon and post up some pics :)
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Post by aodhfin »

spock you forgot that we also cut the front bumper brace coming off the chasis to support the bull bar. but as they say nothing that a grinder couldn't fix
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Post by aodhfin »

spock you forgot that we also cut the front bumper brace coming off the chasis to support the bull bar. but as they say nothing that a grinder couldn't fix
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Post by derelict_frog »

I have 29" MTR's (hankook dynamic MT's) they are good small (thinish) mud tyres and go well onroad, they dont rub anywhere on a NT standard sierra either, a vitara would be slighty different though.

With $400 u can get retread new tyres but no rims, but it sounds like u will just have the one set one permanently on anyway.
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Post by eXc »

I know this is an old thread, but wanted to update it with my info;

I have just got 235/75/15 BFG ATs on my STOCK Vitara and they fit, went out the other day in them and had no scrubing.
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Post by monkeyplex »

Three questions that anyone is welcome to answer:

1. How do the 235' go on the standard rims? has anyone ever striped the bead off of rim? Also, did the tyre blokes give you a strange look when you ordered them?

2. Hows the gearing? On road and off?

3. With standard gearing and standard suspension (bigger coils, and or spacers are ok) are 235's better than 215's? Is money better spent on a rear diff lock?

Cheers boys and girls
=/_____________\=
/[__\\___S___//__]\
|-----------------------|
I--------[vitara]------I
I___I'''''''''''''''''''''I___I
eXc
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Post by eXc »

1) I have read lots of people saying they have had no worries, but I have only had mine for a week.

2) I find it fine. I am about 500RPM lower on the freeway than I used to be, and I think the speedo is out by about 5%
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Post by rosie »

Tyson: Another consideration is that 30"s won't go on standard 5.5"rims.

Legaly the 235s aren't meant to either but they go fine if you can get someone to fit them.

I have 30"s on a LWB and if doing it again I would go the 235s. They will be chaeper as you don't need rims and you won't need the body lift either. It's a very, very simple job to do a 1" though if you feel the need.

Try the 235's with no lift and if it looks suss go the 30mm coil spacers. Sandgrouper runs that setup and it is optimum for a daily driver. 30"s have caused me quite a bit of powerloss too and scrub with 3.5"lift and -15mm offset rims.

HTH Ben
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Post by mur »

******** woops, just noticed my info may be slightly too late...*******



I just got a set of second hand 235/75R15 MTRS for $400.
They are in awesome condition, basically brand new....
just keep your eye out for them. IMOH its better to get second hand tyres than retreads.
i got mine from widetread tyres
http://www.widetread.net.au/
keep an eye out on the forums and ebay, they will come up

pics of mine hear :)
http://www.ausjeepoffroad.com/forum/sho ... hp?t=68825
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