While I feel good about the purchase of our 1999 Toyota Landcruiser there was work that needed to be done. Our truck was ready to hit the road as is except for the tires. I was not to worried about this since when it comes to tire and wheel selection I am picky. Let us talk about how I work through choosing the right wheels & tires for our overland budget build.
Wheels and how they work off-road
Wheels really are what sets our trucks apart visually from other vehicles. Did you know that wheels also play a huge part in off road capability and on road handling? When you run a larger wheel diameter this decreases the sidewall of the tire. Less sidewall means less flex off-road meaning you will have a much stiffer ride. Remember that your tires are like a second suspension layer when aired down. You are airing down off-road right? Shorter tire sidewall will cause your vehicle to bounce more through the obstacles. Taller sidewall will allow your tires to absorb the obstacle and flow smoothly through. Now this doesn’t mean the smallest rim is the best bet, in some cases you on newer vehicles you can not go any smaller in rim size due to brakes. Smaller sidewall might be a hinderance off-road but to much sidewall can cause more flex on road. I try to stick with a 16″ – 17″ wheel when I am running less than a 35″ tire. This makes my ride Both on road and off road feel better for me.
Tires on a Budget Build
We could really beat this subject to death here and probably still not reach a conclusion. Now I am searching for a set of budget tires so this means I am looking for used tires. When looking for what type of tires for your vehicle take into account what the main use will be. Mud terrain tires look cool but if you spend most of your time on the road they will not be a good choice. Typically for an overland rig I go for an all-terrain type tire. We are going to be travelling on the road quite a bit so all-terrain tires will gives us better wear and handling on road. Regardless of new or used tires one of the main things you need to inspect is the date code on the tire. Date codes are there to let you know when a tire was made. Tires degrade over time so the older they are the more likely to cause a blowout on the road. Looking at the date code is easy and ill share how to break it down in a picture below. For me this is especially important since I am looking for used tires!
How I find used Wheels & Tires
Now you can cruise through Facebook market place or something similar, but remember that off-road shops are constantly changing out tires and wheels all the time. These can be a good place to start when looking for used sets for your rig. I headed over to Asheville Vehicle Outfitters to check out what Eric Valdes had laying around. Talk about perfect timing as Eric had just taken his wheels and tires off of his Landcruiser to upgrade to something new. I was able to score 5 16″ wheels to replace my current 18″ wheels and they already had a great set of 285/75/16 BFGoodrich KO2 all-terrains on them. This was perfect since most of you that know me know I love my BFG tires.
Rolling forward with Wheels & Tires
Wheels & tires for our overland budget build was all we needed to get our truck on the road and rolling! We initially had some concerns that the larger tires would cause some scrubbing issues at stock height, fortunately this was not a problem. We threw the truck right into training right away and with the new wheels & tires she performed flawlessly in the snow at Patriot Mountain Off-Road Park. Seeing the improvement in our vehicle with great set of tires running the right air pressure off-road was amazing. Join us for our next issue where we will talk about Suspension and how we made our choice, if you are just joining in feel free to take a look at how we came to find David our LandCruiser! Overland Budget Build
