By wvalbrecht (Vince) on Tuesday, March 06, 2001 - 05:29 pm: Edit

I have 5 Michelins (spare also) and one got wrecked so I put the spare tire on. I was going to get a BF Goodrich Long Trail or Bridgestone Dueler to put on as the spare. A couple of tire places warned me not to as I could ruin the trans?! They said that I should put the same Michelin on the spare that are on the other 4. I don't rotate the 5 tires, either. Is that true? Why? the Mich's have 35,000 miles on them and some day i'm going to replace them with another brand. thanks for any help on this

By Milan on Tuesday, March 06, 2001 - 06:05 pm: Edit

Different brands usually translate to different actual sizes even though the numbers on the sidewall match. This means you would really have to ensure the rolling radius of the tires is the same as the others. Otherwise, the differential would be forced to differentiate all the time which is not a good idea. Furthermore, the differentiating action could be cased by different rolling resistance of the tires due to tread design (and/or the different air pressure to match the standing rolling radius). Additionally different tread pattern is not good in emergency braking or evasive situations on-road.

On 4x4 in general, you should stick to 4 identical tires.

Now...all that said, I don't see anything wrong with using a slightly different spare to get you home. Just make sure the rolling radii are close enough. I.e. slightly deflate the taller tire to match the other one. The diffs are made to differentiate anyway, so I don't think you'd really cause extra wear even on a longer trip home. I just would not go cross-country like that. Also, if you have limited slip in the diff of the axle you're putting the different tire on, I'd keep the trip as short as possible as you would put extra wear on that type of a differential.

Hope this helps...

By Mike on Tuesday, March 06, 2001 - 10:03 pm: Edit

I agree with previous post. Very well said. The Land Rover Dealer does not recommend that you rotate the tires because of the full time 4x4 drive on the Discovery. They recommend that if you are having wear problems to correct the problem and to not rotate the tires.

Me personally, I rotate the tires. You should rotate them front to back. If you feel that you must rotate them in a x pattern, be sure to have them rebalanced. I presueme this is because tires are only spun in one direction to balance, so reversing the rotation may cause vibrations.

Thanks,
Mike

By C.Frezza on Tuesday, March 06, 2001 - 11:55 pm: Edit

Another question. I have a stock DII. I'd like to put on a set of M/T tires. I was planning on the BFGoodrich M/T's. Can I go from a 255 stock to a 265/75/R16 without trimming? I looked around for steel rims and nothing is available for the DII as of yet. My LR Center does say that DII and RR 4.0 etc. are the same axles with the same lug pattern. Could I just fine someone that sells steel rims that fit a RR and use it on my DII?

By Ron on Wednesday, March 07, 2001 - 10:35 am: Edit

AB sells DII steel wheels for ~75 each. Check the web site. All 95 and later New body style RR have the same lug pattern and the wheels will fit from one of them.

Ron

By Bill Gill (Bluegill) on Wednesday, March 07, 2001 - 01:51 pm: Edit

The best advice I've found is to keep four identical tires on the ground at all times and "rotate" front to rear, always keeping the same travel direction (i.e. not truly rotating around the truck, just swapping front to back on the same side). I have 245/70 on the ground and 225/75 on the spare. I've had to go a total of about 25 miles on the spare thus far, and it's no big deal, but it's best to not force the diffs to try to deal with the different wheel sizes and spinning rates. I'm rectifying this next week with 5 new identical tires. However, I won't be able to include the fifth wheel in the rotation because I'd end up having to reverse the travel direction of the tires at some point. If I really want to do it right, I'd need an identical sixth wheel so that you could just keep moving the tires in pairs. I do have a sixth wheel, but it's a 235/75 on a steel rim, so it's strictly a spare for the roof.

Also, same sidewall numbers on different manufacturer's tires does not mean identical dimensions!!! You'll find quite a bit of variability.

By disco2guy on Thursday, March 08, 2001 - 12:18 am: Edit

If you check out the DSII oriented discussion group for owners only, you'll find all these answers and more. We just did a layout of all the steel wheels and their "issues" today.

disco2guy
http://www.disco2.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/disco2owners/join