255/70r18

[natecowen]

After spending a considerable amount of time trying to find the answer to this question myself I thought that I would provide it for anyone who might wish to know for certain in the future. 255/70r18's will fit an lr3 without rubbing, they have a 1" larger radius than the stock 255/60r18's and may rub if you are climbing rocks but otherwise work perfectly fine. Access mode is still usable although I would not suggest you drive around in it. The tires are the same width as the stock tires the full dimensions being 32x10 and the stock size being 30x10. I chose the bridgestone dueller rhs which I really like the car rides much better now than with the stock goodyears and were much cheaper than any of the stock sized tires. they also fill up the wheel wells making the car look very nice. As for mileage according to the computer which may or may not be a reliable source of information I seem to get better mileage on the high way and worse in town where I once got an average mileage of 16.4 mpg on the highway I now get a reported 17.3 mpg which with the 6% difference off of the speedometer from the bigger tires brigs me to a total of around 18.4 on average. In town I used to get around 14.2 mpg and now I get about 11.6 or with the 6% 12.3 so you could say that the difference between highway and in town fuel economy has been widened by the new tires I do know that it does run around 200-300 rpm lower than I remember at around 80 mph. anyway for whoever is interested I tried to answer any questions you might have on the subject.

 

[Houm_WA]

Looks like a good tire...can't go wrong at that price. ...but I'm not sure how they don't rub. I run 32" tires when I offroad and they rub without the height sensor mod that I have.

...do you drive around in Off-road Height all the time?

 

[farouk1]

Thanks natecowen for the enlightment but apart from these issues of rubbing and mileage, isn't there any other issues like those to do with gearbox and driveshafts mechanisms.
In my previous LR's Disco 2 and FreeLander, I bitterly had to replace few things at a fairly dear price. Looking back, am not certain it's to do with taller tires revving differently from the originals but couldn't see anything else. I do need however some good ground clearance otherwise I stand to leave a lot of bodywork behind. Beside all the above, Ii just love the look of these 255 70 18's.
Regards to all.

 

[Houm_WA]

That is an issue but it depends on how much bigger you go. I don't think 2" bigger in diameter is all that much.

 

[natecowen]

I would guess that the 32's that you are running are wider than these. These tire are as skinny to my knowledge as you can get in a 32 with an 18 inch rim. I have however noticed that the tires will rub slightly if an articulation occurs at the same time as an abrupt braking. For example if you were to drive off of a tall curb and slam the brakes at the same time. This car is for the most part a family vehicle so I haven't really done any intense off-roading
since the new tires but the extra ground clearance may be a plus. As I said before I do believe that if you were to do some rock crawling or something requiring some intense articulation that may also be a problem. I bought the tires mainly because of the price I dislike being punished for some what I believe to be rather eccentric policies on Land Rover's part such as commissioning oddball tire sizes from goodyear. Also I live on a gravel road and felt that the sport tires which seemed to be the only style available in the 255/60r18 wouldn't hold up to that. I wanted an all terrain tire and not in a goodyear which meant going to a different size and while I found many forums that said 285/60r18's would fit I feared to use a tire that wide because the knuckle on the front was so close to the tire itself it seemed it would surely rub.

 

[Houm_WA]

I think the 32" diameter is more of a problem than the width of the 285 tires. I have run both in the past.

I do agree that on the road you can get away with normal height with these....but yes, the articulation factor off-road will cause rubbing in the back. The wider tires I run also rub on the front when I turn, especially in reverse.

I won't criticize your choice, but if my main purpose were pavement and gravel I would've stuck with the stock size.

 

[natecowen]

There is one thing I was going to add to this post but have somehow forgotten. The bridgestone dueller rhs as shown in the picture on their website is a lot meaner looking tire than what I ended up with. My father has an h3 and it came stock with these tires, those tires are most of the reason I was so interested in these tires in particular (the firestones were cheaper) the large lugs on the sidewall make them look almost like a mudder, but with the nice and quiet ride of an all terrain and seems to have excellent traction in snow and ice. His h3 however, has 16" rims and apparently the large lugs on the sidewall go with the taller sidewall, when I got my 18" tires they weren't nearly as large and pronounced. Not a big deal but is is the basis for my buying the more expensive tire. I don't really have any complaints about the tire it rides nice is quiet and although the most snow we've had here since we've gotten the tires was only three inches and only stuck around for a couple of days it seemed to have very good traction in that. I expect the firestones would have done just as well though. Also I did take the car off roading last night, just down a few trails and washes but it did really well I was in off road height but it never rubbed once and while I wasn't rock crawling some of the stuff I went through did require some articulation.

 

[Houm_WA]

If you take it on anything more challenging than a Subaru-Rated trail they will rub.

 

[USAFbuckeye]

Subaru-rated...hahahaha!