Want a wheel upgrade – easy! Choose some nice rims swap your rubber over and your good to cruise the streets right. Well No! – there a number of things that need serious consideration and I must admit it took me longer that should have to reach the right conclusion for me.
Now the standard Perentie will run what they call a Wolf Steel wheel, or heavy duty – 16 x 6.5 inches – very tough with a load rating of 2200kg. Narrow, but not as narrow as the 5.5 inch standard Land Rover, which makes the addition of cool wider tyres a non-starter on these rims – unless you want to push safety limits.
A popular upgrade and fitted as standard on many Defenders is the Land Rover Boost Alloy – a bit wider at 16 x 7inch, so you can fit 235/85 R16 tyres as standard and they look pretty good and so the job perfectly. These have a load rating of 1050 kg, so you have to be a little mindful of this if you are running a modified 110 or 130 with extra weight on board. Weight is not always evenly distribution to all 4 wheels, especially when off road.
The Perentie is fitted with the Boost Alloys but with 265/75 R16 tyres, 30mm wider than the 235’s giving the car a bit more rubber on the road – Probably as wide as I would want to go on a 7 inch rim – but a popular fit. The 75% ratio as opposed the the 85% with the 235’s keeps the speedo correct.
In addition to the wider tyres, the Perentie also has 30mm spacers giving the vehicle a wider stance, this also helps the tuning circle. Overall the wider tyres and stance suit the Perentie, they help balance out the additional height of the roof and the 2 inch lift on the suspension. I am not overly keen on spacers, as it is just something else the can cause a problem
The Perentie could handle a larger wheel/tyre combo as there is plenty of room under the wheel arches, but that is the way it was designed and I like to have the available suspension movement. This would also put the speedo out and again, I wish to avoid as many issues as I can.
Whilst I wanted to change to stronger wheels and have newer tyres prior to our trip, there is no urgency as the current General Grabber AT2’s still have plenty of wear left in them, although I am not sure how old they are.
However, my 110 G4 Challenge is due for an MOT and last year the tyres were an advisory as the side walls are now starting to deteriorate – not bad as I am sure they are the originals -13 years old and 60k miles – and still nowhere near worn out though. As I may well move the G4 on in the Summer, it seemed pointless spending £600+ on tyres and not get any use out of them. Still there is now a safety issue and the advisory does show on the DVLA MOT Check, so this needs to be sorted.
So the plan is to move the good tyres from the Perentie to the G4 and get the Perentie new shoes and better rated wheels – I will then have a spare set of Boost Alloys which will go towards the new purchase – clever Huh!
So which wheels to get……….Alloys are lovely and products from manufacturers such a Zu, Mach 5 and Terra Firma look great and more importantly have high load ratings, up to 1500kg. But the Perentie is a working vehicle and thin spoked alloys will just allow you to see the old drum brakes behind – not a great look. Also, I have other things to spend nearly £1000 on!
So steel wheels it is. I love the Wolf/Heavy Duty look but as we have said they are not wide enough for the tyres I want. There are not many style options out there and Spoke Steel and Modular (with holes) come up all the time. Where there is a difference though is with quality – nothing new there. When you see a good deal they are often labelled as “after market” and are Chinese – you tend to find that load rating are missing from the web descriptions – and not easy t find if you call the Sales Team up. You are never quite sure if the information that you are being given is correct.
Anyway, I eventually found some made by Tuff Torque from 4×4 Tyres, they were rated at 1200kg which was good for me. When I called them they confirmed that they had been using the European Manufacturer for 20 years with any problems. – they were also very helpful generally. Unlike some other popular Land Rover Parts suppliers who either did not answer the phone, or were unhelpful.
Now before finally choosing your wheels we have to consider ET; no not your favourite stranded Alien but “Einpress Tiefe” the German phrase that means the distance between the mounting surface (hub) and the centre line of the wheel. Every wheel has an ET which to me is confusing as for every millimetre the ET value “decreases” the further out the wheel protrudes from the arch.
So the Boost Alloys have an ET of 33 which is a positive value, and I have 30mm wheel spacers. The wheels I found come with different ET values one of which was “0” – Zero. Thats means that my new wheel will protrude further from the arch and Zero is less then 33 – so I will not need the spacers – which is a result.
I also decided to order 16 x 8 rims rather than 16 x 7 giving me a further one inch width than I have now, which I think will suit the vehicle and give me a bit of stability. I can then fit 285/75 R16 tyres giving me another 20mm of width per tyre. The 75% ratio with the 285 width changes to rolling circumference of the wheel slightly but within an acceptable tolerance, according to the online calculator. We will see when they are fitted.
So I have ordered the 16 x 8 Tuff Torque Modular Steel in Black with an ET of Zero – these have load rating of 1200kg which gives me 48oo kg which is fine for me. I will get 4 to start with as I need to understand weight and whether the spare will work with the read spare wheel carrier. If not I will keep one of the Boost Alloys for the spare, or get something else if I need a greater rolling circumference to match the new wheel tyre combo.
Now, which tyres shall I go for………..
48 States of Gray 