33" tyres too big?

cuschieri.jonathan@gmail. said:

Hi, thinking of getting a set of 255/85r16 for my 88" series 3 (2.23 Diesel). Considering that this is my daily driver with regular offroad use, how does the engine cope with this? Should I expect less MPGs? And how's steering? Thanks in advance!

Click to expand...

What is your intended use and what rims and other mods do you have?

The 2.25 diesel is likely to lack power on and off road for such a tall tyre. A 255 is also too wide for standard Series wheels.

If you have suspension flex you may find they will want rub in a few places. To maintain steering you will need wheel spacers or offset rims. But don’t go too wide or the tyres will stick out of the arches. Which in the U.K. would be illegal.

No real reason you can’t run this size. But there is very limited choice of tyres sadly. So really comes back to your intended use. If you need an aggressive MT then a smaller tyre in a more appropriate tread might be a better answer.

For reference I used to run some XZl’s in 8.25 x 16. Which is the size up from a 7.50. They are slightly taller than a 255 and slightly narrower.



But I had a 200Tdi and p38 based power steering. Plus lots of suspension mods. I didn’t have the sill finishers and I had to trim a tiny slither off the front of the rear arch.

The 109 One Ton used to come with 9.00 x 16 tyres as standard. Which are the size up again. The One Ton did use a stronger rear axle, but the same front. And you can swap on the Salisbury rear axle to an 88 if you want too.

dag019 said:

I have to say for daily use I agree with the above, I just 7.50's on my series 3 but it was a noticeable change from the 205's which were on it. although It manages with them it is slower to accelerate, and i am changing out of the overdrive more often for hills.
although as @300bhp/ton states you could get 9.00 these were fitted tot he military land rovers which had a differetn suspension setup with longer shackles and lowered spring mounts. I have never driven one but I expect the gearing to also be fairly tall but the military at the time were less bothered with acceleration and top speed than they are all terrain capability.

Click to expand...

The 1 tons also had a lower ratio transfer box and steering box

300bhp/ton said:

What is your intended use and what rims and other mods do you have?

The 2.25 diesel is likely to lack power on and off road for such a tall tyre. A 255 is also too wide for standard Series wheels.

If you have suspension flex you may find they will want rub in a few places. To maintain steering you will need wheel spacers or offset rims. But don’t go too wide or the tyres will stick out of the arches. Which in the U.K. would be illegal.

No real reason you can’t run this size. But there is very limited choice of tyres sadly. So really comes back to your intended use. If you need an aggressive MT then a smaller tyre in a more appropriate tread might be a better answer.

For reference I used to run some XZl’s in 8.25 x 16. Which is the size up from a 7.50. They are slightly taller than a 255 and slightly narrower.

View attachment 323644

But I had a 200Tdi and p38 based power steering. Plus lots of suspension mods. I didn’t have the sill finishers and I had to trim a tiny slither off the front of the rear arch.

The 109 One Ton used to come with 9.00 x 16 tyres as standard. Which are the size up again. The One Ton did use a stronger rear axle, but the same front. And you can swap on the Salisbury rear axle to an 88 if you want too.

Click to expand...

First of all, that looks awesome, please let me know what other mods you have.

With regards to mine, I just have a set of parabolics. I also got a set of 109 rims to use.

With my old 7.50s on 88" rims, they used to rub a little on the inside arch at full flex. However, the 109 rims seemed to solve this.
I'm guessing with the 225/95s on 109 rims I'll more or less be in the same scenario (Which I don't mind). In any case, if this'll be an issue I can always fabricate longer shackles or spacers.

Steering wise I'm not too worried, turning radius is horrible anyway and besides it shouldn't make a huge difference. The 225s should also be pretty easy to turn.

That being said, my main concern is now the gearing. Being a fully stock drive train and no OD, on 7.50 it does feel rather under geared in my opinion. Since I drive most hills in 3rd or 2nd anyway (which is very undergeard but the only gear it'll take), I think on the same gears, the 33s will have the engine running at less rpm maybe?

I don't really care about acceleration, I don't plan on racing any time soon. But on flat ground in 4th I think the engine will be happier at slightly less rpm to maintain 60-70kph.

cuschieri.jonathan@gmail. said:

First of all, that looks awesome, please let me know what other mods you have.

With regards to mine, I just have a set of parabolics. I also got a set of 109 rims to use.

With my old 7.50s on 88" rims, they used to rub a little on the inside arch at full flex. However, the 109 rims seemed to solve this.
I'm guessing with the 225/95s on 109 rims I'll more or less be in the same scenario (Which I don't mind). In any case, if this'll be an issue I can always fabricate longer shackles or spacers.

Steering wise I'm not too worried, turning radius is horrible anyway and besides it shouldn't make a huge difference. The 225s should also be pretty easy to turn.

That being said, my main concern is now the gearing. Being a fully stock drive train and no OD, on 7.50 it does feel rather under geared in my opinion. Since I drive most hills in 3rd or 2nd anyway (which is very undergeard but the only gear it'll take), I think on the same gears, the 33s will have the engine running at less rpm maybe?

I don't really care about acceleration, I don't plan on racing any time soon. But on flat ground in 4th I think the engine will be happier at slightly less rpm to maintain 60-70kph.

Click to expand...

If I may also add, this is my daily driver that I take offroad as much as I can. So I'd be also interested to hear about the low range performance...

Swb half shafts are prone to failure. And work harden.

Dorset_dumpling said:

Go on then, please enlighten us with your wisdom.

Click to expand...

See my post above….

cuschieri.jonathan@gmail. said:

First of all, that looks awesome, please let me know what other mods you have.

With regards to mine, I just have a set of parabolics. I also got a set of 109 rims to use.

With my old 7.50s on 88" rims, they used to rub a little on the inside arch at full flex. However, the 109 rims seemed to solve this.
I'm guessing with the 225/95s on 109 rims I'll more or less be in the same scenario (Which I don't mind). In any case, if this'll be an issue I can always fabricate longer shackles or spacers.

Steering wise I'm not too worried, turning radius is horrible anyway and besides it shouldn't make a huge difference. The 225s should also be pretty easy to turn.

That being said, my main concern is now the gearing. Being a fully stock drive train and no OD, on 7.50 it does feel rather under geared in my opinion. Since I drive most hills in 3rd or 2nd anyway (which is very undergeard but the only gear it'll take), I think on the same gears, the 33s will have the engine running at less rpm maybe?

I don't really care about acceleration, I don't plan on racing any time soon. But on flat ground in 4th I think the engine will be happier at slightly less rpm to maintain 60-70kph.

Click to expand...

Thanks. Full build thread here: https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/200tdi-s3-88-pas-long-travel-suspension-rebuild.298104/

I assume you aren’t U.K. based? Those 225/95 tyres look interesting. But getting hardly any search results back on them.

I too am a fan of tall skinny tyres. I have some very aggressive remould mud terrains in 7.00 x 16 that I use for competition. They are narrow and measure about the same height as a normal 7.50 x 16.

Tbh I think you’ll be fine with either tyre you mention in terms of size and fitment. The biggest limitation is lack of power with the diesel engine. On road and off. I tried my 33.10.50R15’s on a 2.5 TD (19J) Ninety and it knocked performance back quite a bit. No Turbo and 22 less bhp and you feel this imo in a Series.

Rim wise. I used some 8 spokes. But have also run One Ton rims. I think a 255/85 wants a 6.5”
Rim so not sure a standard 109 will cut it. I also used to run 30mm spacers on the front axle as it gave much better steering lock. The bigger diameter will mean it’ll hit the spring sooner. Also a taller tyre has a bigger contact patch, due to being longer. So I’d expect steering effort to increase.

I don’t think halfshafts will really be much of an issue. But depends how you drive. The 4.7
Diffs are also a weak point. I fitted 3.54 diffs to mine. But the Tdi easily pulled the gearing. I would have liked a lower 1st off road though and was planning on changing back to a 4.7 or similar. Lots of axle upgrades but can get pricey.

cuschieri.jonathan@gmail. said:

That being said, my main concern is now the gearing. Being a fully stock drive train and no OD, on 7.50 it does feel rather under geared in my opinion. Since I drive most hills in 3rd or 2nd anyway (which is very undergeard but the only gear it'll take), I think on the same gears, the 33s will have the engine running at less rpm maybe?

Click to expand...

300bhp/ton said:

Tbh I think you’ll be fine with either tyre you mention in terms of size and fitment. The biggest limitation is lack of power with the diesel engine. On road and off. I tried my 33.10.50R15’s on a 2.5 TD (19J) Ninety and it knocked performance back quite a bit. No Turbo and 22 less bhp and you feel this imo in a Series.

Click to expand...

The gearing is only one aspect of the problem as mentioned above by @300bhp/ton you also need the power to pull that gearing. I have an OD on my diesel and run 7.50's. The gearing is spot on in terms of cruising speed vs rpm, however the engine does not really have the power to get up to speed and hold it on anything other than flat ground. This means that on motorway hills you are changing out of the OD and on country roads you are often in 3/4th and not using the overdrive at all with the larger diameter tyres. When I ran 205's I was able to hold the OD much longer but for the same speed the revs were higher than I would have liked when cruising.

If you increase the gearing (fitting larger tyres) you will require more power to maintain the same performance, or with the same power, performance will drop.