My mistake they’re 33/10.5r16. Want to do general off road course nothing too extreme but want her to look more rugged too. I don’t want to get into cutting or go more than 2”lift really
So there is no straight forward answer here.
Stock Disco 1 tyres are more like 28-29" tall. The Land Rover Camel Trophy vehicles ran 7.00 x 16, which is slightly taller and narrow, so it fitted inside the bodywork. But even they had to trim the rear of the rear wheel arch, known as a 'camel cut' if you Google it.
Anything larger will generally require wheel arch trimming, unless it is purely an on road vehicle.
What engine/gearbox have you got? Is it a 3 or 5 door?
Disco's come with taller gearing (in the transfer box) for high range than a same year Defender, but smaller tyres, so overall gearing is similar, although the Disco should cruise better at speed.
As far as suspension goes, also remember the Disco uses almost identical suspension to a Defender. Which means it will actually be very good off road in standard trim. The main differences are the Disco one is a slightly longer wheelbase at 100" vs 92.9" for a Defender 90 and has longer overhangs front and rear. There is simply more bodywork on the Disco and combined with slightly smaller tyres (Defenders normally have 31-32" tall tyres standard), the approach, breakover and departures angles are not as good on the Discovery, but the total suspension travel and flex is the same.
Lifting a vehicle can give the impression of more room for tyres. But this isn't the entire picture. Off road the wheel should go up and down as the suspension flexes. With a good suspension setup the wheel should move back past where it would have been pre-lift. So you could still end up with rubbing or bodywork impact issues.
No there is nothing wrong with lifting a vehicle, but like so many things. There are loads of ways of doing this. Poor setups often involve stiff heavy duty springs. These might give you a lift, but will result in a rough ride on road and stiff non-flexy suspension off road. I've seen many vehicles like this that perform terribly off road, way worse than a standard vehicle.
You also need to consider suspension travel. When you lift a vehicle, you are essentially pushing the wheels down, using up some of your suspension droop. This means when you get off road, you will have less suspension down travel than a standard vehicle, so more prone to lifting wheels off of the ground and getting stopped. If this is combined with stiff HD springs the effect is amplified as the suspension won't want to compress either. There are many ways to get good suspension travel, you could relocate the shock so as to re-balance out the available droop and compression travel or you could fit longer shocks. But you need to know a little about what you are doing and want to achieve, as you may need longer brake lines or revised shock mounts, plus other supporting mods.
And in the case of the front suspension, you might need to actually increase how much travel is available in the rest of the suspension design, outside of the spring and shock.
Other things to consider, taller wheels will give less steering lock, as they will hit the radius arm sooner. Fat tall wheels even more so. Wider offset rims can help, but do remember it is illegal to have tyres sticking out of the wheel arches in the UK. This isn't an MoT thing, it is in the Construction & Use Regulations.
Wide offsets may impact handling and bump steer or cause other strains on other components.
Braking is less effective with taller tyres. Very noticeable if the brakes get hot or if you have been off roading in mud/water.
Your speedo will also show a wrong speed.
Taller tyres increase the overall height, so maybe more lean (certainly with a lift too). And a higher vehicle to get in/out of. And less likely to fit in some car parks.
Gearing may become an issue. A Tdi will feel very sluggish if it isn't tuned for more grunt and power. But it will also run hotter when tuned and pulling big tyres. So it is a balancing act.
Taller tyres impact your crawl speed in Low 1st and in high range you may find pulling away in 1st isn't as good as it was and less good if you plan to tow.
On that note, lifting a vehicle with tall tyres can raise your tow hitch too high to tow many things unless you fit a drop plate.
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying don't do any of this. There is no "right" way of doing it. But there are lots of bad ways of doing it.
I'd say you need some fairly serious mods to realistically run 33's on a Disco. And I think you'll still end up hitting the bodywork and needing to trim it with 235/85R16's.
This is my old Disco 1 200Tdi it is riding on 33.11.50R15 tyres, although they were tall for a 33.
Amazingly it is on stock suspension. Although the engine was modded for more power.
But the wheel arches have been very heavily trimmed (a one way mod, as you can't stick them back on!). Best part of 6-8" trimmed on the rears. It was also a 3 door, a 5 door tends to have less room on the front of the rear arch.
When I had this, I used to trial with someone who had a 2" lifted Disco 1 on 235/85R16's. There still rubbed and hit the body work and didn't actually flex as well off road as the standard suspension.
I did break a diff with these tyres too. The Rover axles are not the strongest and with the heavier Disco (vs a Defender) you are more likely to break diffs or halfshafts off road.
