Hello everyone,
I hope this is the right place to get some solid advice on the right rims and tyres for my 2008 RR L322.
I recently imported my RR from the UK to Kenya, and it came with 22' rims and SUNITRAC 285/35R22 tyres. They looked great (if somewhat 'pimp-ish') but they are obviously not made for the roads here in Kenya.
I took it on a off-road drive to a safari, and got 3 flat tyres (yes, 3. That was a fun day.). Took it on a Nairobi Mombasa drive (1000km round trip) on 'highways' - and it got another flat. I should perhaps explain that the roads here are REALLY bad. Off-road is basically like driving on sharp stones. The so-called highways will have patches where you can drive OK up to 120km/hour, but with sudden craters, and lots of sharp holes in the road. In case you want to get a visual, here are a couple of of videos (link 1 - off-road on the way to the Maasai Mara, link 2 - holes in 'highway' just outside Nairobi)
I've tried to find info here and elsewhere on which rim size would work best for my conditions (e.g. here, here, here here etc.). It seems that the smaller the rim, the better the RR would handle itself off-road and on bad roads? In Kenya, folks tend to recommend 20' (not sure why), but I think I'd prefer 19' (or even 18' - but that seems a bit more difficult to get solid info on, and not the default size intended for this vehicle).
So my first question is: Which 19' rims (or 18' rims if you think that is better and can explain why) should I get? Ideally a link and/or part number would be appreciated. I will be in the UK in a couple of weeks, and would prefer UK sources / links so I can have it delivered to my hotel and bring it with me on the plane (I have lots of luggage allowance - up to 5 pieces of 23kg each).
My second question is which tyres you think are best suited to the poor roads in Kenya. I should say that 80% of the time the car is used in town, on (more or less) decent roads, but 20% of the time on poor roads as in the videos above - so the tyres should be able to handle both. As additional info, I might add that it never snows here, and it doesn't get very cold, but it does rain from time to time. Apologies if this seems obvious / unnecessary to explain, but I'm assuming some folks won't have a lot of first hand knowledge of Kenya, and conditions here are VERY different than US/Europe/Australia.
So far, based on forum posts and other online research, I've narrowed down to the following 3 options:
1. GOODYEAR 255/55R19 111S WRANGLER DURATRAC (link) : The one that seems to be the best fit based on what I've read and how it looks.
2. COOPER 255/55R19 111V ZEON 4XS (link): The one recommended by a local garage
3. PIRELLI 255/55R19 111V SCORPION ZERO (link): The easiest tyre to source locally
Am open to other suggestions as well. If you advocate for 18' rims, then if you can recommend suitable tyres to go with those, it would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance for any advice!
Best wishes
Iddo
I hope this is the right place to get some solid advice on the right rims and tyres for my 2008 RR L322.
I recently imported my RR from the UK to Kenya, and it came with 22' rims and SUNITRAC 285/35R22 tyres. They looked great (if somewhat 'pimp-ish') but they are obviously not made for the roads here in Kenya.
I took it on a off-road drive to a safari, and got 3 flat tyres (yes, 3. That was a fun day.). Took it on a Nairobi Mombasa drive (1000km round trip) on 'highways' - and it got another flat. I should perhaps explain that the roads here are REALLY bad. Off-road is basically like driving on sharp stones. The so-called highways will have patches where you can drive OK up to 120km/hour, but with sudden craters, and lots of sharp holes in the road. In case you want to get a visual, here are a couple of of videos (link 1 - off-road on the way to the Maasai Mara, link 2 - holes in 'highway' just outside Nairobi)
I've tried to find info here and elsewhere on which rim size would work best for my conditions (e.g. here, here, here here etc.). It seems that the smaller the rim, the better the RR would handle itself off-road and on bad roads? In Kenya, folks tend to recommend 20' (not sure why), but I think I'd prefer 19' (or even 18' - but that seems a bit more difficult to get solid info on, and not the default size intended for this vehicle).
So my first question is: Which 19' rims (or 18' rims if you think that is better and can explain why) should I get? Ideally a link and/or part number would be appreciated. I will be in the UK in a couple of weeks, and would prefer UK sources / links so I can have it delivered to my hotel and bring it with me on the plane (I have lots of luggage allowance - up to 5 pieces of 23kg each).
My second question is which tyres you think are best suited to the poor roads in Kenya. I should say that 80% of the time the car is used in town, on (more or less) decent roads, but 20% of the time on poor roads as in the videos above - so the tyres should be able to handle both. As additional info, I might add that it never snows here, and it doesn't get very cold, but it does rain from time to time. Apologies if this seems obvious / unnecessary to explain, but I'm assuming some folks won't have a lot of first hand knowledge of Kenya, and conditions here are VERY different than US/Europe/Australia.
So far, based on forum posts and other online research, I've narrowed down to the following 3 options:
1. GOODYEAR 255/55R19 111S WRANGLER DURATRAC (link) : The one that seems to be the best fit based on what I've read and how it looks.
2. COOPER 255/55R19 111V ZEON 4XS (link): The one recommended by a local garage
3. PIRELLI 255/55R19 111V SCORPION ZERO (link): The easiest tyre to source locally
Am open to other suggestions as well. If you advocate for 18' rims, then if you can recommend suitable tyres to go with those, it would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance for any advice!
Best wishes
Iddo
