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To all the off roaders, Skinny Vs Fatties


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I just did :)

Its the combined surface area of the contact patch i.e footprint at any given point in time. Doenst matter if you are moving or stationary or moving that surface area stays the same. 

Now hill climbing is a very specific goal, For that purpose you'll see they use paddle type tyres whose only purpose in life is to propel cars up a dune or a mountain as we see in Moreeb hill climb and Scandinavian formula off road events. Those tyres are pretty much useless at everything else except hill climbing.

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Our company every now and then use to buy Land Cruiser pickups and they came out of the dealership looking like this

4439bbe4-5e05-4652-9c95-27253c73f4b2.jpg

 

With tall skinny tyres and we drove them around like this for sometime until the first 1000 kms service and sometimes well beyond that because they were crucial to our operations and just didnt have the time to leave them at the dealer for a day or two.

Honestly they did not drive too bad with those and pretty capable of taking most of what we threw at them but latter we always upgraded to 275s because we asked a lot from these, loaded up well beyond max capacity and then hit the dunes and trails. We even loaded them to the brim with full 3 day camping gear and supplies for 20 people and hit Liwa, so any increase in footprint and the stability provided by the wider wheelbase was welcomed. 

Personally skinny tyres are alright for light commercial usage where you'll be doing tracks most of the times and not loaded up like a donkey. But for anything else i.e some fun in the sun wider tyres is well worth compromise. but not too wide. I found the best desert performance I got was from Shaheen sand tyres. They have the tread of a 900 sand tyre but are steel belted radials and not too wide and not skinny either with a decent amount of side wall and rounded shoulders so best of both the worlds.

So in conclusion I say both sides of the camp are right in this, And IMO a middle ground will achieve the best results, in my case those were the Shaheens and they did

My Disco and work LC in liwa pics for reference 



 

disco.jpg

LC in Liwa.jpg

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4 hours ago, Barry said:

I’ve heard a few people saying if you use Shaheen tyres on the road you will die. How true is this?

LOOOL ...no not really, if that was the case, I'd be long dead by now. I imagine they have slightly less traction in wet weather but I've driven in wet weather with those, without actually realizing any loss of traction, but then again I'm a very careful and cautious driver who is not into any shinanigans on public roads. 

In dry weather they have very good traction since its softish rubber and the thread pattern is somewhat semi slick type-ish, also very smooth on the roads dude to the same thread pattern, and also because of that they wear very evenly. Also the only tyre I can remember with a AA Temperature rating, good for such hot climate. Very good performance in the desert. Even with high pressure.

They are manufactured by Sumitomo Tyres in Japan ( Same plant as Dunlops ) so quality is not an issue and they are cheap, so really the best tyre IMO for my kind of driving and usage.

If they came in a 19" size I'd probably have them on my Range Rover too :D

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I have tried the 315 on my old patrol, and from what I found that any tire in the 16/17" wheel size above 275 is LT, so they are heavier. This I feel saps power from the engine, also puts more stress on the driveline. 

Another I use my current y61 patrol for dunes and wadi/mountains as far as Oman. Once you leave Dubai/Sharjah/Abu Dhabi to find a replacement in anything above 275 is next to impossible....so you are out in Oman, and have 2 punctures, you can use your spare, if you had the brains to put on the same size tyre, but the 2nd tyre can not be replaced. 

I do believe that a lighter weight is better than an extra 1-2cm width, note that the 285 have an extra few plys on the sidewalls, so one needs to deflate more, which has it's own issues too. with the 275 I am down to 12 in the front and 10 at the back, and then adjust lower if needed after driving for 30 minutes. 

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