Suzuki Club UK

Looking for some winter tyres for a LWB SJ that will be better than muds on snow and ice. Current tyres are 215 75 15 , anybody got some suggestions on perhaps a more readily available size as that size doesn't have a great choice of AT types , I,m running 235 60 16 on my Gv and there maxxis AT and seem great but never been able to get my head around this tyre size thing .
your thoughts would be appreciated
Regards Ian

Can I ask which Maxxis ATs you have and a quick review. I am considering some for our GV for the winter.


EDIT

Cancel that review.

Went to pick up some rims to put some tyres on tonight and the seller had neglected to tell me they already had 235/70r16 All Terrain tyres on them!

Dan - result!

Anton wrote:Dan - result!

Oh yes.

Hi Dan , just for the record , I haven't tried the Maxxis tyres in anger yet as still getting round to painting the rims etc and moving house etc but the type is At 771 and can be found on the tyresdirect website , they are pretty aggressive for an At and most importantly about £20 cheaper each delivered than my next favourite AT which is the General Grabber AT2 which is awesome on snow and ice and very decent in very deep mud as I used them at the mammouth recovery at the IOW festival a couple of years back !
Think they were coming out at 87 each on tyres direct .
just as a note my GV has the wide spoked alloys and runs 235 60 16 tyres so slighty different to what you got as a bonus , and I would be keen to know if you have any rubbing issues or contact as I believe they may be slightly taller than mine .
Regards Ian

Yes they are slightly taller. I'm hoping it improves the motorway cruising efficiency a little. As soon as the Mrs gets back with the car I am going out to take some GPS speed vs RPM readings then fitting them.

Will let you know.

Thanx Dan , it would be interesting also if theres any rubbing or contact . Is your GV a 2.0 or 2.5v6 ?

Here are the results of the fitting.


Before




After




There is a very very slight rub at full lock. Its dark so I haven't investigated yet but it sounds like its just a flimsy bit of plastic.

They have changed the gearing nicely. May not be good for towing but we don't tow so that's not a problem.

Ride is slightly improved by the higher sidewall but probably at a slight cost in cornering but its not really meant for hooning it round tarmac corners anyway.

Feels a little more like a 4x4 and a little less like an estate car. Surprisingly the slight increase in ride height was actually noticeable from inside the cabin.

Here are the all important stats. All measured by eye from the dash and GPS on a phone so not going to brilliantly accurate.


235/60/16s

GPS 70mph --- Dash 73-74mph --- 3.5k rpm

Dash 70mph --- GPS 68-69mph --- 3.4k rpm

235/70/16s

GPS 70mph --- Dash 68-69 --- 3.3k rpm

Dash 70mph --- GPS 71-72mph --- 3.4k rpm


So to achieve the same speed of a GPS 70mph it drops the rpm from 3,500 rpm to 3,300 rpm. Loads quieter, less work for the engine, and hopefulyl save a little fuel although that will probably be negated by the extra rolling resistance of the tyres being ATs.

Main plus point --- The way it looks, So glad to be rid of those steels!!

I did a speedo check when I went from 215 to 29". Hardly any difference at all, about 1.5mph out on the speedometer at 70mph.

Did you check how far under it was to start with. I kind of can't believe the results given the small change but that's what I measured.

Obviously all tyres measure up differently so difference could be bigger than it looks on paper.