The Quest for the Ideal Tire Size : Wide vs Skinny

[SuhaibKiani]

I believe it was Parapilot who pointed out this thought provoking article on Wide vs Skinny tires : Expeditions West: Tire Selection for Expedition Travel .........

Some of you probably have seen this boggling discussion on the IHMud forum on the topic where the author of the above article about defends his "skinny wins" conclusion : Wide vs. Skinny

Personally, given a broad spectrum, I sit on the somewhat wide-ish side of the fence. That probably has more to do with the fact that 90% of my 4x4 driving time is essentially highway, on 5% I would rather not make it across the obstacle rather than risk a roll-over and for the remaining 5% , I'd rather live with the shortcomings....

I do recognize that this may be too broad a discussion to really proove fruitful however, would be interesting to know what the experts and gurus feel on the matter given local conditions and terrain requirements.

[Sarosh_Ather]

skinny tires do look odd but for all time offroading they`re good but in terms of daily driven or normally on a long route wider 1s are helpful as the skinny ones add to risk usually of a roll-over!

[Janj]

Things You'll Need:

• Understanding of your driving habits

//youtu.be/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmo_dkNZIHM

Ideal Tire Size

GVWR
This is the Gross Vehicle Weight Rating. This information is required to be on the vehicle's door placard. The load capacity of the total number of wheels on the vehicle combined must meet or exceed the vehicle's GVWR.

SK it all depends upon individual driving habits, the best tire size weather skinny or wide is (OEM) recomended by manufacturer i guess. Once you remove the OEM tires the drive of any vehicle totally change including power steering response;)

[nomi1234]

can we get skinny MT's here?

[GlobeTrotter]

Good luck finding ANY decent MTs

[akifjanjua]

Skinny for my BJ40.. 7.50R16 tall and slim.. I need 16x6 steel rims.. will paint them white

[SuhaibKiani]

Skinny for my BJ40.. 7.50R16 tall and slim.. I need 16x6 steel rims.. will paint them white

I think Janj's view that a lot depends on driving style holds a lot of weight. Personally, I don't think I would be very comfortable driving a BJ40 on skinny tires....

After reading the article my impression was that 33x12.5 was probably the worst tire you could put on a 4x4. As I understand that is pretty much the size on Salman's FJ40, and I think you need that to do the sort of stuff he does with it....

As I understand, the FJ40 icon runs something like a 33x10.5x16 which is probably a good size on an FJ40 with a high powered v8 engine..... though I think the race spec Baja Edition Icon runs on 35s.

[iLLDuDe786]

you tell me, do you like wide or skinny maal?
i'll take wide

[aisheikh]

Good post and article!

[sami_voodoo]

I believe it was Parapilot who pointed out this thought provoking article on Wide vs Skinny tires : Expeditions West: Tire Selection for Expedition Travel .........

Some of you probably have seen this boggling discussion on the IHMud forum on the topic where the author of the above article about defends his "skinny wins" conclusion : Wide vs. Skinny

Personally, given a broad spectrum, I sit on the somewhat wide-ish side of the fence. That probably has more to do with the fact that 90% of my 4x4 driving time is essentially highway, on 5% I would rather not make it across the obstacle rather than risk a roll-over and for the remaining 5% , I'd rather live with the shortcomings....

I do recognize that this may be too broad a discussion to really proove fruitful however, would be interesting to know what the experts and gurus feel on the matter given local conditions and terrain requirements.

I've always been an advocate of narrow tires, primarily due to the "bite" they afford. Then it's down to the tire tread and compound to "hold on" to the surface. I seemed to remember that the Dakar racers were running relatively narrow tires for the type of terrain they were running on. Here's a spec sheet for the 2004 Mitsubishi Pajero Evolution:

2004 Mitsubishi Pajero Evolution

It's 1825 kg and runs a 235/85R16. Seeing that it runs primarily on sandy terrain, it would seem to be somewhat against the norm that Mitsubishi would specify a relatively narrow tire. But they're not alone. Most of the Rally Raid vehicles that fall into the 1800-2000 kgs range run 235s. Here's another from the Latvian OSC Race Car Engineering:

OSCar O3 Specification

They too run the same tire size.

All this would go out the window of course if you're thinking of attacking really soft powder snow or sand. Not sure if a tire with "bite" would be best thing to go for in those conditions.

[aark30]

well the topic is good and i would like to share my experience..well i face problems with wider mts the problem is when it gets in to a ditch or track the side walls are than very vulnerable to stones or wood stick and i get most of puncture from the sides no doubt they are good for the grip on the road but these are the problem i faced all the time .....As far as skinny is concern not to skiny but mid range with higher side wall i am happy it, it does not get puncture the good thing is you are relax . well you cant have do mazay in aik teer ..

[aark30]

or i would say any tire with straight side wall would be good ...... tires with side wall like tummy dint make it in my terrain :(........

[baburawan]

well the topic is good and i would like to share my experience..well i face problems with wider mts the problem is when it gets in to a ditch or track the side walls are than very vernable to stones or wood stick and i get most of punchers from the sides no doubt they are good for the grip on the road but these are the problem i faced all the time .....As far as skiny is concern not to skiny but mid range with higher side wall i am happy it dose not get puncher the good thing is you are relax . well you cant have do mazay in aik teer ..

Agreed 100%

[spiderman]

Great thread SK. in pakistan problem is finding a good set of tires in the first place. the brand, width and other choices comes afterwards.

In my experience skinny on a light weight vehicle with decent power did very good.

[ehalin]

Old school cross ply tires with tubes are the best bet in such situations. They have hard side walls hence less vulnerable. But overall I would prefer moderately skinny tires over wider ones. Manufacturers recommended size is the best bet probably.

well the topic is good and i would like to share my experience..well i face problems with wider mts the problem is when it gets in to a ditch or track the side walls are than very vulnerable to stones or wood stick and i get most of puncture from the sides no doubt they are good for the grip on the road but these are the problem i faced all the time .....As far as skinny is concern not to skiny but mid range with higher side wall i am happy it, it does not get puncture the good thing is you are relax . well you cant have do mazay in aik teer ..