TD Troopy Tyres

I wrote a bit about rims and tyres and my experiences last week in post 33618 Best TYRES for gibber and off road travel? : Member - G N (VIC) look for the Orange machine twice ,I'm sure you will find an answer there
Chuck the old fashioned skinny splits away , get a set of 16"X7 or 16"X8 steel wheels, not Alloy , and fit some B.F Goodridge / Goodyear / Toyo , don't go 15"

Cooper have a 255/85/16 tyre that will fit a 16x7" rim. Worth a look it you want to keep the gearing up. Cheers

My bias is also to get rid of the splits, but there are fiercely divided opinions about this. If you don't go where Davoe loves to go, you'll be fine :-))) Just search the archives to recall any of the fierce "splits vs tubeless" battles.

" Firstly what is the best tyre for the standard 5.5inch split rim"

The 235/85R16 are popular - many to choose from with 10ply (LoadIndex=120). The Goodyear MTR and Silent Armour are popular at present - next week might be something else. They are the same diameter as your 750R16. Some manufacturers let you use them for 5.5 inch rims, others dom't.

"I think the Troopy has plenty of power and could pull bigger diameter wheels."

Definitely correct here. There is nothing bigger that fits on split rims. So if you went for 16x8 rims (100series or sunraysias) the 285/75R16 will go straight on - just need flares as well. If you go for 16x7 rims (sunraysias or 79series mags) then you can get BFG muddies and Cooper ST in 255/85R16. These are both about 30mm greater diameter than your 750R16. Most common option is to fit 265/75R16 as they are a common size, and also the same diameter as your 750R16.

"Would I be better off buying some 6 inch splits from the 100 series to fit 235s."

IMO no significant gain.

" Is it any real advantage to have 235s over 7.50 tyres"

A little better floatation over sand; probably handle a little better, and they commonly come with a higher load index (120 vs 114). But wider tyres will increase fuel consumption.

Also, you'll get more mileage out of all the tubeless tyres mentioned above.

Have fun deciding.

Cheers
Phil

Just returned late last night from another trip through the station country of the northern goldfields region of WA. As I've as said here countless times before, the people who drive off road every single working day run splits. It doesn't appear you will be going off track so it's not really relevant, but I'll throw this in just to balance the splits vs tubeless arguments.

The tyre I was impressed with is and am going to investigate further is the Bridgestone M880 in 7.50 - 16. This is a 14 ply light truck tyre that the Minara work utes run. The station manager runs them on his 79 series and so far has not had a problem. These utes are worked hard and spend a lot of time off tracks. The drill utes have MRF 16 ply's but you can hear them coming before you can the motor.

BHP Billiton up near Wiluna are running the Bridgestone 10 ply V-Steel's. I have a set of these for my 105 series and they are very well behaved on road too. I did manage two flats a month ago so maybe they aren't that great.

The GSWA (Geological Survey of Western Australia) Landcruiser utes see more off road work than anything. They use 14ply Hankook F1's.

Roadgrippers are not good tyres IMO.

Having said all that, I ran a set of Bridgestone Dueler 693's on alloys in 285/75/16's to run them out and didn't have any problems whatsoever. I was expecting some issues to arise, but had a trouble free run. I think these are way too soft for a heavy vehicle.