Rim width when considering new tyre purchase

Sorry for the oversight - but if it makes a difference it's a SWB....

OOPs it's late!....of course when I said rim diameter I meant rim width... :(

Firstly is your suspension standard, if so 32's are the best you will get without a lift.

You also should check the legalities of size requirements in your state, some require engineers certificates for larger tires.

But... you can fit 35's on a Mav SWB! Just need a bit of a lift and trim of the guards!!!

32's are not a big tire for a GQ/Mav at all, Im running 33's MTRs but would like 35's. But mines lifted a little(6in suspension and 35mm body)

Mate is running 33 MTR's with 2inch suspension lift, and no body lift on his GQ LWB

32's and up I would run on 8inch rims, 15x8 Sunnys are $50each, cheap as chips in my books.

You just have to run Flexy Flairs or you will smash the million $ Genuine Nissan ones..

Come join the GQ list!
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/Nissan_GQ_Patrol/

YMMV

http://www.gqpatrol.com/

gday luke.
in my opinion i would just fit the 31x10.5x15 cooper st to standard 7inch rim as truckster said there only $50.
im now on my second set of s/t and unless you plan on going full on off road/rock climbing i wouldnt hesitate with s/t
ive been in some wicked mud and steep rocky tracks and havnt let me down(yet).
the other advantage of the s/t is you only need one set of tyres.
looking foward to september(landcruiser park/fraser island)

Hi Luke,

I just bought new tyres for my '90 Mav. I ended up getting the 32' Goodyear MT/R's instead of the 33's due to the legal implications. I wanted to get tyres with the largest overall diameter and still keep the vehicle legal.
I have a 2 inch suspension lift and no problems at all. I run them on a set of cheap 15x8 ROH Track II steel rims at $50 a pop and have also fitted flares (duraflare).

I thought I might also share some of the background why I fitted 32's instead of 33's...

My main concern was trying to keep the vehicle legal because insurance requires that the vehicle complies with the laws of the state the vehicle is registered in. I live in Victoria and the vicroads guidelines make certain statements (as do most states I believe) about tyre sizes. My insurance company says I can have any mods I like as long as the vehicle is legal. This appears to be a reasonable position fo the insurance company to take.

I looked into what tyres are available for the GQ/Mav but trying to get a straight answer from anyone was hard. The insurance company refers you to vicroads, vicroads refers you to the manufacturer. Tyre companies just want to sell the largest/biggest/most profitable tyre.

I also looked into obtaining an engineers report for running larger tyres and I spoke with a number of engineers (including Kevin Williams as recomended by Truckster). They all said a minumum of $500-$700 and the costs would increase from there based on anything that they believe is unsatisfactory. Only two engineers would even consider the tyre size increase (one of these was Kevin). The others would never return my calls or just told me that vicroads only allows up to 15mm increase over standard. The price for an engineers certificate was alot more than what people have reported on this site. I questioned them on their fees and mentioned that they had been recommended to me but they were quite adament about their fees. Kevin actually seemedbleepthat someone had quoted figures far below what he was wanting to charge. None of the engineers could tell me what was the largest legal size for a GQ/Mav, other than "whatever the placard says".

From all reports there is still some slight rubbing at extremes of suspension travel when running 33 inch tyres, (without a body lift) so I couldn't be confident that any engineer would find that acceptable. The gearing issue when running larger tyres was also a concern. You gain clearance with larger tyres but loose crawling ability unless expensive replacement gears or different diff ratios are fitted.

I tried the technical department at Ford but they knew almost nothing about the Maverick. They couldn't tell me what size tyres the vehicle came out with, but they could tell me the track width (from an old brochure I presume)

After talking to Nissan a few times (the amount of info you get depends on who you speak to) I was able to determine the tyre sizes available for the GQ. The people at Nissan told me that Ford have walked away from supporting the Maverick and more or less want to pretend it never happened. In fact the Nissan folks guaranteed that I would not be able to get technical or ADR (Austrailan Design Rule) information from Ford. The interesting factiod was that Ford ordered and purchased the vehicles directly from Nissan in Japan and therfore had different spec's and ADR's. All technical concerns regarding the Maverick ultimately come back to Nissan Australia (according to the technical person I spoke to at Nissan) so the effective ADR's for the Maverick appear to be the ones that apply to the GQ.

I am not a lawyer so you need to make your own decisions.

I found out that the GQ had ADR's for the following tyre/wheel sizes:

6x16 in a 215
7x15 in a 10R15 (31 inch tyre I believe)
8x16 in 265/70 (tyre placard part #99090VB000A)
8x16 in 235/80
8x16 in 235/85 (tyre pacard part #9909035J04A)

The overall diameter of the 235/85R16 is the largest of all the tyres and is around 806 mm.
The VicRoads website allows 15 mm above that as the maximum overall diameter of the tyre.

A 32 inch tyre is around 813mm overall diameter and therefore should be legal on a GQ.
A 33 inch tyre is around 838mm overall diameter and therefore not legal unless engineered at what seems to be a lot of money for such a little gain.

I figured if I need to go big, then theres a lot more to be done to do it properly and then you would go to 35's and above... and get the vehicle with all mods engineered in one go.

Cheers...Andrew

Interesting read. Having succeded in getting the ANFWDC via TCIS to be a bit more competitive with insurance, maybe it is time to press the ANFWDC and their state subsiduaries to get a few "Engineers" on board at reasonable costs for the members of 4WD clubs to certify common mods such as larger tyres/spring lifts/body lifts, or organize "Group Certification Days" where 2-3 Engineers are employed for a W/E and vehicles can have mods certified, drive-in drive-out.

Hi Luke, I have '92 Mav which came with steel 16 inch 6JJ rims from new and I still use them with BFG/AT LT235/85/R16 tyres. Orig. tyre was 215/80/R16. Have found the BFG'S in this size to be capable of any place we've taken our car off road. Cheers DRC.

Hey everybody!

Thanks very much for the lengthy, and very informative replies!

I've just sold my 2.8lt GU Patrol in favour of the Maverick SWB after having too many fond memories of fun times in my MQ SWB.

This tyre business sure is a science :-) I've been using BFG MT's at LT285/75/R16 on the GU and had BFG MT 31x10.5 R15's on the MQ.

The performance of the BFG MT's has been great on both sets but I've noticed durability issues on the newer ones on the GU. More predominant puncturing and lots of cuts and chops out of the tread.

Anyway after reading here for a while people seem to be happy with the Cooper stable at the moment - I guess the really bit toss - up is the S/T's or the STT's?

Either way I'll be buying sunnies at $50 a pop to put them on so the tyres will only go on when going away and I'll run a road set on the original 15x7" rims.

It seems that the 8" rim width seems to be the most popular for the sort of tyre we're talking about - is there any benefit over a thinner rim than a wider rim or vice-versa?

...many thanks,

Luke.