Hello, not a new topic, but perhaps slightly different questions then I've seen or can find answers to.

I'd love to get some feedback from anyone who has been running 275/60R20 tires (or close) and spent a good amount of time off road - on off road trails, forest roads and the like. I come from where some of us probably did, off roading vehicles with 16"/17" rims with bigger sidewall heights. My new D110 due in Jan has 20" wheels on it and I've always been planning to get 18" wheels and go that route, but I really do like the look of this size tire on 20's, and could spend the significant wheel money on any other number of "necessary" mods. There are a lot of pictures of this size combo on the Johnson Rod sticky thread.

I do plan to overland and off road this truck a lot, both local trails and longer trips in the US that will obviously be a mix of road trip and off roading. I don't "rock crawl" but as anyone who runs trails knows you will run upon rock crawling situations on many moderate to difficult trails, never mind the many trails with loose jagged rock and debris.

Have you had any issues running trails, rocky trails, etc with this tire/wheel size? Cut / blown tires, wheel damage?

Do you air down with this size?
I always have aired down with 16's and 17's. I've run some trails recently with other new defender owners with 19" and 20" wheels and they never air down, they haven't had any issues running some fairly aggressive stuff.
My understanding is that you don't want to air down these bigger wheel tires as it would put the wheel closer to the ground and the tire would lose strength. Accurate?

How is the ride with 1.5" lift rods (or 2")? Is the ride much stiffer then stock height, or is the difference negligible?

Are you running an E load rating / higher ply tire?

18" vs 20" info I've been looking at:
275/70/18 seems to be a common size that fits without modifications and gives you a 33" tire with approx. 7.5" of sidewall. Running 275/60/20 is a 33" tire with approx. 6.5" sidewall. Doesn't seem like a major difference, approx 1" less sidewall on the 20" vs the 18" (for these sized tires). For comparison my current main overlanding rig is a 5th Gen Toyota 4 runner with 285 70 R17's and that has 7.9" of sidewall. I also see that there is aLT 265 65 R20 available in tons of brands and models. It gains you about .5" more of sidewall from 6.5" vs 7.0", but they are about $100 more per tire!

275/60R20
Diameter : 33.0"
Width : 10.8"
Wheel : 20" x 7.5-9.5"
Sidewall : 6.5"
Circum. : 103.6"
Revs/Mile : 612

275/70R18
Diameter : 33.2"
Width : 10.8"
Wheel : 18" x 7-9"
(LT Tires 7-8.5")
Sidewall : 7.6"
Circum. : 104.1"
Revs/Mile : 609

I appreciate that there will a large number of people that will automatically say run 18's for off roading, but I'd really love any feedback from people running the 20's and what their experience has been and what they've been able to do or not do with them. Appreciate any info! Thanks, Mike

 

These threads are probably a good place to look to prompt specific questions to specific persons or to clarify your need for more information. THE FIRST AND THE LAST THREAD WILL ADDRESS YOUR CURRENT QUESTION MOST DIRECTLY:

https://landroverforums.com/forum/20...-tires-106496/

https://landroverforums.com/forum/20...yo-at3-110931/

https://landroverforums.com/forum/20...ratrac-104454/

https://landroverforums.com/forum/20...em-all-107719/

https://landroverforums.com/forum/20...-107368/page2/

Enjoy!

 

Thank you for the links, I hadn’t seen all of those. Hopefully I’ll get additional feedback from those running 20’s off road and on ride comfort when using lift rods.

 

I think I was the first to fit BFG KO2's in 275/60R20 to a completely otherwise stock Defender, and subsequently leave them on because they don't rub (or if they do, I cannot tell at all). The caveat is that I have a coil-sprung vehicle, not the air-bagged suspension. I don't have to work around the access height clearances.

Here are my observations, having off-roaded my D90 pretty extensively:

• I have off roaded my D90 in Ohio, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and the sand hills of Halsey State Forest in Nebraska.
• I have never aired down once, even when I was running the stock Wrangler Adventure AT's in 255/60R20. Those gave me an uneasy feeling on sharper rocks, for obvious reasons.
• The 33" diameter of the 275/60's makes a massive difference on mild obstacles. The added tire width is not noticeable off road to me.
• The stronger sidewalls on the BFG products are noticeable and add peace of mind when off road.
• I did collect a Phillips-head screw in one of my KO2's after a few weeks, and had a very slow leak. At first I chalked up the low pressure to cold temps (its was -8° here that day I noticed it), so I refilled the tire from 17 psi back up to near 50. I was surprised at how the tire looked at only 17 psi. I would have guessed it to be closer to 30 psi visually, not 17. Stronger sidewalls, I guess.
• The KO2's are incredible tires off road and in the snow in particular. I was sort of one of those that tried other AT tires on other vehicles because I knew so many people that had KO2's on Wranglers, Raptors, etc., and they were boring and a known commodity for me.
  • You must understand that Nitto does such an incredible marketing and PR job giving free tires to influencer-types, Falken does the same. Milestar does the same with Matt's Off Road recovery.
  • For me, Falken Wildpeak AT3W's are the only tires close to matching the KO2's performance off and on-road. They're really great too.
• I have taken my 275 KO2's both up and down some very steep gravel, loose dirt and rocky roads here in Ohio. The hill descent control is amazing with the Defender on KO2's, and those tires just grip and move the car uphill in snow, almost no matter what. Really impressive, and others here have noted the same. I'm sure there's a limit, but I'm not stupid enough to have found that limit yet.

Anyway, the 275's are worth it, and I'll never go back.
​​

 

And pics, for proof:

 

As you seen from the links listed above, 265/70R18 will fit. Be careful with the 275/70R18 - these may fit when selecting a wheel with an appropriate offset otherwise they will require a lift. For example, the popular 18" TuffAnt with a 29 offset will rub with the larger tire.

An extra inch of sidewall is a lot and will have noticeably different trail characteristics. I've cut my sidewall while aired down to 26 lb on 19"s. Maybe it was just bad luck, but it made my decision to go to 18's easy. Haven't had a problem (yet) on 18"s.

 

So, did you run all these trails without airing down and at around 50psi? How was the comfort experience in the cab? Did you face any washboard roads?

 

I can chime in. Stock 20" wheels with a 1.5" rod lift on 275-60-20 BFG KO2 tires, ie 33" tires here. I've started airing down to 20-22 PSI on all 4.

Here's the logic:

• I run these KO2's 40 to 42 PSI normally on road on light load setting. Which btw is much more comfortable than running them at 50 on road or off road. 50 is simply too harsh.
• First snow trail run I didn't air down ... Then I stopped, aired down to 32 or so, much better. This felt overly conservative so made a note to air down further on my next run. Again this was all snow trails, minimal rocks etc.
• Next run, aired down to 25 or 26. On same snow. Fine, no issues. Bit better. Wondering if I can go further.
• Then I went to a winching/recovery/rigging skills course w/ an offroad guru in Bend OR, and he said... when you have modern vehicle/larger wheels with high pressure recommendations (like our Defenders), his experience and reco is that you should start by airing down to 50% of your onroad pressure. IDK, makes sense? Then see how it goes, and if you want to experiment lower, go for it just beware you may be at risk for de-beading etc etc. So this means for me... if I run the tires normally at a min of 40 PSI onroad, then around 20 PSI is my "air down" sweet spot.
• My last run I aired down to 20/21 PSI because snow conditions were gnarly. I noticed improvement over earlier runs, but snow was a bit different so it's hard to say. My compadre running 35's on aftermarket wheels was way down on PSI (like 10 or 12?) and had far less trouble than I did getting traction. But he had much bigger tires. Aired down far further.

Going fwd, I'm a bit hesitant to air down below 20 on mine in any conditions. On snow though, there is far less chance of rocks etc being a problem.

I will be testing the mud / rocks capability of these tires this spring/summer... my plan is to do the same run, not aired down, aired down to 30, then aired down to 20 and see how it feels and if the tires survive. I intend to give them a good throttling.

Moral of the story:

• Putting 35's with smaller wheels definitely is the way to go. Having gone on a ride with someone who did this (body lift, etc) . it's night and day from my truck.
• But that's a domino affect of component changes on the vehicle I don't want to get into, so finding the sweet spot of using the 20's aired down to the "sweet spot" (which I believe is 20 PSI)... is perhaps best.

Again, nothing above is fact. Just my "theories" based on recent experience.

 

Ok, here is my experience after two days running trails near or at Capitol Reef NP in Utah. I run the same set up as nashvegas. P400 275/60/20 KO2s with 1,5 lift rods.

• I hit the highways from Texas to Utah with roughly 45 psi all around. Super smooth on the highways and got an average of 19mpg, doing 75mph or 80mph in some sections and 65mph/70mph in others.
• The trails I faced were a mix of very light rock crawling with sand and gravel roads with tons of washboard sections. Some had sharp rocks around - which gave me a bit of anxiety. I did one river crossing section.
• At the first trailhead I aired down to 35 psi all around. I was not brave enough to go below this, due to some sharp rocks around. The beginning of this trail was paved and immediately after airing down and running on pavement I noticed a great improvement in comfort. Much less harsh ride, but I suspect that would translate to worse mpgs than 45psi.
• I ran these trails for pretty much 180 miles combined the two days. Not once I touched again the tires to air down. I have to say the air suspension does an amazing job of filtering the washboard corrugations. I can't imagine running 35 psi on these trails in my old 4runner trd pro and being as comfort as we were in the Defender.
• On the light rock crawl sections, I used rock crawl mode and the suspension went to off-road height. That was considerably more harsh than normal height. The added height significantly impacts the suspension travel and you feel every bump and drop in a very harsh manner. Maybe because I have the lift rods, the harshness was a bit increased. I am not sure. What I am sure is that I had zero fear of touching the bottom of the car. There is soooo much clearance on this thing.
• Used wade mode in one river crossing. It was a breeze for the Defender, water was about middle of the wheels.
• The much added benefit of airing down to only 35psi was that in the end of the first day I did not have to stop to air up. Rode on the highway back to our hotel with 35 psi with nooo problem. Even did a couple sections at 70 to 75mph - zero issues. It was just my wife and I in the car, so light load settings was just fine.
• I did not touch my air compressor during the whole trip. When we started our journey back to Texas, I just used the gas station air gun to air back up to 45psi all around.
• I have to say, having done this same mix of long day highway travel with off-road trails at least 4 or 5 times before with my old 4runner and comparing to the Defender it is night and day. After this trip, my conclusion is that the Defender is THE perfect all arounder. I threw everything at it and it handled like a champ. Didn't skip a bit, but did with soooo much more comfort and fuel economy than the Toyota. Not to mention much more style.
• Returning from the trip and arriving back home I am more in love with the car than before.
• Back to the topic, if you are not doing crazy snow/sand deep, IMO you do not need to go below 34/35psi. The car will handle everything with comfort and loads of traction. My car has the rear "locker" but I am not sure it made a ton of difference. At the same time, running these pressures will almost always avoid you from getting a puncture (there was plenty of sidewall with the 60 profile) like those morons with TFL.
• After this experience, I question if I will ever try to fit 18s in this car. It seems an ordeal to go through caliper grinding or switches just to gain a couple inches of sidewall and be able to air down to lower pressures that are not really needed with the air suspension. Now, fitting 35s may make a huge difference, but like nashvegas said, you need to be willing to compromise in other areas, which may affect the car's components in ways LR did not design it for.

 

Yea, I concur. Super harsh ride in off-road height (I’m also lifted 1.5”). It’s a bit annoying that “rock crawl” automatically selects off-road height and asks you to select low range. You can however override the height by hitting the height-down button. I also find low-range is rarely needed as the engine produces plenty of torque for climbing hills.
I’ve also found that using “Configurable Terrain Response” with both lockers engaged, low throttle response (“Relaxed”), and manual first gear (or 2nd) selected works well for rock crawling.
There are dozens of possible combinations with this stuff, but in the end, the Defender doesn’t much care and it just goes.
- sorry if this strayed off-topic -