I'm not looking for reasons why I shouldn't go with 22" tires, but would love to hear from those who have the Continental 22s and how satisfied you are with their performance in all conditions. I'm considering a pre-built D90x that has the 22s. Would be driven on pavement probably 95% of the time .

 

I was just going to post essentially the same question. Also, I was going to ask what PSI seem to work best. 44F 50R is what the door jamb placard states and that is what i am currently at.

 

I have no experience with Continentals on the Defender, but I had Extreme Contacts and various DWS models of their tires on SUVs & sedans in the past. They were by far my favorite tires and I have a soft spot for the brand because of it. My Volvo S80 V8 AWD was unstoppable in the snow with those shoes. I'd expect good all weather grip on the 22s as well.

 

The 22" Continentals that came with my V8 Defender are perfectly fine and handle very well on dry pavement. I did not have a chance to test them off road as I took them off and replaced them with BF Goodrich tires.
By the way, I have 5 22' Continental tires available for sale with less than 300 miles on them- Spare has zero miles. If interested, pm with your offer.

 

Timely thread. I just agreed to purchase a V8 that has the black 22" wheels with Continentals. I found this truck on a lot. If I ordered one, I was planning on speccing the 20" wheels in grey, and because I've read so many bad reviews online about the stock tires, swapping out for a set of Falkens. But, I'm willing to give the 22's a chance if folks have some good things to say about the Continentals.

 

I have not taken my defender off road yet and only have 3,000 miles on her but the Conti tires seem fine to me in wet and dry conditions.

 

We only have about 1000km on ours but we had about a foot of snow fall shortly after delivery. Haven’t driven it on dry roads yet, but I can say they’re better in the snow than I expected. Ice, not super great but again, good enough that we haven’t had any scares. We’re still installing winter tires but I’d say they’re definitely serviceable if you don’t have too crazy of winters

 

I put about 2000 km on mine this February before my new tires were ready to install. They handled just fine on pavement, obviously. I live on gravel and put quite a few gravel km's on, they handled much better there than I expected. Ice/snow: certainly not a true winter tire, but they managed alright. Enough that I would let my wife and kids go for a drive in poorer conditions without worrying about the tires slipping and sliding on the ice.

Also, while I did not want 22" rims, that's what it came with, and now I'm far less concerned about getting 20's or 18's down the road. These ride just fine, and my tire options are not as limited as I'd been led to believe. It helps that I don't really have any appreciable rock crawling to do.

 

We’ve put about 20,000 miles on these and they’re great. 95% pavement driving so ymmv for other uses but they’re holding out better than expected.