I bought my Defender straight off the dealer lot, and the car was new enough and selling well enough that dealers were not making many concessions to get the sale. For whatever reason, my dealer ordered a Defender with the locking rear diff, but the black 20" rim upgrade and street tires. It had everything else I wanted, so I took it home, but I am annoyed by those street tires.

Curious what other folks would do in this situation - I'm tempted to wait for the Lucky 8 caliper swap so I can fit 18's, but I also want to tow and am not sure whether the new calipers will affect braking power. I could keep the existing rims, swap for some off-road tires, and try to sell the street tires on Craiglist. I could even sell the tires and rims together and get some 19" wheels with Wrangler Duratracs on them. Yeah, there aren't a lot of tire options in 19", but the Duratracs are fine for me, and the bit of extra sidewall without a caliper swap would be nice.

What would you do?

 

Either keep the 20" (or go to 19") and go with the Duratracs. On my 3rd set on one of our Wranglers and have been great on and off road. Other wrangler runs true MT tires and would be too rough for the D5.

 

I have the opposite problem.... i have the off road pack with the off road tires. I want to get street tires for it in preparation for the North East fall / winter. Debating about either a whole new set of wheels with street tires to swap on/off or tracking down just the tires.

What tires did your come with? Mine came with Goodyear Wranglers.

 

Mine came with Michelin Latitude Tours. I drove a Defender with Wrangler AT Adventures today, and test drove one on the Wrangler Duratracs before I bought mine. I definitely wish I had the Wrangler Duratracs.

If you were on the West coast, I'd suggest a swap, but NJ is pretty far from CA.

 

I am debating the exact same thing. I think in the end paying oodles of money to get new wheels for 1 extra inch of sidewall is probably not worth it... and 2" requires the caliper swap. I might be getting Duratracs for the 20s.

Know anything about snow tires? I do not find any that come up for the vehicle on the normal sites.

 

I use the Nokian SUVR3 hakka's on 20" wheels for winter. Great tires - made it even more unstoppable (in a good way).