Things I noticed when installing the winter tires
Thread Starter
|
Recovery Vehicle
Joined: May 2017
Posts: 1,135
Likes: 824
From: Boston, MA
Things I noticed when installing the winter tires
I finally got around to installing the winter tires on the Defender. Some observations:
- These OEM Goodyear all terrain tires are half-worn after 12K miles. I don't think they are very good in the rain or really good at anything. I'll replace them with Falken Wildpeak tires in the spring.
- I used to put my LR4 in offroad height when jacking but that didn't work with the Defender. I had to put it back in normal height to get the tires off the ground. Or I need to buy a taller floor jack.
- Like I used to do on the LR4, I left the driver door slightly open and the air suspension did not try to make any adjustments while I had it jacked-up.
- Nice to have defined jack points that are easily accessible. I used to jack-up the LR4 anywhere underneath on the steel ladder frame.
- Glad I had a rubber jack pad to avoid damaging the Defender jack points. It looks like a hockey puck with a groove down the middle and fits nicely into a jack point.
- Thank you to the person or robot at the Nitra plant that installed the lug nuts at a torque value I could loosen with a 1/2" drive socket.
- My wheels were a little stuck on due to rust where the center hub makes contact. I put some anti-seize on the wheels at that contact point. If these rusted in summer I can't imagine what happens in winter with road salt added. I don't want to have to have to remove seized-on winter wheels with a sledge hammer. (Like a few of my previous Audis)
- OEM wheel locks seem easy to strip if overtightened or rusted-on. Even though I was using a torque wrench, I didn't bother with wheel locks and just put on all regular lug nuts. Don't need to add any difficulty when changing a flat tire in winter.
- So glad they gave us that screw-on stud to support the spare tire when removing the spare tire lug nuts. Made removing the OEM spare tire and installing the winter spare tire easy.
- Finally, noticed that the Nokian winter tire max air pressure is 51 psi, so it's compatible with the Defender recommended rear tire pressure of 50 psi.
Bring on the snow!
- These OEM Goodyear all terrain tires are half-worn after 12K miles. I don't think they are very good in the rain or really good at anything. I'll replace them with Falken Wildpeak tires in the spring.
- I used to put my LR4 in offroad height when jacking but that didn't work with the Defender. I had to put it back in normal height to get the tires off the ground. Or I need to buy a taller floor jack.
- Like I used to do on the LR4, I left the driver door slightly open and the air suspension did not try to make any adjustments while I had it jacked-up.
- Nice to have defined jack points that are easily accessible. I used to jack-up the LR4 anywhere underneath on the steel ladder frame.
- Glad I had a rubber jack pad to avoid damaging the Defender jack points. It looks like a hockey puck with a groove down the middle and fits nicely into a jack point.
- Thank you to the person or robot at the Nitra plant that installed the lug nuts at a torque value I could loosen with a 1/2" drive socket.
- My wheels were a little stuck on due to rust where the center hub makes contact. I put some anti-seize on the wheels at that contact point. If these rusted in summer I can't imagine what happens in winter with road salt added. I don't want to have to have to remove seized-on winter wheels with a sledge hammer. (Like a few of my previous Audis)
- OEM wheel locks seem easy to strip if overtightened or rusted-on. Even though I was using a torque wrench, I didn't bother with wheel locks and just put on all regular lug nuts. Don't need to add any difficulty when changing a flat tire in winter.
- So glad they gave us that screw-on stud to support the spare tire when removing the spare tire lug nuts. Made removing the OEM spare tire and installing the winter spare tire easy.
- Finally, noticed that the Nokian winter tire max air pressure is 51 psi, so it's compatible with the Defender recommended rear tire pressure of 50 psi.
Bring on the snow!
Winching
Joined: Jan 2021
Posts: 549
Likes: 275
From: Western NY
Thanks for posting. Yea first snow of the year really for me this morning. Really bummed out at how horrible the Goodyear ATs are on just a half inch of snow on the road. Sliding all over the place. Very bad on snow. Still decent amount of tread on mine after 7k miles but I doubt I'll be buying a fresh set of these when it comes time.
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post