OK, I've got a 2003 Disco IIa with a 2.5-3" lift. It's time to replace my street and get some mud tires.

What I was thinking for my street tires is something expedition ready (I'm thinking of driving from Ottawa to Buenos Aires this fall) so my eyes fell on the BFG A/T LT265/65R18 with the 10/E load rating as something that would not suffer too badly on the long haul through the USA or fail me on the back-roads in South America.

For play tires on 16" rims that I'd have to trailer or rack-haul (most likely) for anything but short trips from home I'm thinking of Simex Centipedes (aka Extreme Trekker 2's) though not sure what size yet, but I'm still waiting on the 16" alloys to arrive so no rush on those (which is good since I'll have to ship them from Auz)

My winter's are Green Diamond Icelanders in 245/65R16 on a set of LR Steel rims and I've been quite happy with those.

I'm also looking at Dueler M/T and Destination M/T's now as well. Is 32" on a 3" lift sane?

 

Do your self a favor, stay away from 18" wheels and especially 10 ply tires, they will wear out faster and beat you to death.
Put a set of 265/75/16 BFG AT's on and be happy.
Mike

 

My green diamonds are 10's and I haven't noticed them being too bad, but coming from the sportscar and superbike world that's probably not surprising. The Firestone Destination M/T's look like a good option as well as the BFG's. I'm going to want to go look at both in person before I decide for sure though. They're both highly rated overall and it may come down to availability and price. The 18's ride nice on the highway though, and for 40,000mi trips that's somewhat appealing.

 

Though a 31.9" OD is reasonable for a 2.5 - 3" lifted vehicle? I'm looking at a LT265/75R16 with the Rovertym 2" spacers in back and HD springs up front.

 

I've been really lucky to bump into some true experts on the Disco II. There is a definate common thread I began to hear again and again: OME springs and shocks. Preferably the heavy duty springs front and rear. Don't use spacers. Do use 16" wheels. As for tires, I've come across a dozen Disco II users who swear up and down on BFG TA tires in that 265/75/16 size.

I botched my first attempt at this. I did spacers. I tried 18" wheels with crappy tires. I then went with the rather standard OME/BFG step up and I love, love, love it.

 

ajh, you're now my idol. Ottawa to buenos aires!![8D]!! and to think that it makes me nervous to go from Ottawa to Montreal For you're information, my SLS compressor failed me last winter, so I converted to coils and got an Old man Emu 2 inch lift and went with tire size 265/70-16 General Grabbers A/T2. A little smaller than 265/75-16 ( 30.9 inches versus 31.8), but the looks is perfect and I have less adverse effect on my gearing and braking. If you ever want to see it in person, let me know.

 

I ended up ordering the Firestone Destination MT's fro about $100 less than a set of BFG MT and actually 'review rated' a bit higher at tirerack.com so I'm sure they're comparable. I went with the 6-ply LT245/75R16 because I prefer a slightly narrower tire in general and they shouldn't be a problem in the wells.

I went with spacers for now, if I see problems in the future I'll do a full conversion and switch all to hard polybush with castor correction at the same time.

My current project is to clean up the interior. Previous people doing wiring ran cables with things like open butt-splices under the carpeting. Also with the leaking sunroof (which I ended up having to fix myself) the inside has been dry for almost a month yet the foam under the drivers side carpeting is still wet. So I'm stripping the factory interior down to the metal, coating everything in Rust Bullet (yeah a 4 year old vehicle is already showing rust inside) and putting down B-Quiet Ultimate Butyl based sound deadening mat everywhere I can get to, followed by a few layers of varying densities of closed cell elastomer foam to absorb noise, and hopefully stripping out the factory foam on the bottom of the carpeting and placing a waterproof layer between the factory carpet and the layers below. (hopefully just spraying the underside of the carpeting with a rubber compound similar to tool-dip if it'll stick well) to keep deep moisture from building up again.

Basically it's a fun project vehicle to play with and improve in my spare time until I pick up an Exige.

 

You're going to regret that spacer decision. I did. If anything, you NEED HD springs in the rear. Especially if the road gets ugly. In fact, you probably will regret the MTs for such a long journey. You're going to get killed on MPG over that distance.

If you want a one stop shop for all things off road and expedition worthy go to:


www.expeditionportal.com

Pose your questions there. Some of those guys have driven across entire continents multiple times. And many in Rovers. One fella drove the length of Africa. Another just recently drove his Tacoma to the Arctic Circle in the winter months with BGF TAs.

 

I also plan on a set of BFG Allterrains or similar for my 18" rims actually for the long on-road trips. Also have lots of friends in NoCal where I could cache a set of rims

Thanks for the tip on the site.