Can anybody give me some advice on upsizing tires on 18s? I'm in desperate need of new rubber and before I go straight stock I need to know if 265/60r18 would work without rub, or possibly 275/65r18? My new toy is a 2002 disco with 51000 miles, and completely stock.Thanks

 

275/65 is completely out of the question. In fact, 265/65 won't work as that equates to about a 31.5" tire. Prime turf for a 2" lift and even then mine rub a tiny bit up front. There won't be much available in 18s and they WILL be far more expensive than 16" tires.

 

Landy,

On my stock 18"s , I decided to go with 265 65 18 BF Goodrich All Terrain T/A KO tires on them (when my Discovery was stock suspension). There was really no rubbing except on the driver's side wheel well-when you go up a steep incline or decline. The reason for this is the washer fluid bottle is right behind the wheel well on the driver's side.

Thus, I had to drive slow in places. As for all the other wheel wells, it had no issues whatsoever. I couldn't drive the Discovery like a truck. I had to drive it like a lowrider always mindfull of any rubbing issues in certain spots (the inclines and declines).

FYR, those BFG's 265 65 18 tires ran $251 each not including the road hazard protection + tax. I bought 5 - as the spare needs to be the same for emergency cases.

After two weeks driving like that, I upgraded my suspension and bought Rovertym's 2 inch coils w/OME heavy duty shocks.
That gave me a good lift and now I have plenty of space to run over whatever without any worries.

 

Thanks guys, bullet dodged. I guess it'll be stocks for now til I pull it together for the lift.

 

FYR, RTE coils run bigger than stated. I bought 2 inch coils and it actually lifted it closer to 3". the back was 2.5"
Newbrover, did you buy OME coils? OME only lifts 1.5 (on the 2")

 

My OME lift was the HD combi. Given my rig had 55,000 miles at the time I added the lift, I upped my stance by just shy of 3". After it settled, I still stand 2.5" over my original stance. With the bump from 29" tires to almost 32" tires it made for a pretty nice lift. It would be impossible to go where I go with stock wheels, tires and no lift.

 

I have a couple of questions on tires and lifts as well. I was considering a lift soon and I was thinking a 3" lift with 265/75/16 tires, but I am wondering what else I would have to modify along with that. I was wondering what driveshafts to upgrade to if anyone knows or has advice on that. I saw an article in 4x4 Off Road (I think) detailing all the trail weaknesses of the Discos and there was a list of things, including driveshafts, that should be upgraded to make it good for wheeling. I've been trying to find where I read this article but have had no luck. [sm=icon_beat.gif]

 

ARB, the distributor of Old Man Emu, states it is a 1.5" lift but it actually will give you from 2"s to 2.5" depending on which coils you buy. With my 99 D2 I installed 751's in front which along with a set of isolators gave me the 3"s I needed.

 

You can go up to a 3" lift on a D2 with no other changes needed, your brake lines, ABS lines, roto flex and drive shafts will be fine.
You will thought want to rebuild your front drive shaft, removing the 2 back u-joints that don't have grease fittings and replace them with new ones with fittings.

 

Excellent, thanks Mike that's what I needed to know. Rovertym seems to imply that you should upgrade drive shafts if installing a 3" or greater lift. Even if I don't, I think I would like to upgrade them anyway. I sent a message to my co-worker to bring that mag in and once he does I'll post the upgrades I'm thinking of.