Pajero Owners Club of South Africa

My Gen 3 LWB has 265/65/17 tyres fitted. I also have OME suspension fitted.

Can I go slightly wider on the tyres? I am an ignoramus when it comes to tyres, so would appreciate some help. Is it possible to go to 275/65/17 on the Paj?

Hi Kennekam,

What is your reason for wanting wider tyres?

It would be possible to go to 275/65R17 tyres in the sense that they would fit and won't rub.

They have a rolling radius less than 2% bigger than the standard tyre's, so you should not have too many worries there, even on the tall geared DiD. (Depending on travel speed the auto DiDs can get rather heavy on fuel with large tyres fitted, because the gearing becomes too tall for the torque converter to remain locked up at legal speeds on anything other than flat roads or downhills.)

Mostly to perform better on sand. I do not want a larger rolling diameter for the reasons mentioned. Jsut a bit wider.

Kennekam wrote:Mostly to perform better on sand. I do not want a larger rolling diameter for the reasons mentioned. Jsut a bit wider.

I see you have Cooper ATR's, and you say you want better performance in sand. What pressures are you running?

The difference in width between a 275 and a 265 is less than 4%. Just dropping your pressures by 0.1 bar more will increase your footprint by more than 4%

SimonB wrote:

Kennekam wrote:Mostly to perform better on sand. I do not want a larger rolling diameter for the reasons mentioned. Jsut a bit wider.

I see you have Cooper ATR's, and you say you want better performance in sand. What pressures are you running?

The difference in width between a 275 and a 265 is less than 4%. Just dropping your pressures by 0.1 bar more will increase your footprint by more than 4%

I am running at 2 bar.

Hi Kennekam,

Are you running at 2 bar in loose sand?

If so, I think you can solve your issue without spending any money. Just deflate your tyres to around 1 bar in loose sand like at Atlantis Dunes (or perhaps even a little lower) and the performance difference will be like night and day.

At pressures around 1 bar one needs to start taking a little care when performing violent turning maneuvres, because the tyres can debead, but it is not a huge risk.

Gerrit is right on.

I tow our boat on some serious sand in Mozambique. At 2,0 Bar we go nowhere except down into the sand. With the boat trailer at 1 Bar and the Pajero at 1,2 we never have a problem.

No, I run at 2 bar on the road. In the Kgalagadi we run at 1.5-.16 bar and in the sand at around 1-1.2 bar.

Kennekam

I'd venture to suggest that you'd be wasting your money on wider tyres (unless they need replacing anyway, and are no more expensive then standard).

I routinely run at 0.8 to 1.0 bar in sand unless I am stuck and then go to 0.6

I hav e245/70/17 on my Gen 3 , not by choice it had it on when I bought it. I run at 0.8 in the sand and it runs like a dream. Think I once went down to 0.6. Nect will be 265/75/16 or 265/65/17 when I need to change tyres and have the money