Pajero Owners Club of South Africa

I have a 2005 Gen 3 LWB GSL DiD with OME suspension. I am running Scorpion ATRs but have not been happy with the performance on gravel or corrugated roads. The Sorpions seem a bit skinnier that the Coopers ATRs I had before although they are both the same size.

This week I received a phone call from an offroad magazine congratulating me on winning a prize from Yokohama for renewing my subsciption. The value of the prize should almost cover the price of 3 new tyres. Hence I am now looking at fitting Geolanders to my Paj. But which ones? And what size?

I am leaning towards the AT-S G012 and on going up one size. The standard tyres for my car is 265/65/17 and I am thinking of going to 265/70/17 to get a bit more rubber between the corrugations and me. The issue is how the larger tyre will affect the gearing and lock-up in fifth.

The advice I have been given so far is that the difference in diameter is so small, it will have no effect as the Paj is powerful enough to compensate at 120-130kph. The other side of the advice is to stick with the standard size as it will ruin the gearing. Not sure who to believe.

The interesting thing is that I have had no comment as yet from anyone who has actually gone up one size. All the answers are just opinions. So it there is anyone who can give first hand experience, please share.

Hi Kennekam,

I have the Gen3 GLX 3.2DiD with 16 inch wheels and initially I was very hesitant to go up a size but the cheaper price and better availability of the bigger size (265/75R16 in my case) helped me with my decision.

The results - the torque converter definitely unlocks easier than before but once cruising at a true 120kph the difference is negligible although in day to day driving it is noticeable and fuel consumption has gone up by about .7l/100km.

On the positive side - the looks are improved as the wheels now fill the wheel arches better (especially with the 60mm lift that I have) and the ride on corrugated roads does seem better than before but not by much.

I've done about 11000km on the bigger tyres and so far I am happy with the choice
Cheers
Bruce

I've also got 265/75 R16 tires (one size up from std), and I'm happy with them. I have only noticed a very very small difference in fuel consumption (less than 0.5L/100km) and they are muds, which probably cause than 0.5L/100kkm difference anyway.

I bit the bullet and fitted 275/65/17 Geolander G012 AT-S tyres as I could not get 265/70/17 from them. As I might have mentioned elsewhere, I won a R4000 Yokhama voucher which pushed me towards the G012's.

So far I have only done a few kilos on tar. They seem to have quite a bit more rubber than my 265/65/17 Scorpions and fill the wheel wells better. Somehow the Scorpions looked a bit thinner even compared to my 265/65/17 Coopers I had on before. There is a bit more tyre roar at low speeds, but this could just be because they are new. I was pleasantly surprised with the stopping ability in pouring rain.

Now I have brand new Geolanders and four perfectly good Scorpions with around 10k on them. I think I will rotate back to the Scorpions when we get back from our December Kgalagadi trip and store the Yokies untill our next holiday.

I run 275/70-16's on my petrol Gen 3. Gives a nice little extra ground clearance and does not affect on-road stability too much. No fitment clearance issues but it is sluggish in top gear with 4th used for climbing even moderate hills. If you ask me the car was designed for this size tyre - the speedo is dead accurate now I seem to recall larger wheels not generally recommneded for diesels due to exhaust gas temp concerns.

We have just done some serious gravel and corrugations with Yokkies and find them much more comfortable than the Scorpions or Coopers. Perhaps it is becuase they are a bit wider? The speedcruise did kick out a few times though.....

Hi everyone,

Just remember, you might experience lower fuel consumption because you wheel is bigger and rotates less over a 1km stretch than previously. You should notice that your speedo is now more accurate than before (compaired mine with GPS)Manufacturers tend to let a speedo over read by 10-15% thus your vehicle with std tyres actually have less km on than the speedo says

Allegro wrote: Just remember, you might experience lower fuel consumption because you wheel is bigger and rotates less over a 1km stretch than previously.

The 'calculated' fuel consumption will however be HIGHER, because a trip which was previously shown on your odo as say 1000km, will now be measured as only 900 (or whatever)!

4ePajero wrote:

Allegro wrote: Just remember, you might experience lower fuel consumption because you wheel is bigger and rotates less over a 1km stretch than previously.

The 'calculated' fuel consumption will however be HIGHER, because a trip which was previously shown on your odo as say 1000km, will now be measured as only 900 (or whatever)!

The difference in fuel consumption is negligible. The speedo is still optimistic by 5% compared to the Garmin.

measure clearance first

my BFG A/T's that's standard just misses the front guard on the front wheel when turning.