Hey folks,
Just thought I'd share my experience running skinny tyres on my 1995 80 Series Landcruiser. I know there's already too much garbage on the internet about this debate - so I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything. Just adding factual data about my personal experience.
When I went looking for info before making the switch, I found most of what was available had two key issues: first, a lot of it came from YouTubers or influencers chasing views, which made it hard to trust the objectivity of their advice; second, much of the discussion was from the US, where their definition of 'skinny' is very different from ours in Australia.
Vehicle & Setup:
The Trip: I took the skinny tyres on a 16,000+ km trip around Australia. Terrain covered included:
My Observations:
Blind spot: I've yet to run these in any sort of wet or muddy terrain. I suspect they aren't going to impress me in a muddy boggy mess, but I'd prefer to avoid that anyway. I'll try and update this thread if I find myself in the poo.
Conclusion: All in all, I’m a convert. I was skeptical at first, but these narrow tyres have been an excellent match for a tired 1HZ, and they handled everything I threw at them across some of the most remote tracks in Australia. The vehicle felt more spritely, more efficient, and surprisingly surefooted.
Hopefully that helps anyone doing any research on this, I've gotten a TON of help from IH8MUD in the past so I thought I should share some info for others.
Just thought I'd share my experience running skinny tyres on my 1995 80 Series Landcruiser. I know there's already too much garbage on the internet about this debate - so I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything. Just adding factual data about my personal experience.
When I went looking for info before making the switch, I found most of what was available had two key issues: first, a lot of it came from YouTubers or influencers chasing views, which made it hard to trust the objectivity of their advice; second, much of the discussion was from the US, where their definition of 'skinny' is very different from ours in Australia.
Vehicle & Setup:
- 1995 Toyota Landcruiser 80 Series
- 1HZ motor, naturally aspirated diesel
- Over 500,000 kms on the clock – she's a bit tired and low on power, but being a 1HZ it'll surely run through the apocalypse
- Wheels: Dynamic Sunraysia steel wheels, 6" wide
- Tyres: Dunlop SP Road Gripper FA 225/95R16 (yes, they are very skinny!)
- Dakar rally teams run reasonably skinny tyres - even the big 10 ton trucks. (245/80R16 for AWD cars)
- This - scientific appearing paper - made a lot of sense to me.
- Back in the day the old Land Rovers conquered Africa and Australia without 100" wide tyres.
The Trip: I took the skinny tyres on a 16,000+ km trip around Australia. Terrain covered included:
- Highway Driving - Leaving Melbourne we ran highways across the Nullarbor to Caiguna. I'd run ~43psi on highway stretches.
- Southern WA Beaches – from Caiguna to Esperance: deep, soft sand + Bilbunya Dunes (largest in Aus)
- Canning Stock Route – over 2,000 km of rocky, corrugated gravel and soft dune country
- Gunbarrel Highway – rough, remote, and slow going
- Simpson Desert – French Line, Rig Road, and WAA Line: plenty of sand dunes and heat
- Fast Gravel Roads - In between famous tracks I ran as much gravel as possible. Fast, rocky, rough on tyres - Think Oodnadatta, Birdsville track, or PDR.
- Endless Corrugations - I'm the kind of driver that would prefer to find the "sweet-spot" for corrugations and send it at 70-100kph to get on top of the corrugations. Similar to the sand, I didn't feel any comfort difference between 18 - 25psi, so I'd usually rattle down the corrugations around 25psi.
- Steep, Technical, Low-range 4WD - They do amazing. Honestly this seems to me to be where they perform best. So long as I'm aired down around 23psi, they hug loose, rocky, sharp, rutted terrain with ease. They walk up stuff that I previously would have had to 'throttle up'.
My Observations:
- Fuel economy: Noticeable improvement. On long highway stretches it reliably went from 14.5 l/100km to 12.5 l/100km. Wasn't able to log exact numbers for the long offroad portions (because of my dual tank setup) but my usage on the Canning was significantly less than my mates in the Patrols.
- Sand performance: Surprisingly good. In fact, every single car on the trip was bogged the same number of times - which tells me it was simply the conditions on a particular beach/dune/salt flat, and not the tyre. I didn’t have to air down as far as the Patrols running 35s. Even in the softest dunes, I found very little difference between 23psi and 18psi, so I tended to run slightly higher pressures.
- Rocky terrain: I was initially concerned about sidewall vulnerability due to the lack of visible specs like sidewall ply ratings or aggressive side-biters thta look fully-sick on Instagram. But, these tyres flexed far more easily and smoothly than the wider Toyos at any given pressure. On rough, rocky tracks where the other boys were airing down to 20psi for comfort, I was sitting comfortably at 25–30psi and still enjoying a smooth ride. Because I could run them firmer, I felt less worried about exposing the sidewall to damage. They tracked well through ruts and held up beautifully.
- Clearance: The 225/95R16 is about 33" diameter, which is great in Aus for not looking like something the cops want to defect, while still having reasonably good ground clearance.
- Durability & Tyre life: Probably the biggest con. The Dunlops only have about 10mm of tread depth from new, compared to 20mm+ on the Toyos or the big Mickey Thompson mud terrains. I’d guess they wear at a similar rate, but because they start with half the tread, they feel worn out much sooner. That said, I can get them for about $80 a tyre – versus $350+ for the wider, more aggressive ones – so the price makes up for it in my view. Zero punctures on the entire trip. TBF the patrols also did not have any punctures. After the 16,000kms I've used up about hald of the 10mm tread depth, Which sucks. But, I didn't take it easy on the long days of gravel, rocky roads, so, make your own conclusions about cost vs. life.
- Pressure variation: These tyres have much larger pressure swings than the big boys. From cold mornings (10C) to driving on gravel or corrugations, I'd see the tyres move from 20psi up to 26psi - so it was worth regular checks to keep the pressures where I wanted them. Luckily, the smaller volume means they inflate quicker.
Blind spot: I've yet to run these in any sort of wet or muddy terrain. I suspect they aren't going to impress me in a muddy boggy mess, but I'd prefer to avoid that anyway. I'll try and update this thread if I find myself in the poo.
Conclusion: All in all, I’m a convert. I was skeptical at first, but these narrow tyres have been an excellent match for a tired 1HZ, and they handled everything I threw at them across some of the most remote tracks in Australia. The vehicle felt more spritely, more efficient, and surprisingly surefooted.
Hopefully that helps anyone doing any research on this, I've gotten a TON of help from IH8MUD in the past so I thought I should share some info for others.
