I am looking to replace my 101 Bargrips with new tyres, and its occurred to me just, not having driven a 4x4 apart from a 101, what IS a bargrip like compared to say, the MT or AT designation or this ratio of offroadness/onroadness ? Now I know that the scariest rubber incident I have ever experienced was... Anyway, wet bar grips are pretty scary too. So, what does the team think ?
Barslicks have to be just about the scariest tyre I have ever driven on, waltzing in a 101 is not good for the heart. Currently running on Continentals which are a lot better (bargrips with grooves).
Did a fair amount of investigating when I was looking for tyres about
5 years ago, choice was very limited - Petlas (not much better than tractor tyres) or a limited choice of radials that were generally 2" smaller in diameter. Was lucky enough to fall over several sets of Continentals which most of the group run on plus a mate found a set of XCLs at a bargain price.
I believe the choice is much better now but still a bit restrictive in
16" rims, matching the original rolling radius is a bit of a problem. You could go the Martyn Bailey route and get some 15" Mach 5 rims and go for the full Icelandic look! (15" rims and the tyre world is your bivalve mollusc!!) Graham Holding had some 255/100R16s which looked rather nice but was scared to ask the price!!
Sean
73FL74 101GS
1984 110 2.5NA Medway Military Vehicle Group
There is no comparison between Bar grips and a good quality MT.
Bar grips are scary and out of the ark.
Because I am a BFG agent I run MT's on my TD5 110, I don't really need them but it is good for promoting he brand :-) The only thing I notice is a slight noise at 70 (not an issue in a 101) and you do have to drive like a real tool to notice any loss of grip on tarmac.
I had bargrips on the front of my 109. They were a little slippy on road but offroad were totally unbeatable. I came through some almost liquid mud 3 feet deep leaving a trail that was diff and exhaust pipe shaped. I was well ready to call my farmer friend out with his tractor but she sailed though it all with a little fishtailing of the back end. Unbelieveable grip. TonyB
I've got General SAG's on my SWB, which is about the same as a SAT - they're a deep lugged MT, but they don't give me trouble on-road. Frankly I get more grip from them than from the Goodyear AT's on the other one.
SAT's ahhhhhhhh! I still have a set for the SII if I ever manage to get back into trialling. They are my off-road tyre of choice, their only vice being a tendancy to slip on side slopes - and they are crap when revesing. I used to use then on the road for my 109 as well, and didn't have any problems to speak of (though I had just come off Michelin XCLs - *very* interesting in the wet!).
I wouldn't reccomend SAT's coil sprung motors though for every-day use, not least as the one's I have are cross-ply and their use is deprocated by LR.
My last set of tyres on the 110 were General SAG's (Radials - the cross-ply version has an entirely different tread) - they looked like they should perform as per SAT's, but they didn't - they really weren't very good off-road, and on road they were marginal and wore out rather quickly.
I'm currently back on Rangemasters after excursions into all sort of other tyres - halelujah! Excellent on road and very much good enough off - though I think the 8 ply sidewalls would have been a better choice than
12 ply I have off-road, they tend to do a Michellin (not "fold" round rocks etc leading to embarassing moments).
Indeed, coil-sprung motors weren't designed for X-ply. Althouth I find it makes little difference on a Series if you have radials or X-ply.
I have the SAG X-ply's on my SWB 88", i didn't know the radials were a different patterd. They're coming up for replacement shortly and I'd love to get another set, but people give me bemused expressions when I ask, are they out of production? One tyre guy did suggest some Chinese tyres marked "Security", which are obviously a cheapo, but the tread is nearly identical to the SAG X-ply. Still, I rekon i've got 3-4K left in the SAGS, which means i'll be getting about 15K from a set, which is not bad for mainly road work.
Like i've said before - 255/85r16 is as close as it seems you can get in more common sizes. Craddocks sell BFG MT's in this size i think too.
255/85 gives you 8.5inch high sidewalls by my calculations, so you will loose an inch over the whole tyre assuming that the old 9.00x16 bargrips are the exactl correct size to start with. Ive seem mention of some 100 profile ones that were a closer match (235/100 or 230/100 i think) - but ive not found anywhere that sell them.
Hmm. They sound like they would fit.. Only one way to find out ;)
Remember that they will be over 11" wide too which may make the steering even heavier!
diameter would be more like 32.5" by my reckoning. I've no idea what loosing another half inch would do to things - I have seen a table with tyre size effects on 101 gear rations, but dont know where to find it again now. Can anybody tell me what i need to put in and i can draw it up in a spreadsheet or something.
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