Exactly !

Is there any possibility of chopping away parts of the plastic inner guards or front mud guards or slightly reducing front bump travel to fit a better tyre? I'm assuming clearance in the rear isn't a problem. The 29.5 inch would have been much better than 28.5

Did you change the spare tyre?

grinders are cheap to run :-)

Yokohama geolandar at g015 would probably work OK

hahaha get her the loudest 35 inch mud tires

@@JP-hr3xq they are not designed for the landcruiser, they are too heavy, I punctured 2 brand new ones on mine, in very light trails.

@@neilw5198 that’s most likely due to incorrect pressures, too much weight and sharp terrain, two trucks in my company fleet run them and haven’t had any issues and they are FULLY laden and going on all terrain

My sister, knowing nothing about tyres, decided to drive from SA, thru Bots to Namibia on her standard Grand Treks. No issues

Dunlop Grandtrek tires are absolute GARBAGE. I punctured two of them within a week of each other running on gravel roads.

The only thing I’ll say is when you do get a puncture or stake a tyre like I just did on a trip to Shark Bay is the the availability of that size tyre . I had to get one freighted overnight to Denham it was a 285 / 70/ 17 .. very standard size . It wasn’t even the brand I needed to match the other 3 . That is the problem..

Yuck

@@sand_shifter i did consider that. In the current market its actually easier to get tyres for my vehicle as its not as popular. I'm also running 2 spares on the truck plus 2 on motorbike trailer which inter changeable with the truck.

@@markm235 yep that’s the go 2 spares for sure .. the staking was my fault..

Lifting IFS is fraught with dangers and can create more problems than it solves.

@@seanworkman431 I don't have a problem with my 2013 BT-50, its over 50mm which is a problem

@@seanworkman431 After a web search for a X-Trail you can get a 30mm lift

@@carloluvisi4804 - probably over their budget though.

@@carloluvisi4804 It is a BT-50, there is your problem built in the same factory as the Ford Ranger. Please look at the words that I wrote, It can create more problems than it is worth, I did not make a definite. It is fact that when you depart from the original design specifications you can create problems, with IFS it is more wear on the drive shafts. If you increase your engine capacity and not your brakes, stopping may become a problem. I built custom vehicles for many years and that is what you are up against.

Put it on the roof rack...🤷

It's going to be a lot of work to get the spare out. But how often does that happen, and is this compromise worth the occasional effort needed?

Good point but the Duster is smaller and it's allmost impossible to sleep in it

I'm also an Engineer (Civil) from WA and have come to the same conclusion. I spent many years on remote projects in my company Landcruiser on all types of terrain including a lot of desert sand. I worked on the Dampier to Perth Pipeline and did 85,000km in one year driving up and down that 30 metre wide corridor between Gascoyne and Muchea. I like the tall skinny tyres as they give long footprints like a dozer. A tank/dozer is the extreme example with one very long skinny footprint on each side and we all know nothing much stops them. A good budget AT tyre is the Goodride SL369 SUV OFF-ROAD AT LT. It's not a "brand name" but that didn't bother me as I like to be different. The SL369 gets really good reviews from owners. I bought 6 for my Navara D40 in July 2019 and set off for the Canning Stock Route. Since then I've done the Holland Track, several beach runs and half a dozen Goldfields expeditions and they've been great for the 20,000km since they were fitted. In fact on all those trips I was the only one not to get a puncture or have any tyre problems. The Nissan's like a camel in the sand when you drop them to around 13psi to 15 psi. I use a 215/85 x 16 on the standard steel 6" rims. That size raised my diff about 13mm compared to the standard equipment 205R16 HT's it came with. It's interesting that I put this information in a stand alone post but it was deleted. Not sure why.

Where have you come from? At last, someone who gets skinny tyres! YES!! They are better off-road in almost every environment and I've proved it again and again, and get shot down whenever I mention it. I've made many a video claiming that on soft ground the added rolling resistance cancels out any additional flotation provided by a wide tread. And in some cases, is higher. The trouble is, tyre makers don't make enough of size variations of them, and those that are commonly available, are a smaller diameter, so it's difficult to get both the skinny AND tall in the same tyre. Thank you!

@@4xoverland Not sure if you're replying to Michael above or me ... but we're both Engineers so have the capacity to think logically and in detail. From a soil mechanics perspective I know why a long skinny contact patch provides more traction ... but it's too difficult to explain in a message. I need to draw a diagram for you. Also I'd say Michael and I are "Quiet Skinny Tyre Australians"

I'm electrical, so like anything with equations. There's a really good book written by Jo Y. Wong on the subject of terramechanics and off road vehicles. Has a good, easy to understand explanation on the theory of pneumatic tyres. I ended up putting them all into an excel spread sheet so as you basically prove in theory that thinner tyres perform better in soft sand. It's interesting too as it gives you the formulas to calculate the "critical pressure" of which a tyre of a certain width and diameter will start to deform under a given weight and terrain factors (large tables). Knowing this is handy because it gives you an absolute starting point for soft sand. I used the sheet to determine the best (legal) sized tyre I could fit to my Kakadu. The Kakadu come with stupid 18" rims with 265/60r18. GXL with 265/65r 17 and GX 245/70r17. Now based on that, the GX rims allow enough clearance under a Kakadu for the KDSS system with the offset, so I bought a set cheap ($350 set of 5) so I could run 245/75r17. I find the minimum profile for sand work is 75%. The improvement now on soft sand is incredible. In my old HJ60 the 7.5R16 splits where the best tyre combo I've used for sand. It's amazing you don't read this stuff on the forums... Everyone's just "I have a small penis so I need big fat tyres to compensate and look cool!".

@@spencerm106 The dogma prevailing about wider is better ... stems from the huge marketing industry built around 4wd's. There's no incentive for tyre manufacturers to sell us the tried and proven 7.5R16 (235/85R16). The bigger fatter tyres are more expensive so that's what's pushed onto consumers. For sure they can look good ... but if you want function physics will prove the taller narrower tyre is better but there's no point in trying to explain. It reminds me of Galileo in the 17th century when he dared to challenge the prevailing group think that the Sun revolved around the Earth. Poor Galileo said his observations showed the Earth and other planets revolved around the Sun. Stating the science and facts had him ridiculed and under house arrest for the rest of his days.

Get the cheap 10l water containers from the supermarket and don't pierce them. They are sturdy, stackable and refillable. Also, if one gets damaged you haven't lost all your water.

I disagree. A set of competent tyres is a fundamental safety requirement.

@@4xoverland I don't disagree with you. I love this series, and I think it also highlights some of the differences in viewpoints regarding overlanding as a concept. And yes, admittedly, it's right in the title; "budget overland tourer", which is different from just "budget overlander", which could be basically just any reliable vehicle and a mattress. Touring implies off-road capability, and thus tyres ARE essential. However, to just go 'overlanding'; as long as you're aware of the limitations they bring; street tyres will do the trick. On THIS build, however, I might even have gone for the more aggressive thread, the X-trail is a competent offroader.

Agree. Great off road tire also good in mud. And available in 215/70,16

how are you going to fit the 15's over the front calliper?

@@bez2992 the early X-trail came with 215/70 15.

Unneccessary, the KO2 is available in 215/65 R16 and 215/70 R16 sizes.

Ironman are shit

@@siddharthkapadia7674 then what do you recommend that i should've bought that are better spring?

That is smaller than what they ended up fitting though.

@@joelletendre1011 Still a leaps and bounds better tyre. We're talking literally a centimeter or two difference in clearance.

@@ihmesekoilua I personally wouldn't put a bfg on my lawnmower. 30 years in the tire business. We used to call the ko2 the "separators". I think they may have improved slightly now, but here in northern Canada, they just don't last.

@@joelletendre1011 Oh? Over the past ten years or so I've only heard positive things about the BFGs. I live in Finland, we used to have some ancient all terrains on an old Pajero and that thing was absolutely life-threatening in the winter, but I put that down just to the age of the tyre and comparing it to real winter tyres.

And in /70 series as well But they aren't exactly budget ...

@@darrenhale6320 even if the roof can hold it, the GVM is not that great on the xtrail, It is always good to have less weight up high. Depending on what they want to put up there, 2 roof bars + box is significantly lighter than a roof rack. This is a budget build, so. fuel economy is a factor as well, with roof bars and a box fuel economy suffers less.

That I felt went would go well beyond the scope of this series. That's for a recovery video.

JEALOUSY IS A CURSE!

Lol 🤣

Try not to fret the small stuff.

At least with Sony cameras, one needs to set the focus area to "wide" to avoid focus hunting in similar conditions. Andrew is probably on "center" or some other settings... It took me a while to discover this myself in my videos.

The left tires are also important.

@@mjl8115 I agree. ...lol :o)

Bigger brakes?

Touring/overlanding and off roading has been 15"/16" not 13"+/-(only if you were touring in 1990 compact station wagon/hatchback and what AT tyre was avialable😋) and for modern vehicles 16"/17"/18"(18's for a 2019+ RAM 2500 as an example).

@@gen1c8rs88 fair points but they still sell Sunraysia steel wheel 13”. So I assume it fitted some 4wd in the past

@@emu4wdadventures631 My main point was AT or MT tyre selection and common availability(even 30 years ago) which is important for touring/overlanding and would a compact wagon/hatchback be large enough and have enough payload for touring/overlanding. 13 or 14 inch tyres are not part of this channel's conversation. Also many front wheel drive vehicles had 13 inch steel wheels(the wheels you gave as an example are 13x4.5) thier was a few165/80r13 MT's on ebay and most likely your only choice other than all-season passenger car tyres are 165/80r13 gravel rally tyres, but for 14 inch wheels there is: 195/75r14, 215/75r14, 27x8.5r14, 28x8.5r14, 28x8.5-14(bias ply) tyres.

A good way to remove the front end though

GO15 AT's come in 215/65/R16 which is what I'm running on my Forester SG9 daily driver. Hardwearing, pretty quiet, good road manners and grip in the wet and work a treat on gravel roads and occasional beach excursions (NZ experience, FWIW)

@@sd3457 I'm pretty sure I'm running the same size and yep 100% agree mate

Take it out. It is just one of the compromises.

Budget.

@@luisalmeida777 ok i know but thats low cost very funcional ítems very basic if You are going to do some litght off Road maybe the winch it's too much, at least a air compresor

@@Gualbmarcano i think they will invest in some kind of air compressor, and maybe some maxtrax knockoffs should be enough for that size/weight vehicle. Plus basic recovery gear, like he said.

You can not fit a winch on these vehicles.

I’m sorry Darren Hale, it is not recommended to fit a winch to the front of these vehicles. The only place you could attach it safely is to the rear tow hitch.

I am pretty sure this model is either manual or standard auto not cvt