Whats your Tyre and wheel combined weight?

After a week and a bit of driving my new (to me) 55 plate Jimny soft top and having attended the recent Herts/Bucks meet last night and seen some impressive Jimny's. i thought it was time to dive in the garage and dig out a set of wheels and tyres that have been sitting in they for about a year.

I have swapped wheels and tyres from the standard Bridgestone Duellers (205 x 70 x 15) with the later style 5 spoke alloys (as fitted to the VTT models) to a set of Goodyear Wrangers (215 x 75 x 15) AT tread fit to 15 x 7" Wofrace alloys.

For some unknown reason I seem to have a set of bathroom scales in the garage so thought it might be an idea to weigh the wheel/tyre combos and see what the difference is.

Standard Jimny alloys with Bridgestones weigh in at 18Kg
Goodyear wrangers with 7" Wolfrace alloys weigh in at 25Kg

I dropped the pressures down to 22 front and 24 rear on the wranglers and I have to say the ride is pretty good, maybe better than the Duellers.

With my first tank of fuel through the jimny I recorded nearly 35mpg with the standard wheel/tyres. Not bad as I have been giving it a bit of stick this week. Will be interesting to see how much differences the 215 Wranglers make.

After the success of the how high is your Jimny thread I thought we could try a whats the weight of your wheel tyre combo? Can we have a prize for the lightest and heavist? Perhaps a BigJimy sticker?

I would be interested to know what a good 195 80 15 AT combo comes in at.

Cheers all.

Paul
Hertford

A couple more:

Standard Jimny Steel with part worn Dueller (205/70 x 15) - 17.5kg
Standard Jimny Steel with part worn Grabber (215/75 x 15) - 22.5kg

Thanks Jimnyash for your input.

Driven the Jimny to Wales on Friday for a long weekend and a few green lanes. The 215 75 on 7" rims cause sporadic Jimny "death wooble". Most of the time it is fine and then I can the wobbles under braking or when accelerating at 45mph.

A couple of photos from Jimny in Wales with the 215 75 15 Goodyear Wranglers on 7" rims







Have order a jimnybits steering damper kit to fit next when i am back home. Hopefully that will resolve the wobbles.

MPG was pretty good on last tank (with 25kg wheel tyre combo) on the mixed driving of motorway and B roads got 35MPG (taking in the 5.3% difference in tyre diameter).

My conclusion (from my limited tests 2 tanks fulls). The extra weight (18kg to 25kg)does not seem to make a big difference to MPG, but sure enough does contribute to the "death wobble" problem.

I'll continue to monitor the situation and feedback what effect the steering damper makes.

Cheers
Paul (still in Wales)

Hi pgatensuk
Did you have the deathwobble at all with your original wheel/tyres? If not then your new ones must be out of balance?
Cheers,
John,.

Hi John,
No deathwobble with standard wheels tyres. The new wheels and tyres have been balanced and don't do it all the time which is the odd thing.

Seem more prone to the 45mph wobble in the morning on first drive. Wobble from braking can happen anytime.

Perhaps I should get them balanced on the car?

It was a similar experience on my older 2002 softtop, except that deathwoggle was very minor with the bigger wheel/tyre combo. On the old car I had standard steel wheels with Duellers and these Goodyear Wranglers on 7" rims.

Cheers
Paul
Hertford

pgatensuk wrote: Hi John,
It was a similar experience on my older 2002 softtop, except that deathwoggle was very minor with the bigger wheel/tyre combo.

Deathwoggle? Is that like a particulalry nasty Boy Scout or something?

Sorry couldn't help myself

Look out for those killer boy scouts, they will get you with the deathwoggle!!!!

Hi Goatboy

What was the reason that you fitted the steering damper? Was it the Armstrong shock that you fitted?

PS. Changed my head light bulbs. just need some dark to try them out.

Cheers
Paul
Hertford

Orite paul I noticed you said you went green laning in Wales where abouts? I'm living in south Wales cheers nathan

Hi Nathan,
I went up the track at the back of Claerwen Dam (in the Elan valley - north of Rhayader) which is a nice track with lovely views over the reservoir. (I am aware a number of tracks in this area that are very sensitive and right of way is constantly being reviewed). I go to this part of the country fairly often (My Mum lives south of Rhayader) and I really should find a local 4x4 contact with local knowledge.

There is another track that drops into the back of Rhayader which is also a nice little track (bit more challenging). Yesterday there was a tractor trial going down it. Maybe 80 or more tractors! I hear they do this event once a month.



I am sure that there are many more tracks around this area to explore.

I have also used www.wetroads.co.uk to track down fords to cross. Great website and covers the whole country. At one stage I set myself a challenge to find new fords to submit to the site. Wont be doing these until I get a breather kit fitted.

As you you are not far away you might want to contact one of the local clubs eg. www.westwaleslaning.co.uk/welcome.html

Cheers for now.
Paul (heading back to Hertford tomorrow)

pgatensuk wrote: Hi Goatboy

What was the reason that you fitted the steering damper? Was it the Armstrong shock that you fitted?

PS. Changed my head light bulbs. just need some dark to try them out.

Cheers
Paul
Hertford

Type "deathwobble site:bigjimny.com" into Google and you'll find out all about it.
Cheers,
John.

Many thanks John,
Already checked the usual suspects. Been here before with my last Jimny. The car runs fine with the standard wheel and tyres and the bigger rims and tyres caused the same (death wobble) problem on my last G13 engined softtop, yet two tyre fitters claim they are balanced correctly.

I didn't go for the steering damper on last one, so will give that a try and report back.

Cheers
Paul
Hertford