Nice looking tires! What are you upgrading from? Definitely interested to hear how they perform in terms of grip, road noise, and efficiency.

I'm considering an upgrade myself in the next few months, the Scorpion Verdes that came stock are already showing considerable wear with just under 10k miles on them, pretty disappointing. They're good enough road tires, but I definitely won't be going with them as replacements based on what I've seen of their wearing so far.

 

255/55/18 Sumitomo HTRs w/ load range 109 were on it when I bought it back in Dec and were down to the wear bars in the middle, but showed more wear on the sides due to the pressures being low. Previous owners had them at 35lbs.

I'm hoping for decent on-road manners with good off-road since we live right on the Apalachicola National Forest. Plus the Goodyears have a 116 load range, which will be better for wear on the softer off-readers and hauling, but not ride as rough as the rest of the same size A/T or M/T tires that are load E.

 

275/65/18 -- 32.3 inch diameter and 54# per tire? Did you jack up your suspension to get these to fit?

I notice a difference in performance from 28.8" to 29.5" to 30" diameter . . . and a change in weight from 34 to 38# per tire.

But I don't drive in mud if I can help it. I can see experimenting with a 245/70/17, though. That one is 30.7" and only 49#.

 

Suspension is all stock air components at factory specs. I even did the factory leveling procedure with vcds recently to ensure it was right.

The tires rubbed the front edge of the front liners when turning on the bulges that are where the v10's have the vents. Obviously the v8 gas model doesn't have the vents, so I warmed the bulges and pushed them in. I haven't found any more rubbing.

Made a short trip on some forestry roads and they felt much more stable and capable than the street tires. Back on the pavement and up to 60mph, yeah, they're mud tires. But, this is north Florida, that's what a "truck" should sound like.

The ride is nicer due to the extra sidewall. And with sport mode enabled it still feels planted enough to make twisty roads enjoyable.

Pics at all heights, then the lack of clearance before I pushed the bulge in the fender liners in.

 

The tires rubbed the front edge of the front liners when turning on the bulges that are where the v10's have the vents. Obviously the v8 gas model doesn't have the vents, so I warmed the bulges and pushed them in. I haven't found any more rubbing.

I just put 285-60-18 Terra Grapplers on mine and love the look. They are slightly smaller in diameter than the tires you have. Yes they do just kiss the front inner fenders at full lock with 5mm spacers unless you have the suspension at off road height then they don't rub.

I'm lovin' the much more serious off road look. Just picked up a couple of rattle cans of flat black plastidip to complete the rolling stock transformation.

 

Looks good pal, love my 275/65x18's
Out of interest what is the highest setting photographer above is it the extra height setting??
Now lets see some of her getting down and dirty.

 

I had MTRs on a half ton truck about 8-10 years ago....they were amazing tires! But damn were they loud and they didn't last very long.

Meanest looking off-road tires around! Good luck.

 

Alex, highest is xtra. Load, auto,offroad, xtra, then side shots at auto and clearance at auto height as well.

I'll have to wait until next weekend to really test them out. Couldn't fit a good trip in this time.

5mm spacers at all 4corners as well.

The new MTRs have an asymmetric tread pattern that's supposed to make them better onroad and quieter than previous MTRs. I should be doing less than 10k a year, so hoping for a good 4 years of service shouldn't be too far out of line.

 

I had a set of those on my Toyota 4x4, great tires in mud, but terrible life, perhaps 28k miles on them. Ironically I put BF Goodrich A/T KO's on afterwards in 31x 10.50 and got 90k miles out of those... go figure...

 

BFG A/Ts are notorious for excellent tread life but they're only available in load E in this size as are most other offroad tires. I really wanted to stick with a C tire to compensate for the heavy lugs and maintain ride comfort which left my with these and the basic General Grabbers, which don't seem aggressive enough for the goop that we get here. I may change my mind after a few years with these...

 

With all the electrical on your 2004, and them being notorious for service problems /first year production... don't be surprised if the T rex leaves you stranded on a watery mud bogging fest.

 

Get some mud flaps on. Those bigger tires really throw the dirt and rock around. My 265's will put dirt clods on the roof.

 

It did well. I was a bit busy driving to take pictures, but the Touareg went through things my 4x4 Isuzu wouldn't, and with ease. One random trail pic that wasn't blurry and one before leaving the forest.

 

Looking good , it's amazing with the added traction and rolling radius.
The v8 punches out in the bush.
Was going to be heading out today myself but postponed till next weekend.

 

did you have to use the spacers? or could you get by with out them?
i have 255/70/18 dueler at take off from a jeep, but i want to go wider.

 

I actually didn't need the spacers to fit the 275/65/18, but 285/60/18 do require them. I ordered them ahead of time and decided to use them no matter what to push things out a little just for looks. I would imagine they definitely wouldn't be needed for a 255, as the main issue is the upper ball joint as the tire gets wider.

 

Went trail riding this weekend. It was raining and I haven't gotten confident enough to hold my phone to video while going through anything difficult. I'll try to fab up a mount before the next trip as there are some places I was amazed. And one I was not thrilled.

The video shows a rise up from a creek crossing. The end has a good depth rut and a ledge. I got hung there with the lack of articulation and had to stop filming to back up and power over. So, tires are good but only make up for so much of the Treg's inabilities.

There were a few mud holes where the depth put the whole tire under and I made it through with no struggle, although something in the water/mud snagged my lower fender trim and kept it. Ordered that to arrive later this week.

Played this afternoon with disconnecting the front sway bar as an experiment to get a little more cross-axle movement. The treg definitely rolls around a lot more on the street now. We'll see how the work drive this week goes. I threw the bolts in the back with tools in case it gets too discomforting.

I also need to sort out something underneath as literally a log got jammed up in the crossmember. Didn't stop movement, but the rear mountings for the plastic shield is all bent up.

Of course, drove it to church this morning with the wife and baby nice and comfy. The tires do well to sing the boy to sleep on the road.

 

Played this afternoon with disconnecting the front sway bar as an experiment to get a little more cross-axle movement. The treg definitely rolls around a lot more on the street now. We'll see how the work drive this week goes. I threw the bolts in the back with tools in case it gets too discomforting.

The disconnected front sway got pushed up at some point during the ride and started clunking on the links that were hanging down. I used my minimal free time today to bin it completely. I probably ought to discard the rear, too.

You mentioned re-installing the front sway, so the above quotes are just for context because I missed it earlier in your thread.

Do you have anymore thoughts to share about living without the front sway? Was it decent for daily work driving? I haven't been off road in quite a while, other than driving to camp on the weekends, so it would probably be pointless.

Lastly, out of curiosity, did you ever disconnect the rear and mess around? Thoughts?

 

Awesome.
I will be binning my sway bars soon.
I with the help of some blu-tac was able to wedge my phone between the screen and dash and it worked very well. That was before I sorted a GoPro.

 

Rode with some folks today. Too busy riding to take videos most of the time, but we stopped to play in a couple puddles. This was the shallowest I went through with probably the slickest bottom, but no vids of the others.

Got high centered right at the start of the trip on a steep drop. Time to make a skid plate since my splash shield is looooong gone now.

Here's a sample of some of the area we ride in. Sorry for my sloppy video skills.

 

Oh yeah, I changed the spacers in the rear from 5mm to 15mm.

5mm



15mm



I'm thinking about moving them to the front and adding 25mm to the rear now though.

 

More playing in the Touareg. I went through this leading a friend in his FJCruiser on some trails, and he wouldn't go through so I had to come back. I hugged the side on the way back since the hole put me under more than I was comfortable and I wanted to keep at least one intake dry. He was surprised with the VW, as you can hear.

 

Rate it.
Love teaching the Toyotas a thing or two.
Had a look in your air box's ??any signs of water.

 

That's the plan some time this week. If none is found I'll keep on keeping on, but if it is then I'll be plotting something to bring them higher. Maybe reroute higher/further back into the engine bay during offroad trips and disconnect the reroute for normal days to keep the cold air they get now.

The disconnected front sway got pushed up at some point during the ride and started clunking on the links that were hanging down. I used my minimal free time today to bin it completely. I probably ought to discard the rear, too.

Any knowledge on the various venting for the diffs/t-case/trans? Don't want to be sucking nasty water into those.

 

The inlet for the intake on the v8's are in a really good position , I really can't see a better spot to put them inside the bay that is, they don't get affected by direct water flow and are somewhat housed by plastics.
The biggest worry is water entry from the join of the inlet to the bottom of the air box.

The front breather is pretty high on the RHS air box and the rears are mounted up near the petrol tank breather behind the wheel well plastics.
I think the front one could be moved higher and more to the rear of the bay.

 

I've studied your pictures a bit and I would think an air void would be created by the front end pieces where the intakes air. Hopefully that's enough as long as you keep moving.

If the front diff vent is up in the engine bay, I don't think there's much to worry about. And that rear one being by the fuel vent should be fine too. That's good info. Thanks Alex.

 

Made it louder.

 

Made it louder.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=622-LHmFqNQ

Strong mod.

 

Holy Cow That sounds Good!!! Makes me wish I had a v8 in mine

 

Made a couple minor changes

Moved the 15mm spacers up front:



Added 25mm spacers to the rear:



And recalibrated the air suspension for a 1.5" lift all around.



Pretty happy with all of that. Now to start working on undercarriage protection and roof carrier stuff. Hoping to have it outfitted enough to start camping out of it in the fall.

Adding the 15mm up front vs the 5mm took any minor scrubbing I had away.