Pajero 4x4

Finally got myself round to buying some mud tyres for the Pajero. Could have done it months ago, but I’ve always wanted 33 inch tyres and you can’t make these fit a standard Paj. The question is, how much modification do you need to do to make them fit?

Well a typical rule of thumb to be totally safe is to have a 2 inch body lift and a 2 inch suspension lift. But I know that some people have managed to get away with just the body lift to make them fit. My Pajero has what’s known as the Winter Pack, which amongst other things means it’s got a body lift of 40mm (about 1 1/2″).

Recently someone I know bought 33’s for his truck and he has the same Winter Pack as me with no other mods. He reported no problems and this finally pushed me to get 33’s myself. I figured that the worst that could happen is that they rubbed a little and then I’d get the suspension lift I’ve been promising myself anyway.

So, they arrived and I set out to the tyre fitters feeling reasonably confident. They stuck them on and I drove home with no problems. Sitting outside my house I twiddled the steering from side to side and found that the front tyres just fractionally touched the mud flaps. So I removed the flaps and now have no rubbing at all.

Of course this doesn’t mean I won’t have any rubbing when I get off-road. When I get twisting and flexing we’ll see if there’s any rubbing going on and to be honest I suspect there may be. But as I say, I want a suspension lift anyway, so that will just kick me up the arse a bit to get that done.

So here they are:

Note that the rear wheel in this pic is depressed a fair bit due to where I’m parked. And here’s a close up of the front wheel when parked on a bank. This shows how close they get to the arches:

These tyres are Maxxis Buckshot Mudders, size 33 x 12.50 x R15. My wheels are 10″ wide steel modulars. I bought the tyres from an internet company.

Originally I’d been going to get some Kumho KL71’s as they get very good reviews. But simply couldn’t find any in stock anywhere. Seems that at the time of writing there’s just a shortage of them. So after looking at alternatives I came up with these and I have to say I’m pleased I did. They seem like a good mud tyre that performs well enough on the road too. And call me a tart, but I love the white lettering - something the Kumhos don’t have. Also, they’re cheaper than the Kumhos.

On the road the first thing you notice is being slightly taller. I reckon I’ve risen about 2″ from the old tyres which only measured about 29″. Of course that’s an extra 2″ of clearance underneath. They also make a bit of a humming noise, but that’s to be expected and not a big deal. Also immediately noticed that climbing hills isn’t as fast. I believe this is to do with gear ratios or something (?!) as I now have a larger circumference wheel. As a result of the larger size I’ve also found that my previously accurate speedo is now showing 2mph slower than it should - checked with my sat-nav.

I’ve also been painting my wheels in preparation for the new tyres. I really fancied going from silver to black with the wheels, so headed to Halfords and picked up spray tins of de-greaser, primer, black and laquer.

First of all I went over the wheels with a drill and paint removing attachment. This mainly got rid of any rust blemishes (not many) and also roughened up the wheel so the paint would take nicely. Then I went through the de-greasing, priming, painting and laquer process as described on the tins.

Wasn’t too sure how they would turn out but I have to say I’m extremely pleased with the results. Totally change the look of the truck too and in exactly the right way for me.

So overall I’m well chuffed with how this has turned out. Love the tyres and the wheels! All I need to do now is find myself some mud to test them out.

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