Street and Off-road combo

[Brian_B]

I admit I'm thinking about something similar. My rig came with 35" Mickeys on KMC beadlock rims - I didn't get the stock Big Bend wheels. 40k miles later they are starting to wear and get a bit noisy, but still have some tread left. I picked up a set of SAS GY takeoffs and put those on for the Winter season.

So now I have two sets of wheels.

Originally I was thinking Summer / Snow sets. Now I'm thinking 37's (not sure what) for off road and 34" Baja Boss pizza cutters that could do light trails, but for mostly street driving.

Haven't made up my mind yet though - I still have another Season (or two) on my Mickeys before I need to swap them out.

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[pillio35]

I would be curious as to what the ROI is.
-$$$$ for extra set of rims & tires
- =+$ for gas savings

Given that I get a 4-5 mpg difference, it would save me $250 every 5000 miles gallons at $4/gallon, I'd say it's worth it ONLY if you do majority of your driving as highway miles. In three year's driving of 15k miles/yr you're already making money even if you got a new set of wheels and tires at $2000. Also depends on your gas prices; the cheaper your fuel, the less it really matters.

If you like to go offroading randomly like Bikeric or over 10% of the time, I'd say just get one tire set that does it all. It might not be worth the trouble of switching in and out. If you need to switch to mud tires though anyways, I'd just get a new set of wheels instead of remounting all the time.

 

[Bikeric]

If you like to go offroading randomly like Bikeric or over 10% of the time, I'd say just get one tire set that does it all. It might not be worth the trouble of switching in and out. If you need to switch to mud tires though anyways, I'd just get a new set of wheels instead of remounting all the time.

I am blessed to live just an hour away from a very excellent off-road park created by the GRDA in Disney, OK. And please don't forget how extremely LAZY I am.

 

[pillio35]

You should drop down to the Base 29", you'll might achieve another 7-8 mpg.

Really? I'm somewhat skeptical I'm going to hit 30mpg in a brick shaped Bronco, but I'll make it into a taco truck it if that's the case

 

[TruckCamper]

I had 2 sets of tires on my 1st off road rig. It was a major hassle to swap and store the extra set (big / heavy). I'd try to get the swap time down but figure 30-60 minutes. I'd try to get off road at least once or twice a month. Really not worth the hassle unless only going off road annually or semi-annually.

Keep in mind you're doing the work twice for every trip. And swapping them back after a trip is less than inspiring. You also should figure your time and storage is worth something. Modern AT style tires drive excellent on road so driving manners are minimally impacted.

We have Nitto Recon 37x11.5R17 with 4.70 gears (SAS). It averages 20mpg. Best was 23-24mpg. Worst tank 15.5mpg (off road). Keeping under 65mph is the best mpg mod.

 

[pillio35]

I had 2 sets of tires on my 1st off road rig. It was a major hassle to swap and store the extra set (big / heavy). I'd try to get the swap time down but figure 30-60 minutes. I'd try to get off road at least once or twice a month. Really not worth the hassle unless only going off road annually or semi-annually.

Keep in mind you're doing the work twice for every trip. And swapping them back after a trip is less than inspiring. You also should figure your time and storage is worth something. Modern AT style tires drive excellent on road so driving manners are minimally impacted.

We have Nitto Recon 37x11.5R17 with 4.70 gears (SAS). It averages 20mpg. Best was 23-24mpg. Worst tank 15.5mpg (off road). Keeping under 65mph is the best mpg mod.

What wheels do you have and how much do they weigh? 20mpg on 37s is amazing. I got max 18mpg on my territories with SAS wheels while going 60mph.

 

[TruckCamper]

What wheels do you have and how much do they weigh? 20mpg on 37s is amazing. I got max 18mpg on my territories while going 60mph.

Method Bead Grip 703. 17x8.5 ~ 27lbs
The combination wheel/tire is rather light. Wheels saved weight (from factory bead lock ~34lbs). Tires are extremely light for 37 (load D) ~70lbs. Really is the perfect tire/wheel for the Bronco.

We also have them on our Raptor. It gets slightly less mpg but nearly the same as factory wheel/tire. Can hit 20mpg on the hwy.

 

[BlueWaffle]

I would be curious as to what the ROI is.
-$$$$ for extra set of rims & tires
- =+$ for gas savings

A measely 5mpg gain wouldn't be worth it in the land of reasonable petrol prices, in my use case anyways.

Well just say tires last 40k miles. 20mpg over 40k miles at 3 bucks a gallon is 6k dollarydoos.

25mpg over the same span is 4.8k.. 1200$ difference.

Can hardy buy a decent set of tires for 1200.. let alone another set of wheels.. add a big premium for wheels if they gotta be relatively light.. then you gotta take up valuable garage space storing a stack of giant wheels/tires.. bother with swapping them whenever you want to go wheeling..

In all reality it's a financial loss lol.. and If wheeling trips are as infrequent as the OP states his are.. the set of big diggers run the risk of going bad from age LONG before mileage would wear them out..

Really might as well just run ATs all the time

 

[pillio35]

A measely 5mpg gain wouldn't be worth it in the land of reasonable petrol prices, in my use case anyways.

Well just say tires last 40k miles. 20mpg over 40k miles at 3 bucks a gallon is 6k dollarydoos.

25mpg over the same span is 4.8k.. 1200$ difference.

Can hardy buy a decent set of tires for 1200.. let alone another set of wheels.. add a big premium for wheels if they gotta be relatively light.. then you gotta take up valuable garage space storing a stack of giant wheels/tires.. bother with swapping them whenever you want to go wheeling..

In all reality it's a financial loss lol.. and If wheeling trips are as infrequent as the OP states his are.. the set of big diggers run the risk of going bad from age LONG before mileage would wear them out..

Really might as well just run ATs all the time

Aging is a fair argument. Just know that the math is different the lower the mpg starts at. Say 40k miles at 15mpg at $3/gallon, it'll be $8000. At 20mpg, it's $6000 like you're saying. So 5mpg difference here saved $2000, not $1200. Will be even larger with higher gas prices.

So is it worth it? Really depends on a few factors, but for me it was going from 17mpg to 23mpg at $4/gallon. And that's not factoring in the ride quality, road noise, etc.

I may still end up getting a set of Nitto Recons or trails, or Wildpeak AT3W. The only reason I got another set of takeoffs for $250 to begin with was because I wanted to make sure the ride quality issue was because of the tires and not the lift or suspension. And it's cheaper than remounting new tires on the beadlocks. Ended up being a good 80% of the issue was the tires and 20% suspension and lift. And now I have an extra set of wheels.

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