Tyres for Grand Cherokee

[Just the two of us]

After recommendations on a longer wearing tyre for our WK2 Grand Cherokee 265/40 R20.
Have to date stayed with the standard Continental which, while have no complaints about their on road performance when not towing, are prone to heavy wear when towing our 2.2T Journey Pop Top with WDH hitches. When towing get about 20,000 kilometers out of a set of tyres that are aligned, balanced and rotated every 10K. When not towing do frequently drive between Sydney and the Central Coast on the M1 freeway.

 

[Hitting the road]

That is certainly unusually low mileage. I currently have a set of 275 / 65 / 18 mud tyres on my WK2, and mud tyres wear very much faster than highway tyres, I put them on to do the Cape last year, and have recently completed a 25,000 km lap of Oz towing our 2.7t JJOB. I rotate tyres at 10k intervals as well, they have now done 46,000 kms and still have 9mm of tread depth left. I will be replacing them shortly only due to the fact they are getting a bit too noisy as worn mud tyres tend to do.

There has to be a reason for the tyres to be wearing out so quickly. I don't need or use a WDH on mine as the air suspension keeps things nice and level, while the TBW is around 270kg.
No doubt you have looked at tyre pressures already, and had the van axles / wheels aligned. Maybe, just maybe, the choice of tyre just does not work on your WK2 which does happen where a particular tyre will wear badly on a certain vehicle...

 

[Drover]

Thats horrible mileage, very expensive I fear ..............

Not much seems available in that size range that would really be any good for towing, they all seem to be a 104 LR and even though a lot are "XL" rated (xtra Load) I found "XL" doesn't give much more life over a "P" rated tyre , an "LT" (Light Truck) on the other hand does give better towing mileage and allows for more tyre pressure as well but isn't available in this size................... I'm not a lover of 20" wheels only good for city not touring really....

So unless you want to change to 18" rims which will give you a selection of good rubber for touring, I would be going for the highest "LR" tyre (above 104) in the 20" range, "XL" for sure and be maintaining the tyre pressure to 4-6 psi above cold, ignore the tyre placard, each tyre type/brand requires its own psi empty or loaded, check the pressure when they are hot and adjust, running low psi will chew a tyre away quickly certainly on the back when towing as the tyre will get very hot and is often the cause of fast wearing ..

On my rig which is 2.8t, I have about 5 psi or more extra in the rear, cold, when towing but only about 2 psi extra on the front, people will advise a certain pressure but depending on the situation of load/tyres etc the pressure could be way out for your situation............

Tyre Size Calculator

A better easy to use tyre size calculator. Use our tyre size calculator to find tyre diameter, width, sidewall, circumference, and revolutions per mile.

tiresize.com

Late EDIT" doing an actual comparo with my 18's ... 265 60R18 to a 265 50R20 they virtually match so you should be able to fit them on yours, it would give a wider selection of tyres with higher LR and more in XL..... may require a mod to air if you have it.

Unless the 40 was a typo..........

 

[Boots in Action]

After recommendations on a longer wearing tyre for our WK2 Grand Cherokee 265/40 R20.
Have to date stayed with the standard Continental which, while have no complaints about their on road performance when not towing, are prone to heavy wear when towing our 2.2T Journey Pop Top with WDH hitches. When towing get about 20,000 kilometers out of a set of tyres that are aligned, balanced and rotated every 10K. When not towing do frequently drive between Sydney and the Central Coast on the M1 freeway.

Whilst I do not know a lot about tyres on Grand Cherokee, could the fact that the low profile of only 40 be a factor?? That is awfully low for off road work and especially when towing a 2.2T van with the ball weight loaded onto the rear tyres. Would it be better to use a LT with a 70 profile if that size was available? Probably a dumb question, but I would be pleased if someone can provide some answers as I run AT 265/70 16 on my tug.

 

[Drover]

I

Whilst I do not know a lot about tyres on Grand Cherokee, could the fact that the low profile of only 40 be a factor?? That is awfully low for off road work and especially when towing a 2.2T van with the ball weight loaded onto the rear tyres. Would it be better to use a LT with a 70 profile if that size was available? Probably a dumb question, but I would be pleased if someone can provide some answers as I run AT 265/70 16 on my tug.

If you tap in the sizes into the calculator I added to my post you will see the size differences, an increase in profile things start to get in the way of guards and stuff, increase profile go down in width to try and keep close to original diameter, if non airbag a suspension upgrade can give a bit more room vertically....

A fairly common change with JGC owners that want to do a lot of travel is they swap out the 20" city runner rims for 18" rims which gives them a far better selection of tyres more suitable for touring and wider availability of supply ............ The same problem is with a number of vehicles that come out with these low profile city runner tyres, maybe great for auto bahns but not that great for our highways, so easy to chop the side put or dent a rim on our highways and by ways.

The wonderful BMW X-4 and a few other vehicles come out with different front wheels to the rear an even bigger pain and truly a city wagon...

My WK2 runs 265 60R18's LT's max psi of 80psi with a 116 LR where the 265 40R20's are XL with a max pressure probably in the 40 psi area and a 104LR usually so wouldn't handle the hard yakka of towing as well .... I see my size actually matches a 265 50R20 so an increase should be possible more selection, higher LR as well.

I have reason to believe the 40 profile was a typo as originally the WK2 20" was 50 profile, unless someone did a cafe mod.
..

When I went shopping for my Grand the major selling point was 18" wheels....

 

[Just the two of us]

Very embarrassed to admit to a typo. That should be 265/50 R20. My bad!

 

[Drover]

Very embarrassed to admit to a typo. That should be 265/50 R20. My bad!

I was suss after I had replied as the size comparo didn't want to match mine as they should, a quick look on Ausjeepoffroad.com confirmed it but I think while you could go up a little bit in size it can cause hassles with rubbing in certain situations .................

If you can swing a tape measure around your wheel wells fill in the spaces in this calculator, it will easily show if there's a possibility of scrubbing a tyre in there, I think a 265 55R20 would fit quite well ................ https://www.wheel-size.com/calc/?wh...-20X8.5ET54&fcl=50mm&wcl=30mm&scl=50mm&sr=0mm

 

[Boots in Action]

I


If you tap in the sizes into the calculator I added to my post you will see the size differences, an increase in profile things start to get in the way of guards and stuff, increase profile go down in width to try and keep close to original diameter, if non airbag a suspension upgrade can give a bit more room vertically....

A fairly common change with JGC owners that want to do a lot of travel is they swap out the 20" city runner rims for 18" rims which gives them a far better selection of tyres more suitable for touring and wider availability of supply ............ The same problem is with a number of vehicles that come out with these low profile city runner tyres, maybe great for auto bahns but not that great for our highways, so easy to chop the side put or dent a rim on our highways and by ways.

The wonderful BMW X-4 and a few other vehicles come out with different front wheels to the rear an even bigger pain and truly a city wagon...

My WK2 runs 265 60R18's LT's max psi of 80psi with a 116 LR where the 265 40R20's are XL with a max pressure probably in the 40 psi area and a 104LR usually so wouldn't handle the hard yakka of towing as well .... I see my size actually matches a 265 50R20 so an increase should be possible more selection, higher LR as well.

I have reason to believe the 40 profile was a typo as originally the WK2 20" was 50 profile, unless someone did a cafe mod.
..

When I went shopping for my Grand the major selling point was 18" wheels....

Thanks @Drover, now I understand the problem. I agree that low profile tyres are not suitable for off road work and rough broken surfaces. Your change to 18" rims has allowed you to increase the profile and get better stability when towing and more protection for your tyre sidewalls. and still have clearance under guards.

 

[Drover]

Thanks @Drover, now I understand the problem. I agree that low profile tyres are not suitable for off road work and rough broken surfaces. Your change to 18" rims has allowed you to increase the profile and get better stability when towing and more protection for your tyre sidewalls. and still have clearance under guards.

Many vehicles now coming out with low profile tyres which is probably okay for city runs but even on a run to Brissie form my place in mates car with low profiles, it can be hard on the backside I can tell you, lots of them feel like solid rubber wheels, mate reckoned his car ran very smooth until he got into mine and found what a smooth ride is, he didn't realise how smooth some of the roads are...

 

[Drover]

@Just the two of us , mate who runs 20" and drags a van has got back to me and runs NITTO TERRA GRAPPLER 265 50R 20's on his at 50K on them he says about 15/20K left, like me he does long runs, little city stuff and drags his van around the place happily, look a nice ATR and in LT as well, actually might look at them in 18's for my next set of boots.

 

[Just the two of us]

Very valuable info, thanks Boots & Drover. Plenty to think about. What is crystal clear is that the current tyres are inappropriate and the rims are less than ideal.

 

[Drover]

Another Jeep fella I know who runs 20's has got onto me and says 275 55R20 will scrape a little bit on full lock and sometimes on full compression so I would say a 265 55R20 would be okay and give just a little more sidewall without touching things, might even have better selection and getting into a more reasonable bit of sidewall for comfort and towing.... the calculator will show how much it would throw out the speedo which isn't a biggy as you can tell the BCM the size of the new tyres and it will adjust speedo and other parameters to suit, an inexpensive App called Alfa OBD with a blutooth dongle to plug into the OBD port opens up an amazing array of things that make the thing work.....

A great place to find good Australian info on Jeeps and pertains to our versions is here; http://www.ausjeepoffroad.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=284

 

[Just the two of us]

To close this out. we went with Cooper 4S keeping the 20 inch rims. These were expensive but with a Light Truck rating and a 80k kilometer guarantee we should come out ahead in the long run.

 

[Drover]

To close this out. we went with Cooper 4S keeping the 20 inch rims. These were expensive but with a Light Truck rating and a 80k kilometer guarantee we should come out ahead in the long run.

With Coopers make sure you keep an eye on your pressures being closer to 6 than 4 psi above the cold rating or you will be seeing how good their guarantee is.....