Standard tyres v narrow tyres

Given that in anything other than bone dry conditions it is relatively easy to spin up the back tyres in 205 section and that in the wet understeer is an ever present concern i would not be wanting narrower tyres on a Jimny. On my defender i was incumbered with 750r16 tyres because father was of the same opinion that narrower tyres are better off road, they may be in certain circumstances but not universally. If you are wanting to dig deep ruts across a field then narrow tyres are the only choice, if however you want to achieve progress without creating a mess then avoid them and get something with at least a moderate level of floatation. Oh and the defender was a liability on wet roads too. There is a lot of time and money spent on developing a reasonable compromise tyre wise by the manufacturer and if you are using the car as intended then stick with the standard size.

Grego wrote:

mark98 wrote: Stick with standard tyre width, 205's aren't exactly wide

25 yrs ago 205s were THE wide tyre to aim for, I drove several MG Maestros with 175 65 14 and they never missed a beat in any weather, and IIRC my MG Maestro turbo was on 195 55 15s and that was a sub 7 second car, again, behaved perfectly especially in bad weather

The issue there being that 25 years ago cars were significantly lighter than now mostly because of not having such complex passenger safety cells and all the other things we've been told we are better off with. Consequently the tyres of modern cars have to be generally wider to compensate for the additional energy involved in cornering and braking. That and driving standards have dropped by such an extent that cars have to grip rather than handle as most modern drivers can't cope with a car sliding and yet still being controlled .