18" alloys and larger tires

[LC5280]

I just spent the last few days figuring out everything I needed to get larger tires on my Grennie without a lift. There is such little information out there for 18" wheels, I thought I'd share what I found.

Knowing 285/75/17 size tires fit without rubbing, I needed to find what would be a similar size for 18" wheels. I used a tire size calculator to find 285/70/18 tires would be almost an exact size match.

So I order up my Falken Wildpeak RT01s. They fit just fine and look amazing.

Now comes the difficult part. The spare relocation bracket. I went with Agile's and they have the spacer available that isn't really explained well on the site what it's for, but you NEED it for the bigger tires on the 18" wheels. Without it, it hits not only the rear wiper, but also the door itself. The rectangular portion that is raised is not your friend here. So I put the spacer on and all seems well until I tried to move the rear wiper. It got stuck part way through it's arc. I think well I'll pull the fuse. The fuse also runs the front wipers per the chart in the owner's manual. So I just took the wiper arm off and tie wrapped the fluid hose and nozzle up around the bolt. Maybe not super clean, but who's going to see it behind the spare anyway? And is the rear wiper even necessary since you can't see out the rear window with the spare mounted?? I think not. Pretty disappointing that Ineos didn't think anyone would be putting bigger tires on a dedicated off road vehicle, but this seems to work for my 18" wheelie friends.

 

[ColoradoMike]

Nice work! I am ditching my 18" alloys for 17" aftermarket wheels. I chunked the sidewall on one of the KO2s...then the spare wheel and tire on a week of wheeling in Salida. I'm considering the Mickey Thompson Baja Boss ATs at the moment.

 

[LC5280]

Nice work! I am ditching my 18" alloys for 17" aftermarket wheels. I chunked the sidewall on one of the KO2s...then the spare wheel and tire on a week of wheeling in Salida. I'm considering the Mickey Thompson Baja Boss ATs at the moment.

I went all in and got another set of the same wheels to put my Blizzacks on in a few months. I was pretty determined to make these work.

 

[ColoradoMike]

Awesome Job! Bummer about the rear windows wiper. I use mine a bunch as my Wolfbox camera has trouble seeing with dirt when wheeling.

 

[LC5280]

Awesome Job! Bummer about the rear windows wiper. I use mine a bunch as my Wolfbox camera has trouble seeing with dirt when wheeling.

I'll be okay. It is pretty lame that the OEM rear camera doesn't come on in off road mode though. Wolf box is next on my list.

 

[ColoradoMike]

I'll be okay. It is pretty lame that the OEM rear camera doesn't come on in off road mode though. Wolf box is next on my list.

Actually it does come on in off road mode! It is buried in the pathfinder mode where you can tap the slider on the infotainment screen. It is something like RVC ON or something like that. @ForceV4 showed me this trick when we were on Mt Antero 10 days ago.

 

[JurassicMark]

Thanks for the write up! I'll be doing the same with mine soon. FYI with the wolfbox, the rear wiper is still helpful in snow/rain as the glass in front of the camera pretty quickly.

 

[LC5280]

Thanks for the write up! I'll be doing the same with mine soon. FYI with the wolfbox, the rear wiper is still helpful in snow/rain as the glass in front of the camera pretty quickly.

Well know that the Owl van bracket will not work and the spacer with the Agile bracket doesn't allow the tire to clear the wiper. So unless you can figure something else out, the wiper has to go or be made inoperable. Let me know if you figure something else out for the wiper. I've just gotten used to only using my side mirrors anyways.

 

[C-Mack]

I’m using Agile’s reverse mount bracket on my spare 18” alloy wheel and even with the stock tire size it’s close to the wiper arm but still clears... barely! For added clearance I installed their spacer plate just to be safe. The more positive offset of the 18” alloys puts it really close to the door as the mount was really designed more for aftermarket wheels with less positive offsets.

If I end up keeping these wheels and mount larger tires I’ll most likely remove the three studs from the bracket and install longer ones and fabricate a thicker spacer plate to move the wheel out away from the door more. The view out the back is restrictive enough so not having a functional rear wiper, even for the little good that it does, wasn’t an option for me.

 

[LC5280]

Your tire looks to have quite a bit more clearance than mine. It also looks to be a 255/70/18 and not a 285/70/18 that I've got mounted.

 

[C-Mack]

Your tire looks to have quite a bit more clearance than mine. It also looks to be a 255/70/18 and not a 285/70/18 that I've got mounted.

Correct, I currently still have the stock size but considering upgrading to the same 285’s size you are using on the same factory 18” alloy. So to make that work, as I mentioned, you can replace the three studs you bolt the wheel to on the bracket with longer ones. This would allow you to use a thicker spacer to effectively push the wheel out away from the door more restoring the clearance for the wiper. It really wouldn’t be that difficult to do assuming the studs come out easily. Just an idea for you to try and certainly the way I would go.

 

[LC5280]

The bolts do not come out.

 

[C-Mack]

The bolts do not come out.

I wanted to verify I wasn’t leading anyone astray but you can indeed remove the studs. It takes a 7/32 Allen key and they are not in that tight fortunately. The Agile studs are approx 38mm long so if you can find studs that are say 10 to 15mm longer and are M14x1.5 on both ends that would be ideal. If you can find a spacer that is 10 to 15mm thick in the 6x130 bolt pattern then you’d have your wiper/door clearance back.

Make sure whatever length studs you use the spacer is the same thickness (10mm longer studs use a 10mm thick spacer). Hope this information helps as it’ll certainly let me go with the same size tires you have which I really like.

 

[LC5280]

Links for where to acquire the studs and spacer would be helpful.

 

[LC5280]

Also, posting this about three of your posts ago would have sufficed. Why wouldn't you have put this out there previously to help people out? Is there some big secret?

 

[C-Mack]

Also, posting this about three of your posts ago would have sufficed. Why wouldn't you have put this out there previously to help people out? Is there some big secret?

I actually haven’t done this modification yet because I haven’t moved to larger tires like you have. Your issue with the spare tire clearance simply got me thinking on ways to address it for folks with the Agile bracket and for when I move to larger tires. So today I went out and simply verified the studs are removable (which I just shared above) so we weren’t chasing a red herring.

The spacer in the images I sent is just the Agile spacer they offer which I order at the time I purchased the bracket as I wanted to be prepared in case the stock wheel didn’t fit if that is misleading? And just to be clear on a stock tire size the 18” will clear the wiper without the spacer.

 

[LC5280]

I actually haven’t done this modification yet because I haven’t moved to larger tires like you have. Your issue with the spare tire clearance simply got me thinking on ways to address it for folks with the Agile bracket and for when I move to larger tires. So today I went out and simply verified the studs are removable (which I just shared above) so we weren’t chasing a red herring.

So that picture is of the original studs and spacer? Not anything you've found to replace them?

 

[C-Mack]

So that picture is of the original studs and spacer? Not anything you've found to replace them?

Correct, sorry if that was a bit misleading but I had ordered the spacer with the bracket because I had a hunch the 18” wheel offset might be tight and I may have needed it. I still used the spacer just to give the extra clearance to avoid bumping the tire on the door when you lift it on and off.

 

[LC5280]

Correct, sorry if that was a bit misleading but I had ordered the spacer with the bracket because I had a hunch the 18” wheel offset might be tight and I may have needed it. I still used the spacer just to give the extra clearance to avoid bumping the tire on the door when you lift it on and off.

I see. You got those pictures so quickly, I assumed you had already done of all of this.

 

[C-Mack]

I see. You got those pictures so quickly, I assumed you had already done of all of this.

I wish I was that fast… it was more of a thinking exercise and verification that doing a small mod like this would work for us and the key was getting the original studs out which is a non-issue.

You could take one stud out and go to a local Fastnel or Grainger (nut/bolt) store in your area and see if they have anything in stock that is longer. If not, they can take measurements of the stud and order what you need as it’s important the length of the stud which screws into the bracket remains the same length. The added length you need will be on the other end of the stud if that makes sense?

As far as the spacer is concerned the Agile one is about 6mm thick so in theory you could double those up to achieve 12mm which might be enough to give you the clearance you need. Where this is not an actual rotating wheel and just a spare tire mount I don’t think you have to get fancy with expensive hub-centric wheel spacers or anything like that. If all else fails, you cold buy the Agile spacer and take it to local machine shop and have them make a copy of it but the thickness you need.