HI guys

We love our MY10 Freelander 2 Sport. Having used it to drag a friends car out of the snowy south wales mountain roads on saturday, we've decided we need some better tyres.. So.. We are running on the special 19" diamond laser cut wheels - but we are happy to buy a second set f wheels to preserve the diamond cuts.

So our options appear to be: Fit winter tyres to the 19" diamonds, or buy another set of alloys or steels and fit them winter tyres.

What are your thoughts? We're obviously concerned about all the usual insurance implications of changing wheels, and compatibility of different wheels on our FL sport. We're pretty keen on the vredestein wintracs....Over to you guys - what should we do?

Personally I would have Wintrac 4 Extremes on smaller rims (17" or 18") giving a more flexible and larger sidewall just in case you catch a kerb or other object buried in snow.

I have 19" Conti UHP's for normal use, and my 18" origional rims with the above on. LR insurance do not need notifying if changing wheels up/down 1" in size, and they are a LR rim.

Also a lot easier to swap wheels than just tyres, so long as you can store them. Also easier to buy a package of wheels on rims IMHO

HTH

Great stuff - thanks - very comprehensive!

Cheers

You will find it easier to get a set of 17" rims and Wintracs, 18" Wintracs are harder to get hold of I can vouch for the Wintracs though, standard tyres are ok and they performed well in the snow last time but Wintracs are something else

been running the wintracs for a couple of months and they are excellent,

i did a lot research on the forums - to get the opinions of FL2 users - and although people rated some other winter tyres, the wintrac4 in 17" were £40 a corner cheaper and just as good if not better

i've had my fl2 in the white stuff as much as i can over the last fortnight and it's not had any problems at all.

great - thanks guys - Im in conversation with another forum member about some 16" and 17" rims - both of which I understand will fit a MY2010 Freelander2 sport. I'll keep you all posted on progress!

are u sure 16s fit, i thought they bound on the calipers? The missus - SD4 HSE - Black - 2012
Me - BMW 330d Saloon - Black - 2011

That's if you can buy them (every were's sold out)

LOL... sure... I'll need to order some!

What are the implications of chaning wheel size on speedo accuracy?

hackett wrote:

LOL... sure... I'll need to order some!

What are the implications of chaning wheel size on speedo accuracy?

As long as you remain on the suggested tyre sizes speedo isn't a problem. All tyres that specified by LR for the 16 - 17 - 18 or 19 rims are almost the same diameter. 2010 Freelander 2 Select TD4 auto....gone
2011 Freelander 2 TD4 auto ...current

I went down the second set of alloys route for the winter on my 07' SE FL2.
Picked up a good second hand set of HSE 18" wheels on hear which I use for summer running and put a set of Khumo KL78's on the original 17" rims for winter use, the beauty of the Khumo's is that they come in the original size for the SE FL2 (235/65/17).

Although more of an AT tyre than a winter tyre I can't fault them in the deep snow we've had in the last couple of years, in fact I'd rather the more aggresive shoulder'd tread of the AT type tyre than the more specialized compound and tread of an out & out winter tyre.

hackett wrote:

So our options appear to be: Fit winter tyres to the 19" diamonds, or buy another set of alloys or steels and fit them winter tyres.

What are your thoughts?

Easy! Buy a new set of alloys! If you are reasonably clumsy like most people, you will change all 4 wheels in max 30 minutes. Proffesionals do it in max 5 minutes.

In Norway everone has two sets of wheels. One set for summer, and one set for winter. I recomend 16" rims. Max 17" for winter tyres. In Norway Bridgestone, Conti, Nokian, Michellin is concedered to be the best.
I believe Bridgestone has the proper dims for FL2. Make sure the rubber is very, very soft if you buy unstudded tyres.
I have Conti 4x4 IceContact unstudded myself. According to tests on SUV's, Bridgestone has the best tyres for SUV's.

19" rims can absolutely not be recommended for winter tyres, plus a huge job changing tyres. I think you have an easy job deciding. Buy another set of alloys, -preferrably 16".

If any questions...  2008 Freelander 2 HSE TD4 Automatic, Caspian Blue, Alpaca, Moon roof, Exclusive pack.