Motoring Discussion > Toyota RAV-4 - Fitting 'car' tyres to a SUV Accessories and Parts
Thread Author: Old Sock Replies: 7
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New Wed 26 May 10 15:29 
 Toyota RAV-4 - Fitting 'car' tyres to a SUV - Old Sock
The tyres for my other half's RAV4 are available in both "4x4" and "normal car" types - the latter being considerably less expensive. The size is 235/60R16 100H.

Given that she spends all her time on normal roads (I know, I know!), would it be okay to fit 'non-4x4' tyres - obviously with the correct load and speed rating?

In my view, the RAV isn't really much more than a tallish car that just happens to have four-wheel drive - it's hardly Landcruiser Amazon territory... :-)
Last edited by: Old Sock on Wed 26 May 10 at 15:30
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New Wed 26 May 10 16:02 
 Toyota RAV-4 - Fitting 'car' tyres to a SUV - NeilS
There won't be any problem provided you do as you say. 4x4 tyres are better suited to mixed road and off-road and because of their tread pattern and construction can be noisier than road tyres so you may end up with a quieter drive.

On the basis that your better half never ventures off road and it may not properly snow again for a few years and if it did she might choose to stay at home then a move to normal road tyres is quite sensible. Might be worth checking out mytyres as they include with most of the tyres they sell the results of a tyre test. You can look at the performance of tyres you're considering in dry/wet grip, braking, comfort, noise etc. Some startling differences.
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New Wed 26 May 10 16:03 
 Toyota RAV-4 - Fitting 'car' tyres to a SUV - Skoda
Yeah there's nothing stopping you.

But... It's such a shame when you see a cracking big range rover (13inches of articulation / vertical travel in the wheels believe it or not for such a chelsea-fied tractor) wearing bling rims and track-tread tyres.

You're neutering it! :-(
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New Wed 26 May 10 22:55 
 Toyota RAV-4 - Fitting 'car' tyres to a SUV - Bill Payer
>> But... It's such a shame when you see a cracking big range rover (13inches of
>> articulation / vertical travel in the wheels believe it or not for such a chelsea-fied
>> tractor) wearing bling rims and track-tread tyres.
>>
There's a picture somewhere of one being towed off the muddy car park at Silverstone a few years ago - apparently they're as useless as anything else in such conditions when they're on road tyres.
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New Wed 26 May 10 22:59 
 Toyota RAV-4 - Fitting 'car' tyres to a SUV - Runfer D'Hills
S'pose there are degrees of uselessness though. In the recent ice age my 4x4 with road tyres was more capable than my 2wd with road tyres.
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New Thu 27 May 10 07:54 
 Toyota RAV-4 - Fitting 'car' tyres to a SUV - jc2
Most traction problems are more to do with driver than tyres!
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New Thu 27 May 10 08:30 
 Toyota RAV-4 - Fitting 'car' tyres to a SUV - -
Nothing wrong with road biased tyres on the Ravi, it might be a good idea to find 'all season' tyres as you are buying anyway, Vredestein 'Quatrac' for example will have the snowflake winter approved marking and have a percentage of winter compound in the tread...best of both worlds, and as fitted to my daughters mercilessly thrashed 106 have covered over 35K and still going strong.

I don't run chunky treaded tyres on the pick up, always found them to be next to useless on wet roads, it's on General UHP's now for summer set (all seasons difficult in the size) and the wet road grip and ride quality and quietness is excellent.
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New Thu 27 May 10 12:48 
 Toyota RAV-4 - Fitting 'car' tyres to a SUV - Skoda
> Most traction problems are more to do with driver than tyres!

I dunno if i'd go along with most, but yeah a lot of folks buy a 4x4 but never learn how to make the most of it.

Although to be fair to them, those people probably don't make their decision based on it being 4wd, it's probably more about space, image or some other attribute.

There's a modified orange landy kicking about glasgow, think it lives in tollcross. The wheels must be at least 24 inch and the tyres have massive profiles. It's been lifted about 18 inches maybe even more. It's lost its front and rear bumpers and had shallow replacements fitted to give insane entry / departure angle capability.

I want.
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