Tire advice for "Mongol Rally"

Hi, I'm doing something called the Mongol Rally, which is a drive in a crappy car from London to Mongolia, and came here seeking advice on tires. I know this isn't a proper rally race in the way the people here are experienced in, but I thought this would be the best type of forum to find people with good relevant tire knowledge.

Basically I'll be driving a Peugeot 206 over 10,000 miles of various types of road, including mud/dirt/gravel/non-existent roads. I don't know if an off-road tire is best suited, or a real rally tire is. My concerns with an off-road tire is I don't know if i can find one that will fit the wheel well of the car. My concerns with a rally race tire is the amount of wear it would incur, and how comfortable it would be to drive over 10k miles.

Any advice would be much appreciated, and specific tire make/model recommendations would be extremely helpful. Thanks!

I assume you've already read this: http://www.amazon.com/Build-Successful-Low-Cost-SpeedPro-Series/dp/1845842081/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1365548287&sr=8-1

That book is 100% targeted towards banger rallys - iirc, the author is involved with the Mongol in some way.

He doesn't even mention "proper" rally tires in the book - his advice is more along the lines of looking for a tire that's available in a small enough size, in a heavy duty or truck version, with more plys in the carcass of the tire.

also, please read: http://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?8,41104 and fill out your profile so we know who you are!

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KF7RWG
http://www.utahrallygroup.com

I can tell you that I drove about 1000 paved highway miles on some rally tires and they seemed no worse for wear.

Anders

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Grassroots rally. It's what I think about.

I want to know if you are going to be able to do any kind of updates from the road, I'd love to hear about how it goes for ya!

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Kirk Coughlin
Woodbury, MN and River Falls, WI

Quemadmodum gladius neminem occidit, occidentis telum est.

A set of michelin hard compound rally tires are about as tough as you can get, I believe. You will give up some tarmac grip, but they will be tougher than a light truck BFG AT-type tire.

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SeanP
A set of michelin hard compound rally tires are about as tough as you can get, I believe. You will give up some tarmac grip, but they will be tougher than a light truck BFG AT-type tire.

They will wear out way, way faster, though.

the biggest LT rated tire that will fit. Look at the Toyo M55 in 215/75R15 it is 27.7" in diameter or the Goodyear Wrangler Duratrac in 235/75R15 it is 28.9" overall dipameter. the m55 is available in the 235 too and is the same size as the Goodyear. They are both 6 ply in the 15" sizes as will most anything in those sizes. Smaller Toyo has 17/32" tread depth and the bigger of both has 18/32". In comparison most car tires have 10-12/32".

Toyo: http://toyotires.com/tire/pattern/m-55-on-off-road-commercial-traction-tires

Goodyear: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Goodyear&tireModel=Wrangler+DuraTrac&sidewall=Outlined%20White%20Letters&partnum=375QR5WDTOWL&tab=Sizes



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/10/2013 03:20AM by Greg Donovan.

Are you planning to ship tires to Europe? What city are you starting from? Gravel tires likely to wear too fast. Will be tricky to find anything off roady that will fit a 206. I say just go with whatever is on car and holds air.

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Grant Hughes

Steel wheels, tubes and don't drive like an asshole.

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Robert.

"You are way too normal to be on Rally Anarchy." Eddie Fiorelli.

General grabber AT2 come in 27x8.5x14. Load range C, 26.8" overall diameter, 16/32 tread depth.
BFG A/T comes in 195/75/14. Load range D, 25.5" overall diameter, 16/32 tread depth.

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Carl S
BFG A/T comes in 195/75/14. Load range D, 25.5" overall diameter, 16/32 tread depth.

This might be the ticket. I've got no idea how big the wheel arches on Pug 206 are, but I'm fairly confident they're not smaller than the ones on my civic. I'd guess, based on my rally tires (23.6" OD) that a 25.5" tire would fit in there and not rub constantly (definitely rub if you hit a big bump, or go full lock on the steering though), but not sure you could go any bigger than that.

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KF7RWG
http://www.utahrallygroup.com

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Aaron Luptak

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Carl S
BFG A/T comes in 195/75/14. Load range D, 25.5" overall diameter, 16/32 tread depth.

This might be the ticket. I've got no idea how big the wheel arches on Pug 206 are, but I'm fairly confident they're not smaller than the ones on my civic. I'd guess, based on my rally tires (23.6" OD) that a 25.5" tire would fit in there and not rub constantly (definitely rub if you hit a big bump, or go full lock on the steering though), but not sure you could go any bigger than that.

Thanks everyone for the feedback, this is very helpful stuff! I've ordered the "How to Build a Successful Low-Cost Rally Car" book off Amazon.

I've also spent the past two days doing more research on the cars that are available in the UK, and the more I read the more I get nervous at the thought of making such demands on a French car. I posted on the Peugeot 206 board asking about common problems, and I was advised to take a laundry list of spare parts. I'm now leaning towards a Japanese car (toyota yaris/alto, suzuki swift) or maybe a korean car.

Regarding the tires, I'm tending to agree that a small BFG A/T is probably the right approach. The first 5k miles or so are going to be over pretty good paved roads, so I'm quite worried about chewing up rally tires before I even get to the hard parts.

I'm going to take two spares on my roof, so was thinking i might take some proper rally tires on them and can throw those on the front if the going gets bad. Maybe hard compound Kumho R700s (but am open to suggestion) would do the trick.

As far as other mods, I'm thinking I'll ghetto rig a snorkel out the front fender, maybe try to lift the suspension (not sure how yet), and probably put a skid plate under the oil pan and any vulnerable fuel lines. I've never used inner tubes with a car but will do some research on that also.

My Girlfriend is going with me and wants to paint the car like a cow - I'm not keen but if it keeps her happy I'll try to indulge her. I've started looking into vinyl wraps as an option, as the car will be sold once it gets to Mongolia and I can't see a cow paint job helping the value of the car any.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/10/2013 01:33PM by mongol999.

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SeanP
A set of michelin hard compound rally tires are about as tough as you can get, I believe. You will give up some tarmac grip, but they will be tougher than a light truck BFG AT-type tire.

Specifically which model Michelins did you have in mind? As long as I'm on tarmac i'm not too worried about the grip. It's getting punctures and being stranded in mud in Kazakhstan and Mongolia that I'm worried about. Think a hard set of rally tires would wear much over 5-7k of easy tarmac driving?

I'm going to spend a few weeks in the UK staying at a buddies place near London. I plan to buy & register the car there in May, then start working on it to get it all setup. The UK is pretty good for being able to get parts and things that we have in the US, so hopefully there won't be any issues. Then I'll go back to the states and spend the month of June in Las Vegas playing the WSOP poker tournaments, then in July return to the UK to start the drive.

I'll have a website up pretty soon, and will try my best to track my progress of setting up the car. During the drive I'm going to try to keep a daily (or close to it) log of the action.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/10/2013 02:04PM by mongol999.

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mongol999

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SeanP
Think a hard set of rally tires would wear much over 5-7k of easy tarmac driving?

I know they would.
Hard is "hard for gravel"
I have used gravel tires on tarmac A LOT in the past Michelin 15/65 x 15 on a 900 Saab non turbo used in mixed urban/highway/gravel recce Dead to death in 6000 miles

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

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