New Wheels and Tires

When the Land Rover was being restored almost a decade ago, the original 1959 wheels were rusted, and in a couple of areas pretty much so. I had them media blasted, and overall they looked good enough to use, but with a fair amount of surface pitting in spots due to the rust. When the tires shop was putting on the tires, they said that in their opinion one of the wheels was not fit for use and should be kept as the spare, and the others were good enough to use but perhaps not forever.

The centers are riveted to the outer rim, and corrosion may have be in there, as well.

After 8 years of driving the Land Rover year round in humid heat and and rain and winter blizzards and everything in between, and now doing faster speeds thanks to the overdrive, the warnings of the tire shop were still in my head and so decided it was time to replace the wheels.

The old ones would be kept for their authenticity, and could be used if at a car show, for instance.

It would also be a good time to replace the tires with more modern tubeless varieties.

To keep the wheels as authentic as possible, these are 16" Defender tubeless set that look like the originals, with the exception of the offset being just a little more away from the chassis. Width is 5.5".

Like most wheels these days, they came in black. I decided to keep them that colour just to make a change, but painted them again for additional protection. Below, seen after painting:

Wheel data stamped into the rim:

Wheel inner shape is pretty much identical to the 1959 ones, with the exception of a small additional ridge which I assume is due to the tubeless design.

Original 1959 wheels. Also visible are the rivets:

Tire size recommendation was 235/85R16, an inch or so greater in diameter than the Super Traxion but that was fine as the Land Rover is using a 109 speedometer and this would perhaps bring the vehicle speed up so that it matched the speedometer with greater precision.

What tire to use? The tubed Super Traxion tires which resemble the tires traditionally seen on a Series have performed extremely well, and so considered tires that resembled them, but in the end decided to let my driving of the past years dictate the new type to use. This has been almost exclusively road use, with minor excursions on gravel roads and the like, with a bumpy field once in a while.

After much research, Michelin Defender LTX M/S (Mud and Snow) were picked. Suitable for most non-extreme off-roading if desired - see here, for example: https://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2015/09/michelin-defender-ltx-m-s-tire-review.html  - but also excellent for road use, and with an equally good reputation as winter tires. They are apparently fuel efficient, as well.

Tires as they arrived. The tread looks like a road tire, but in person they are 'beefier':

Perhaps useful info:

- Original tire/wheel combination weighed 60 lbs each. New combination come in at 70 lbs each.

- I'd read that newer rims are thicker and stud hole sizes larger, which was the origin of the shorter but wider wheel nuts. But on these wheels, the thickness and hole sizes are identical to the 1959 wheels. The new nuts go onto the old studs without any problem, with two threads extending beyond the end of the nut. As far as I can see, the newer nut design was just an improvement over the old as it presses onto more on the wheel surface. I could have used the old 1960 nuts if desired.

The nuts (also from 3 Brothers) came 'blackened' for rust protection, but have also given them a light coat of linseed oil  (boiled), as this will dry and not be sticky and is a proven 'old-school' protection against rust. We'll see if it works. :)

Having driven the Series with the new wheels and tires for a week now, I can say the ride is definitely smoother, and perhaps just a little quieter. There is less tendency to follow road camber. There appears to be greater sensitivity to left-right brake imbalance if present. The Series seems to be about 5% faster at higher speeds, but will need to test with the GPS to see if the speedometer now matches perfectly with the actual vehicle speed.

Almost same place, but different year, season and wheels. :)

Radiator Hose Heater Problem

(See original heater installation here)

Nothing serious, but came back from a drive and parked the Series in the garage, and as things were being put away heard the sound of liquid splashing onto the floor. It was quickly visible that the lower coolant hose on the radiator had failed, with a resulting large green pool on the garage floor.

The lower radiator hose had failed where it connected to the in-line heater, at the point where it stretched over the heater flange. There appeared to have been both blistering and cracking. The hose material itself, away from the damage area, was otherwise in great shape.

I could imagine the hose cracking, as the in-hose heater takes away some of the flexibility between the engine and the radiator, and the installation had been there for six years, but I'm not sure what caused the apparent blistering - wear and tear or a different issue. Perhaps six years of wear and tear + heat + time.

Removing the plug insert revealed that the inner surface of the plug had swollen and split at the sockets. I can't be sure whether it was just the six winters of heating etc. that had done this, but either way the unit clearly had to be removed.

For now, the lower radiator hose has been replaced with a stock unmodified one, and will probably leave it like that. Perhaps next winter I'll use a magnetic-type heater, such as I use occasionally on the underside of the oil pan on really cold days.

Below, the assembly as removed. Had to cut the top hose as it had firmly welded itself to the water pump casting:

The blistering. Or could it be wear from being a vibration point stretched over the heater flange?

The inside of the heater plug: