Rota Gravel Fitting

[ninjagriz]

Looking at fitting Rota Gravel's 18's * 8.5 +44 offset on a 05 liberty 3.0r stock suspension and need to know
1. Will my guards need rolling
2. Best rubber to use

Looking at Gold Gravels on Blue Liberty

any feedback much appreciated

[hamish_023]

I would go a 235/40/18 on a 18x8.5

Tyre brands etc are varied depending on budget, needs etc. Heaps of review if you have a search

[HyRax]

Rolling would only be required if you went a larger than normal tyres or were lowered with a very wide tyre. In my case I went with 225/45/18 (instead of 225/40/18) to make the speedo read more correct, but the larger wheel meant that big bumps caused the rear wheels to occasionally touch the guard. Some rolling later, all was good. The touching was very light, so if I went 225/40/18 instead, there would have been no need to roll anything.

The "best rubber" depends on your intended application. Get semi-slicks if you want to corner very hard or do track work, or get something that will suit both wet and dry daily driving while providing good grip.

Using Kuhmo tyres as an example, the KU31 is a great price and a great daily tyre in both the wet and dry but I probably wouldn't use it on the track. The KU36 is a semi-slick which would be a great daily and track tyre, but probably won't have as good wet grip as the KU31's. There are even grippier tyres from other brands, but they are also more expensive.

I'm using 8.5" Rota Gravels myself with Kuhmo 225/45/18 rubber and find they work pretty well for spirited driving and daily driving, though next time I'll probably get 235 wide rubber to reduce the stretch a bit and make the sidewalls straighter.

[ninjagriz]

Thanks for that guy's. I'm really looking at a no fuss install, if I were to go the 40 on the tyre profile, about how much out would the Speedo be? And how easy and the process to have that recalibrated, would it effect the ABS also?

[HyRax]

Under normal circumstances, you need to get a tyre and wheel combo that equals the OEM diameter of the wheel as much as possible. in the case of the Liberty OEM 17" wheels, they come with 215/45/17 tyres. If that were to be upgraded to 18" wheels, then the closest tyre profile to match diameter is 215/40/18 (but of course most people take the opportunity to widen the tyre too, eg: 225 or 235).

In the case of my 2.5i, the OEM wheels are smaller than the GT OEM wheels. As far as I can tell, the speedo's are calibrated the same, but at an indicated 100kph, the 2.5i actual speed (by GPS) is about 95-96kph.

By increasing the size of the tyre, you can reduce this error margin. In my case, going 45 profile instead of 40 profile for my 18's resulted in about 98kph at an indicated 100kph. You have to be careful though - you don't want to go too large or you'll be going faster than the indicated speed, which will attract the attention of the the boys in blue unnecessarily.

But this is where tools such as tyre calculators come in. Put the details of your OEM wheel and tyre on the left and the details of your proposed aftermarket wheel and tyre on the right. You can physically see the difference and the table below will give you some info about how this will affect your speedo, etc.

If you did want your speedo to be reclaibrated, there are aftermarket devices and meter organisations that can do this for you.

ABS is designed to prevent the wheel locking up under heavy braking. The only way that a tyre choice would affect this is how grippy it is. A sticky tyre such as a semi-slick should actually prevent your ABS kicking in as often compared to a cheap road tyre that slips more easily thus locking up and forcing the ABS to rapidly release and re-apply the brake pressure to regain some traction (would be worse in wet conditions).

[timboon]

Hey guys thought id just add onto this thread as i was also looking at the rota gravel rims, i bought my first liberty today (04 liberty GT) and wish to remove the hideous chrome rims currently on it,
at the moment it has 18" rims on a 225/40 tyre
i was informed that i wouldnt be able to fit the 8.5'' rota gravels on the car otherwise the front would scrape as i turned is this the case? if not it was mentioned here not to use the 225 tyres is that right? should i instead buy 245 or 240 tyres?
ive never really bought rims before either haha
thanks

[HyRax]

Congrats on the new car!

225/40/18 are smaller than my wheels - they will not rub going straight or when turning. My 225/45/18 rears rubbed slightly on large bumps and yumps at speed, but rolling the rear guards fixed that up. If I'd gotten 225/40/18 instead there would have been no rub at all.

See my profile for pics of my car with 18x8.5 +44 Rota Gravels with 225/45/18 rubber (note that I use 45 profile as opposed to 40 profile, so my tyre is taller) to get an idea of how they would look on your car.

Also, see my post here for some pics of 245/45/18 vs 225/45/18 rubber on 18x8.5 +44 Rota Gravels so you can see the stretch difference and how 245 does not fit under the front guards without sticking out a lot.

[timboon]

well i still havent made up my mind on the rims haha
i really like the STI rims from Enkei but i dont think a +55 offset will fit?
http://www.nengun.com/sti/enkei-aluminium-wheels
is there any replicas that are in a dull silver?

[HyRax]

Most Subaru factory rims are +55 offset. They're also generally narrower too to offset the er... offset. Generally they're no wider than 7.5".

You could always buy the Rota's and have them repainted in dull silver.