Hi everyone 👋. I kind of posted about this is the thread I've got going in the galley section located here: https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/530881-scott-and-alanas-yeti-4x4-modifications-and-adventures/ I didn't really go into detail in the post about how we come to end up with the wheels and tyres that we did and I know it pops up every so often so I thought I'd put a small write up together for anyone else that might be looking to go down a smiliar route.

Our first port of call was to look to see what all terrain tyres was out there for the Yeti's standard tyre size which was 225/50/17. We were greeted with nothing which halted us in our tracks!

I asked on the Yeti Owners Forum and my partner, Alana, asked on a Facebook group and between us we received a wealth of information to digest. The general consensus was, if you want a choice of all terrain tyres, you going to have to go down to a 16" wheel.

The cheap route and someone will have to fill in the blanks with this part as we never looked a huge amount down this route. I believe you can get 16" rims from a VW Caddy? van which has the same bolt pattern as the Yeti. The downside to this route is it's very rare to see just 4 (or even 5 if you want a spare) steel wheels popup without any tyres on. So not only have you got to buy the wheels, but you then have to pay to get rid of the tyres. You're also not going to know what sort of life they have had and how round they still are. No one needs oval wheels in their life 😁.

Although it cost us a bit more,we used a site called 4x4 Tyres (https://4x4tyres.co.uk/) to create a wheel and tyre package and get them delivered to our door. At least that way they are ready to be thrown straight onto the Yeti 😀.

Choosing what wheel to first go for was easy for us as Alana has always had a bit of a weak spot for a 4x4 on steel wheels. We had toyed with the idea of doing it with our Freelander 2 but we never did. We ended up going for 16" Tuff Torque Modular steel wheels which were the same width as the Yeti's alloys at 7" wide.

Next up is tyre choice. When we asked Rob at Darkside Developments what they used on their Yeti he said the following...

"We ran a 215/65/16, I would consider slightly smaller if you want to avoid scrubbing. 225/60/16 or 215/60/16 depending what's available in those sizes"

We first looked at the safer options to what was on offer. In 225/60/16 there wasn't anything great coming up. In 215/60/16 there was a couple of choices. 1 of those choices being a Yokohama Geolander G015 which we ruled out quite quickly as we had run those on the Freelander 2 and personally didn't think much to them.

One of the things we took into account was that I'm pretty sure when Darkside put tyres on their car, they were quite aggressive mud terrain tyres. We took the gamble and looked down the 215/65/16 all terrain (not mud terrain) tyre route to see what was out there. To our surprise, we had quite a wide choice.

After umm'ing and arrr'ing for a bit, we finally settled on Falken Wildpeak AT3Wa all terrain tyres. The main reason being is that we have them on our Freelander 2 and love them. It seemed silly to us to go with something different over something we know.

It then come to fitment day and it was met with a bit of trepidation with both how they would fit and also how they would look on the car. We started with the fronts because we thought that surely if the fronts fitted, the backs would be fine, right... After getting both fronts fitted, we dropped it off the jack and Alana jumped into the car. She moved it forwards, backwards and lock-to-lock to check for any rubbing because we did think that we'd have to live with farting sounds as the tyre's rubbed until 1mm had come off of them or need to do some form of wheel arch lining modifications...

This is the clearance on full lock right:

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Full lock left:

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As you can see, there is the tiniest of rub patches when turning right and the tyre is brand new. Other than that, I'd consider it perfect fitment. 😀

We then got the rear tyres on and our thought process was correct as they fitted just fine.

Some of the other questions I had that I wouldn't find out until we had them fitted was, are they any louder and how do they affect the speedo?

The answer to the loudness is that I didn't notice any sound increase and Alana said maybe fractionally. It wasn't until we used a free sound app and compared it against the road tyres at the same speed along the same section of road did we notice that there is a mear 2 Db increase inside the car.

As to how do they affect the speedo? I forgot to note it down, but with the original wheels and tyres with the speed held at 70 mph, GPS was about 65 or 66 mph. With the smaller wheel but bigger tyre resulting in an overall diameter increase, the speedo at 70 mph is now 69 mph GPS speed. For some of you, this may be seen in a negative light as you may like having that bit of buffer. That way if you slightly stray over, you should still be fine. For Alana and I, we enjoy having a speedo that's very close to the speed that we want to do. On our 2 and a half hour trip up to Darkside, it was really nice to be going with the traffic at 70 mph rather than being the cork in the bottle.

If you want to see this write up in video form, check out the following video that we made:

If you want to see the review that I did of the Falken Wildpeak tyres, check out this video (this was recorded before we purchased the Yeti, hence the tyres being on our Freelander 2 😁)

Lastly, a few random bits that didn't fit into the write up above.

The standard wheels and tyres that were on our Yeti:

Origami Wheels

7Jx17" ET45 PCD 5/112mm Centre Bore: 57.10mm

Tyre size: 225/50/17

Davanti DX640

New wheels and tyres:

Tuff Torque Modular Steel Wheels

7Jx16" ET35 PCD 5/112mm Centre Bore: 57.10mm

Tyre size: 215/65/16

Falken Wildpeak AT3Wa All Terrain

The wheels and tyres now stick 10mm further out. Have given us 14.55mm of extra ride height. We have gone from a 113mm tall sidewall to a 140mm tall sidewall, perfect for all those pothole roads out there 😁. The width of the tyre has gone from 225mm to 215mm which is about -4%. The overall diameter has gone from 657mm to 686mm which is about +4%.

An assortment of images...

Standard wheels and tyres to steel wheels and all terrains:

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Wheel and tyre size difference:

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Fresh wheels and tyres ready to go:

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End result:

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Just to finish off this post, do you need to go to this effort before you go offroading? Nope, certainly not. With our Freelander 2, we started off on the standard road going tyres that it had on and it coped just fine and has been demonstrated on this forum in the past, the Yeti is more than capable of going off road in its standard form. It's similar to that of, do you need snow rated tyres to drive in the snow and the answer would be the same, no. Summer tyres will still get you going and eventually stop you 😁.

Why bother then? Well you wouldn't drive to a snowy climate with summer only tyres would you? You'd go and fit some snow rated tyres. By the same token, if you're heading off road, fit some tyres that are suited to the terrain you'll be on. It's surprising the difference between the makeup of a road focused tyre Vs and all terrain. The biggest one being their sidewalls. If you push your thumb into a road tyres sidewall it'll be quite stiff and barely move. Do the same again on an all terrain and you'll be surprised how much the sidewall deflects. This softness in an all terrain really helps the tyre mould itself to its environment for grip and avoids punctures.

Also the side grips on the sidewall of an all terrain really do help fend off sharp rocks from tearing a hole in the sidewall. The tread pattern of an all terrain also aids the tyre in throwing out any loose mud, snow or any other material from the tyre and really helps it bite into any firm material it can find.

Lastly and most importantly and sorry if I'm telling you something you already know but it's best to be safe than sorry... Just remember that this is an outright modification. So if you do look to do this, or something similar to this, make sure to contact your insurance company and declare it. Comparison website insurers can be massively variable as to how bothered they are about this sort of thing because generally it's not their cup of tea. But companies like Adrian Flux, A-Plan/Howdens and the likes that do 4x4/modified car insurance policies, generally aren't all that fussed 😀.

Just to add the almost final piece of the jigsaw. We took the Yeti green laning along with a few of our friends. In a whole days green laning, the tyres only rubbed in the arches 2 or 3 times. When I say rubbed, I mean gentle kisses, but enough to hear a little fart noise each time from inside the car which may, or may not of made us chuckle a small amount 😄. So the big question of do the tyres rub. My answer would be, only when the suspension is seriously compressed. Even in the following image there was 0 tyre rub.

Can I just ask, if this post has been of any use to you and you're part of this forum for you to put a like on it 👍. Any questions, feel free to ask and if I cannot answer it, I'm sure 1 of the many knowledgeable folk on here will be able to. 😀

Edited 10 March10 Mar by Scott_4x4

Just to add to the above and give some other possible tyre and steel rim sizes for the Yeti (mostly non-standard):

Some possible AT (All-Terrain) tyres

205/70R15 (15" rims fit all Yeti models, except 170HP versions due to the big 312x25mm front brake discs) https://www.camskill.co.uk/m53b0s2481p148166/Yokohama_Tyres_Car_Yokohama_Geolandar_AT_G015_205_70_R15_96H_RPB_TL_Fuel_Eff_%3A_E_Wet_Grip%3A_C_NoiseClass%3A_B_Noise%3A_70dB

215/60R16 (standard Yeti tyre size)

https://www.camskill.co.uk/m62b0s111p164244/Yokohama_Tyres_Car_Yokohama_Geolandar_AT_G015_215_60_R16_95H_RPB_TL_Fuel_Eff_%3A_E_Wet_Grip%3A_C_NoiseClass%3A_B_Noise%3A_71dB

215/65R16 (might rub)

https://www.camskill.co.uk/m62b0s426p148189/Yokohama_Tyres_Car_Yokohama_Geolandar_AT_G015_215_65_R16_98H_RPB_TL_Fuel_Eff_%3A_E_Wet_Grip%3A_C_NoiseClass%3A_B_Noise%3A_70dB

235/60R16 (might rub)

https://www.camskill.co.uk/m62b0s425p148190/Yokohama_Tyres_Car_Yokohama_Geolandar_AT_G015_235_60_R16_100H_RPB_TL_Fuel_Eff_%3A_E_Wet_Grip%3A_C_NoiseClass%3A_B_Noise%3A_72dB

215/60R17 (might rub)

https://www.camskill.co.uk/m54b0s3735p164247/Yokohama_Tyres_Car_Yokohama_Geolandar_AT_G015_215_60_R17_96H_RPB_TL_Fuel_Eff_%3A_E_Wet_Grip%3A_C_NoiseClass%3A_B_Noise%3A_71dB

Alcar 7755 6Jx15 ET43 5/112 57.1 steel rim (from Octavia MK3) (6.80kg)

https://www.mytyres.co.uk/rims/details?vehicleId=502374009556452464&rimCode=ALCAR7755

Alcar 6665 6Jx16 ET43 5/112 57.1 steel rim (from Karoq) (7.60kg)

https://www.mytyres.co.uk/rims/details?vehicleId=1284041564754023536&rimCode=ALCAR6665

Alcar 9922 6.5Jx16 ET33 5/112 57.1 steel rim (from Tiguan MK1) (8.20kg)

https://www.mytyres.co.uk/rims/details?vehicleId=67955865910514800&rimCode=ALCAR9922

Alcar 9187 6.5Jx16 ET43 5/112 57.1 steel rim (from Audi A3) (7.62kg)

https://www.mytyres.co.uk/rims/details?vehicleId=1275188297127171184&rimCode=ALCAR9187

Alcar 9257 7Jx16 ET45 5/112 57.1 steel rim (from Yeti) (9.35kg)

https://www.mytyres.co.uk/rims/details?vehicleId=185941160152274032&rimCode=ALCAR9257

Alcar 9021 6.5Jx17 ET38 5/112 57.1 steel rim (from Kodiaq MK1) (11.58kg)

https://www.mytyres.co.uk/rims/details?vehicleId=639488607098246256&rimCode=ALCAR9021

Out of the above, my preference for off-roading would be the 15" option...and look how much weight you would save compared to the 17" option. The above 15" rims weigh about 6.80kg each compared to the 17" rims which weigh about 11.58kg each. So that's a weight saving of 19.12kg for 4 rims or 23.9kg for 5 rims, ie. carrying a space.

Note that the Yokohama Geolandar AT G015 tyres have only been used in the links above to shown that All-Terrain tyres are available in those sizes. It's not a recommendation.

Edited 10 March10 Mar by Carlston

I really appreciate you adding that to this thread @Carlston 👌. A couple of things I'd highlight and no doubt this boils down to personal choice, but anything bigger than a 205 tyre on a 6J rim probably isn't ideal. I'd would personally say that you want to look towards the 6.5J rims which would be good or 7J rims would be perfect 😀. Once you factor in a good quality all-terrain tyre, you're somewhat limited to 215/65/16 or 235/60/16 tyre. The Geolander G015's are an alright tyre but I think they are trailing behind and most people would pick a Toyo Open Country, Falken Wildpeak, General Grabber or a BF Goodrich if budget allowed. Maybe even throw the Comforser CF1000 into the pot as well 😀.

Alana and I mulled over between going for a 215/65 and a 235/60 for a good while before we settled for the 215/65. In our heads, the 215/65's have the bigger sidewall which would soak up more of the bumps both on and off-road. Having the narrower 215 profile over the 235 could also be marginally useful when it comes to any snow or mud that we encounter. In the real world it probably doesn't actually make that much difference so I guess it's horses for courses 😁.

To wrap it up in a nutshell and obviously my advice really counts for nothing 😂, but I'd say to anyone, the best pick is to go for either a 215/65/16 or 235/60/16 tyre and stick that on a 6.5J or 7J rim. 😀

Hi.

If anyone ever needs any help with insurance for a change of wheels / tyres then please feel free to drop me a line.

Regards,

Dan.

I'd also throw the Thatcham branch of what was A-Plan that is how Howden insurance if anyone is looking for modified 4x4 insurance. 😀 That's who Alana is using with out Yeti and who I'm also using for our modified Freelander 2. I recently renewed the Freelander 2's insurance and gave Adrian Flux a call first to see if they could beat the renewal price I had but they couldn't come close unfortunately. 😀

On 16/03/2025 at 08:46, Scott_4x4 said:

I'd also throw the Thatcham branch of what was A-Plan that is how Howden insurance if anyone is looking for modified 4x4 insurance. 😀 That's who Alana is using with out Yeti and who I'm also using for our modified Freelander 2. I recently renewed the Freelander 2's insurance and gave Adrian Flux a call first to see if they could beat the renewal price I had but they couldn't come close unfortunately. 😀

Hi.

Sorry we couldn't help out with a competitive insurance quotation.

Regards,

Dan.