New MAXXIS tyres and ROH Wheels for our Isuzu MU-X build

The first piece of kit when preparing any showroom-stock car to something that is all-roads capable, is swapping out the showroom rubber for something more durable.

It’s not always about getting the biggest and chunkiest set of muddies you can fit, but your priority should be getting the right tyres for the use you have planned for the car.

If you’re going to be leaving the black top, you want a tyre that is more durable than what car companies offer from new. Those highway tyres don’t like the torturous conditions found on Australia’s outback tracks – tracks strewn with rocks and roots and a million other little buggers just longing for a chance to tear a hole in the sidewalls or punch through the tread of your tyres.

Whether you’re looking at all-terrain (A/T) or mud-terrain (M/T) tread pattern tyres, the simplest way to select tougher tyres is to choose one that has a Light Truck (LT) construction. LT tyres are made with more layers of tougher materials in the sidewalls and tread-face, to enable them to better stand up to the horrors of broken surfaces.

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ROH alloys and Maxxis RAZRs for off-road capability

You can pick a light-truck tyre by the LT designation stamped in the sidewall next to the tyre size and ratings. This is opposed to the P designation of passenger-car tyres.

On our MU-X, the side of the new Maxxis RAZR A/T tyres read LT265/70R-17. So not only have we stepped up to a light-truck construction, all-terrain tyre, we also stepped up a size to the slightly taller 70 aspect ratio 265 compared to the 256/65 highway tyres that come standard.

This keeps the tyre size nice and legal, while still allowing for a further ride-height increase with the Tough Dog suspension and giving us a more rugged-looking and importantly, durable tyre.

We previously had a great run with the Maxxis RAZR AT811 tyres on the Musso ute we had a couple of years ago, so we were only too happy to try them again and put some more miles on them. The Maxxis RAZR MT772 muddies also served us well on both our previous D-MAX and Ranger builds.

We’ve found Maxxis RAZR tyres to be quiet on the road, have good wet-weather performance, and be durable and grippy on loose gravel, rocks and in mud. The AT811s are a great all-round tyre for any 4x4 vehicle that is going to spend time away from town.

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Wanting our MU-X to look better than the factory alloy wheels were ever going to be, we fitted our new Maxxis RAZRs to a set of ROH wheels. ROH has a great history of wheels in Australia and we chose the ROH ‘Trophy’ alloys in a 17x9-inch fitment.

We wanted wheels with a simple and open design so that they would be easy to clean; and the eight-spoke design of the Trophy wheels should make cleaning them simple. Making the job even easier, the Trophy features ROH’s Easycleans matte-black baked-enamel finish. This is said to provide superior salt-spray performance and anti-weathering durability, so they should be just as durable as our Maxxis RAZR rubber.

ROH’s range of off-road wheels are made for Australian conditions, which means carrying heavy vehicles over rough tracks – and the Trophy wheels are rated as such. The 17x9s we fitted are rated to 1100kg each, with some of the bigger sizes rated up to 1500kg.

This is something to keep in mind when selecting wheels for your 4x4, especially when you have gone for an uprated GVM and expect to be carrying heavy loads. Just like the weight of your car needs to be with its certified GVM, the wheels and tyres need to be rated to carry the load as well.

As we’ve done with most of our tyre fitments, we called on the team at Competition Tyres & More in Murrumbeena, Victoria, to fit, balance and bolt them on to the Isuzu. As always, they did a ripper job and our new rims and rubber not only look the part, but they roll smooth and quiet on the road.

Now it’s time to put some miles on them on the highway and the gravel, to see how they perform.

FOR MORE INFORMATION
www.maxxisrazr.com.au
www.roh.com.au
www.tyresandmore.com.au/stores/murrumbeena