Merry Christmas All...
Couple questions here.

What benefits will I see from upsizing to a 31/10.5R15 from a 235/75R15?
I would like a bigger tire but the price difference between the two is enough to scare me away provided there are no real benefits other then appearance.
CONVINCE me to go bigger...

Does anyone drive winter tires all year?
I can get a really good price on some Michelin 4x4 Alpin's but cant afford to run two sets of tires.

As always ANY help is appreciated.
Thanks.

 

the tires willonly last you a year, probably less. one of the secrets to making a winter tire is to make it out of a soft rubber so that when it's really cold out, it still has traction. in the summer that means the tire will be soft like a pencil eraser and wear away real quick. plus you get horrible handling. i have 30x9.50 winter dualers (truck version of blizzak) on my truck. just this weekend the temperature went way up and the roads were dry. you could feel the soft rubber squirming around even with very non agressive driving. i think it would be a very bad idea to run winter tires all year.

 

Bigger tires are nice for a few reasons, but first bigger how? there are two biggers, wider and taller.

Wider tires mean more footprint, you can float on snow or bottomless mudpits a little better, and more tire to grab on rocks for traction.

Larger diameter means a couple things, first more ground clearance... ground clearance=good. second, larger tires offer a softer ride compared to smaller tires. Here's an example:

Car A is a geo metro, with tires that are 15 inches tall. Car B is your toyota with tires that are 30 inches tall. (tall = wide, we're talking about diameter here)

Car A and B hit a pothole thats 10 inches in diameter. Which car will feel more of a bump? Car A, because more of its tire dropped in the pothole, Car B had much less of a drop to span the pothole.

Now thats the physics part of it. Larger tires come in lots of different flavors, and the example only holds 100% true if the tire diameter is the only thing different (if you have a slushy suspension, you would feel less of thatt bump).

I would go with larger tires, but thats a matter of preference. If you have more questions (specific) just ask, thats what we are here for. I'll think about it some more and let you know if anything dawns on me.

 

Oh and I wouldn't use winter tires year round. Like stated before, they don't last real long on the dry stuff, and they are a little slushy to drive with.

 

Oh and i just realized you were talking bigger in both wider and taller, a 235/75 is a 28X9.25

 

Couple more pros and cons.
Pro - bigger tires look better (completly aesthetic, not practical)
Con - bigger tires are harder to turn, so if you have a 4-banger, I wouldn't go above that 31". Also, be aware that changing tire from factory size will affect speedometer accuracy.

 

I do have a 4-banger and 31's were as large as I was going to go.....

 

Obviously, the larger tires are going to affect your fuel mileage considerably.

 

If you offroad a lot then upsizing would be quite beneficial. If not, the benefits will be minimal, other than for the appearance. Major drawbacks are cost, mileage, and performance.

 

Ground Clearance in MS is a must.

 

I used to have an 80 w/ 33x12.5 no lift. Looked way cool, maximum speed was 60mph floored. Drive into a wind and or uphill and watch it drop to a horn honking 45mph... I'd do it again in a cold second but would consider gears this time. Unfortunately Super Toy died when hit by 2 other cars both running red lights. I went from some real small tires to the 33's. I got better traction in the snow A.T. tires, and it just looked sweeeeeet!