[Piet Blootvoet]

Piet Blootvoet on 5th July 2025 at 11:27 am

<p style=”text-align: left;”>Them peeples go walkabout. They pack the pool, the pool pump, the dawg, the wendy and the guard inside said wendy. And the chicken coup and them chickens in the coop.  And then the kitchen and the sink, the bathroom, the shower, the potty and the boudoir.  And the 4.5 ton kroozer sags and sighs.  The family happily go camping at Rooiputs and Polentswa.</p>
<p style=”text-align: left;”>They break a leaf spring and ruin a tyre.</p>
<p style=”text-align: left;”>My use case differs.</p>
 
<p style=”text-align: left;”>We are carnivore seniors (it helps with bloody things like glucose and pressure, psychological things such as moods and sleeping through, not wee-ing in the wee hours, etc.) and we are teetotal and won’t need stacks of brannas or beer, we have no bodega to tag along.</p>
Load will be light: one duffel bag to serve us both, one Engel freezer, two 5-litre waters and our cameras.

We sleep in serviced accommodation and won’t need camping gear or bedding.

With such a light load, when we traverse the heavy sand of Namakwa Caracal Route, what tyre damage can we expect to the Zooz with its 20″ ballet shoes when deflated to 1.5 bar?

After all, people from my ‘hood have done the Skeleton Coast with Cayenne & Rangey with even less sidewall, and returned home unscathed.

My sand driving happened 40, to 30 years ago when we had tyres with proper high sidewalls.

Please consider my light load and advise me what to expect, based upon your experiences.

Thanks

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[Piet Blootvoet]

Piet Blootvoet on 5th July 2025 at 4:59 pm

While South African boys tell me that 20″ positively decidedly certainly definitely surely won’t work at all, the experience of many Americans is different.  They don’t overload like we Saffers tend to do, and they use the larger diameter with success.  USA is a bit more diverse and sizeable than Mzansi🇿🇦

Yes, we drive a big SUV, but we use it like a JB74.  And I have excellent roadside assistance as I am somewhat disabled and well over sixty.

In 46 years of driving from Alldays to Agulhas, St Lucia to Nigramoep, only twice did I have flats: in front of my house and right at my office door.

Perhaps people have more opinions than facts?

 

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by Piet Blootvoet.

[Piet Blootvoet]

Piet Blootvoet on 16th August 2025 at 8:47 am

Gents at Good Hope Tyres, as well as Reeds Isuzu N1 City confirmed that 20″ tyres would carry us through, just down let down below 1 bar / 100kPa.  And, obviously, drive with circumspection.  I’ll follow advice and swap the H/T for Grabber AT3’s – 275/50R20.