blackwolf wrote:

The Michelin XZL is the successor to the near-legendary Michelin XCL which was used on nearly all Camel Trophy Landrover vehicles in a 7.50x16 size.

The XZL (and indeed its predecessor the XCL) is an excellent general purpose off-road biased tyre for those from the old school who prefer narrow tyres to wide tyres (a very sensible and intelligent view but that debate is not what this thread is about). It is not, however, a sensible choice for a vehicle which is used mainly on-road, unless the off-road portion is quite extreme. Personally I would not recommend either the XCL or the XZL for anyone who doesn't need them, or who is unaccustomed to the road manners of off-road tyres, or who thinks a Defender can or should be driven like an "SUV".

My SI 86" has been running on 7.50x16 XCLs for the last 25 years, they are OK on the road, epic off the road, but unidirectional which means either two spares or your spare will have a 50% chance of being the wrong orientation.

My Defender runs usually on BFG KM3s in 255/85x16 but on the rare occasions when heavy snow is forecast I change to a set of 7.50x16 Michelin XZL for two reasons. Firstly, whilst the KM3 is a formidable tyre under almost every condition, one of the very few exceptions is in snow where its performance can be startling and not in a good way and the XZL is significantly better in snow, and secondly because I cannot fit tyre chains on the 255s without running a very severe risk of ripping bits of bodywork off, whereas I can fit chains to the 7.50s.

The great majority of Defender left the factory with much more road-biased tyres, since by the Defender era that is what the majority of owners needed. The "hardcore" XZL was always just an option.