Not so sure about that - almost anything Escort-sized and below apart from
probably the last five years or so. Hell, many Fiesta-size use 135 and 145.
Escort Vans are prime thieving pikey scum fodder - and would have no
problem with a bit of muddy grass, especially with somebody who'll be used
to nicking things out of sheds in the middle of the night behind the wheel.

It's the 165 tread width that rules out a 4x4, for sure - nothing 4x4 uses
tyres that narrow - except mebbe a Panda 4x4 (Hmmm. I wonder?)

I'd love it if they did, as it's nearly impossible to get tyres to fit the
2cv4x4. Suzuki SJ are about the narrowest at 195 or so.

I'd have thought 4x4 tyres would be fairly identifiable from the tread, too
- chunkier, more open.

My old Vauxhall Cavalier had 165 wide tyres. You don't have to go back to
the 1970s.

Christian.

David G. Bell wrote:

Firstly, this is not a one off, its a bit of a crime wave round here.
Secondly, we do have a neigborhood watch, and it does actually two an
extent, work.
Thirdly, I am more and more convinced that this is the same vehicle as
was used last time, so its not a casually stolen vehicle; Its a vehicle
that is used precisely for this sort of excercise.

Lat time it was a eat of te summer/harvets just in - and anything cold
have drie over that field.

This week, there has been snow and the ground is waterlogged. I would
not expect anything other than an older car with narrow tyres to be able
to negotiate that field, The same track that has been very cut up by
other cars parking (they used a common dog walkers track to start their
exploit) is not cut up at all by these guys. The only signs of wheelspin
are where four identical gouges have been made just outside my garden,
where they presimaly stopped and started. These have provided the basic
assumptions on the cars wheelbase, and the fact it was 4WD.

The one issue I thouh was resolved, is the tyre width. But it seems a
'165' trye may be narrower at the tread than 65mm. so I am off to
measure the wifes tyres to see what tread width correspnds to what tre
size, as she has similar sort of tyres on board.

The actual purpose of this, apart from an interesting exrecise in
researh and analysis, is to provide police and neighborhood watch, and
the local community with something to watch out for.

The patterns of these thefts is about an 8 mile radius circle centerd
somewhere fairly near here. I, personally, can think of about 4-6 people
who I 'would not be surprised' if they happened to be the culprits. But
OTOH they may be entirely innocent, and bad mouthing the local lads is
not something I want to do without a bit more than a hunch to go on.

And the next time I see e.g. a Subaru Legacy parked up the side of a
field with an innocent dog walker enjoying a stroll, I will know to take
its number.

It's very rare to see or hear a single car go up our road after about
11pm on a weekday. We both, and the dog, did wake up that night and hear
something go past, that was 'different' in engine tone. You just know
that somethng is out of the run of the normal stuff you hear. The
direction it went in is itself slightly suggestive..to get to that field
from that direction implies a soemwhat unusual route, and one that would
not lead to or from the more likely places to expect the lads to be
living in.