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Tires
Mar 18, 2013 20:13:59 GMT -5
Post by sport03 on Mar 18, 2013 20:13:59 GMT -5
Anyone know what the biggest tires I can put on the stock rims Of my montero sport ES with the 15' wheels?
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Post by monty98 on Mar 18, 2013 20:59:32 GMT -5
I'm at 33x10.5x15, with torsion bars cranked and some front fender trimming. Still not enough space to stuff them yet without s body lift.
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Tires
Mar 19, 2013 17:44:17 GMT -5
Post by sport03 on Mar 19, 2013 17:44:17 GMT -5
I'm at 33x10.5x15, with torsion bars cranked and some front fender trimming. Still not enough space to stuff them yet without s body lift. Do you possibly have any pics of it??
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Tires
Mar 19, 2013 20:08:51 GMT -5
Post by monty98 on Mar 19, 2013 20:08:51 GMT -5
Sure. I have already trimmed the lower one inch of the front valence. I will be adding a body lift this weekend to help with the rubbing that is occurring when sharp cornering and for this summer when headed out west. 31 inch tires 33 inch tires
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Tires
Mar 20, 2013 17:32:00 GMT -5
Post by sport03 on Mar 20, 2013 17:32:00 GMT -5
Nice!! That's exactly what I want!!! Thank you!!
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Post by monty98 on Mar 20, 2013 18:08:06 GMT -5
No problem!
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Tires
Mar 21, 2013 17:45:16 GMT -5
Post by ES_97Sport on Mar 21, 2013 17:45:16 GMT -5
Anyone know what the biggest tires I can put on the stock rims Of my montero sport ES with the 15' wheels? Something by 12.5" wide, by 15" diameter is the biggest tires you can safely put on a 8" wide rim. Even with say a 35x12.5x15 M/T there is still significant bulge and depending on your tire choice may or may not create tread wear problems. Personally, I LIKE a 8" wide rim vs. a 10" wide rim for a 12.5" wide tire because the tire bulge tends to protect the rim bead from rocks while crawling. Unfortunately, especially with a really soft side wall, it tends to decrease lateral stability a tiny bit. That means the vehicle tends to wash back and forth somewhat when you start decreasing tire pressure. Kinda like running balloon tires. ;D The absolute biggest tire you can fit on a sock Sport is about 33" - depends on the tire width and tread design. With the torsion bars tightened up and different or modified rear springs and some MINOR trimming of the stock front bumper is 35x12.5". You do not need a body lift to run 35" tires and still be able to stuff them. CoSport ran 35" Dunlop M/Ts and Goodyear MT/r's on his '98 without a body lift. The only thing you need to do is trim the lower front corners of the stock bumper if you're not running an ARB and in some cases trim the very lower back of the front wheel wells to clear the tread blocks when you stuff in a turn - with the Geolandars I've never had to worry about the rear of the front fender wells. I ran 33x12.5x15 Geolandar M/Ts on my '97 on the stock 8" rims for almost two years with no trimming and no body lift and NEVER had a problem that required trimming. Just a very slight rub on the rear gas filler hose plastic cover under extreme stuff off camber and just a little rub at just the right angle of wheel turn under full stuff on the front. People are running after market rims with the wrong back spacing and THAT'S why they can't run bigger than 32" or 33" tires without body lifts and hacking fender wells. Edward www.4x4extremesports.com
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Tires
Mar 22, 2013 3:17:47 GMT -5
Post by monty98 on Mar 22, 2013 3:17:47 GMT -5
I disagree Edward, I am running stock rims and I still have problems stuffing my 33x10.5x15's with minor front trimming. I can run a highway corner or even a slow 25 mph corner with a low bump and my tire will most definitely rub (I can hear it). Not sure if my vehicle is an exception but without a body lift I can't see how my 33 inch tires will ever fit up in the fender well?
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Tires
Mar 25, 2013 17:31:05 GMT -5
Post by ES_97Sport on Mar 25, 2013 17:31:05 GMT -5
I disagree Edward, I am running stock rims and I still have problems stuffing my 33x10.5x15's with minor front trimming. I can run a highway corner or even a slow 25 mph corner with a low bump and my tire will most definitely rub (I can hear it). Not sure if my vehicle is an exception but without a body lift I can't see how my 33 inch tires will ever fit up in the fender well? monty98, somethings not right. Eric and I spent WAY too many miles on the trails running 33"s and 35"s and neither of us did body lifts on our Sports and we never ran into what you seem to be experiencing. And we always ran 33x12.5x15 or 35x12.5x15s, not 33x10.5s. Not being able to stuff a 33" makes no sense at all. I've pulled the front upper bump stops off my big '97 and I can stuff my 35"s completely into the wheel well until they actually contact the inner skirt at the top inside with space left front and rear so I know there's room. I never got this far before I did the SAS, but Eric installed the ultra low profile bump stops - both upper and lower - in his IFS '98 which allowed yet more travel and never had that problem and by that time he was running the 35" MT/rs. I'm wondering if you're not running as much lift as we did. It sounds to me like you have the front a lot softer based on your comments about hitting a bump at 25 MPH. If I remember correctly, I was running about 3.5-4" of lift in the front which requires the torsion bars be turned up a good bit. Still that shouldn't make any difference as far as actual clearance goes. One thing just occurred to me. This happens rarely now, but happened a lot before the SAS when I air down to 8-12 psi. With the sway bars off, you get a lot of body roll and with the body roll you get a shift in weight to the outside. A lot of compression on the outside wheel and a changed in the geometry of that wheel. It may be that you end up with the wheel positioned in that magic spot and you're actually distorting the tire on the rim enough to contact the back lower edge of the wheel well - where the only contact I've ever seen occurs. That might explain why Eric and I never saw that. If we're running the front end stiffer, there might have not been enough body roll to get the tire in 'just the right spot' and enough tire distortion to contact the edge of the wheel well. That does NOT explain why we didn't see that behavior off road. Edward www.4x4extremesports.com
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Post by monty98 on Mar 25, 2013 18:58:46 GMT -5
Thanks Edward, I am running my torsion bars pretty stiff. The upper bump stop is almost always in contact. That's why I loosened them a tad, because I wasn't getting any down travel. So could I just trim the downward bump stops a little then?
I mean I don't want to max out the ball joints and make them stop downtravel because that might be extra wear and tear you know what I mean?
I know what you mean with the distortion of the tire on the rim, I run my tires at about 26 psi and that gives me perfect contact with the ground. My problem is rubbing on the front bumper in turns.
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Tires
Mar 27, 2013 21:11:27 GMT -5
Post by ES_97Sport on Mar 27, 2013 21:11:27 GMT -5
Thanks Edward, I am running my torsion bars pretty stiff. The upper bump stop is almost always in contact. That's why I loosened them a tad, because I wasn't getting any down travel. So could I just trim the downward bump stops a little then? I mean I don't want to max out the ball joints and make them stop downtravel because that might be extra wear and tear you know what I mean? I know what you mean with the distortion of the tire on the rim, I run my tires at about 26 psi and that gives me perfect contact with the ground. My problem is rubbing on the front bumper in turns. I have GOT to pay more attention to who drives what. I keep forgetting your Sport isn't the 'Wide' version and you don't have a bull bar. I took a good look at your pics. Rubbing on the lower corner of the front was a problem for me with the 33"s until I trimmed the stock fascia. What I did was make a \ cut and sniped the bottom corner off the front fascia. If I remember correctly, I started up about 4" and came down to maybe 1.5" in. Just a straight cut. Wasn't enough to actually notice but it was plenty to get rid of that annoying rub. BTW, you probably want to do that. I ran into a nasty gotcha in reverse off road if you got the tire JUST right. I keep forgetting about those little corners because it was such a small trim and so unnoticeable. I think it took me about 5 minutes to etch the line and then snip with the saws-all. I always ran the stock bump stops with no modifications and I strongly recommend against using the low profile stops or trimming the stock stops. The more you screw with the angle, the more you're going to run into problems. So, I'd say - based on your picture - if you're happy with things as is, leave it where it is. The more you turn up the torsion bars the stiffer it gets and you don't have 200 lbs of bumper and winch to off set that so the ride will get pretty choppy. The bigger problem is that the further you tighten up the bars the worse your articulation will get. We're back to my argument against using high-pressure gas shocks. We ran into this on Eric's. The more you tightened up the bars the harder it was to get the front wheels to compress. We actually had to leave his '98 back about half way up Iron Chest in CO because the front wouldn't articulate over a slightly off camber shelf. Driver side wheel kept trying to shove the body over instead of tucking into the wheel well. You DO NOT EVER, EVER want to get to this point - this is indicative of a really messed up design flaw. It's also extremely embarassing if you happen to have experienced onlookers 'cause this is a seriously 'noob' mistake. ;D ;D The other problem is getting a decent alignment. I didn't have TOO much trouble once I found a good shop, but it took an act of God to get his aligned correctly and then it still didn't steer as well as mine did. No tire wear issues, just didn't track as well. Yes, it will increase bj wear. And, tie rod wear. A LOT. I bought my '97 January of '98 so I had mine about a year and a half (about 50-60K miles) before he bought his. We did the same trails and put very close to the same millage on off-road so it was a good comparison. By the time I did the SAS in March of 2001, I'd replaced one half-shaft. Everything else was still fine. By that time, his '98 was to the point of replacing everything with Heim joints because the entire steering system (short of the steering box) was in need of replacement. In addition, both of my half-shafts went in his because they were needed, too. Part of this I attribute to the MT/rs and heavy steel rims - those tires are wicked heavy compared to my Geolandars and a lot stiffer which means they transmit a lot more shock to the steering and suspension than mine do. But, mostly its just the extreme angles. Those parts were just not made to be pushed that far out of align. Still, we never did have an actual failure on the trail - which is probably a good thing. Its nice to be able to punch it up that far but if you have to shave the bump stops so you have more room to turn up the torsion bars, you have a completely different problem that needs addressing. Such as, it's time to do a SAS 'cause you're exceeding the pratical limits of IFS. ;D ;D 26 psi?? Wow! Mine wallows like a pig at that pressure with the Geolandars. I end up between 30-34 psi. But, if you're getting good even tread wear, that's where it should be. The difference in pressures depending on tire brand/model on the same vehicle model always amazes me. Edward www.4x4extremesports.com
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Post by monty98 on Mar 28, 2013 20:59:40 GMT -5
Actually, I DO have the wide model. Fenders got ripped apart a few times, so I took them off ;D
I intact JUST did that exact trim you mentioned, ill post a pic soon, but sooo much better, I did a poser flex in my garage, and I still have space to go for sure.
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mwd
Newbie
Posts: 2
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Tires
Dec 9, 2014 20:19:53 GMT -5
Post by mwd on Dec 9, 2014 20:19:53 GMT -5
I got 32/11.5/15 maxas mudders on my factory rims they don't rub and I hav no lift either
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Tires
Dec 10, 2014 14:59:01 GMT -5
Post by ES_97Sport on Dec 10, 2014 14:59:01 GMT -5
I got 32/11.5/15 maxas mudders on my factory rims they don't rub and I hav no lift either That doesn't surprise me. What fits w/o clearance issues is very dependent on the shape and width of the tire. CoSport and I figured this out when we were running 33x12.5x15s on his '98 and my '97. He ran Dunlop and Goodyear M/Ts and had clearance/rubbing issues I never had with my Yokohama M/Ts because the tire geometry is different. Most of the problems come from the front when you turn the wheel and the outer edge of the tire contacts the back side fender well and the front lower fascia corner. Anything that either narrows the tire width or eliminates the outer square edge of the tire eliminates the problem. So, an 10/11" wide tire or a doughnut (rounded edge) shaped tire like my Yokos would be a big help. Wish I could get my 35"s in a 11" or 11.5". The only problem I have now is with max compression on the front when aired down with the wheels turned. A slightly narrower tire would fix that problem for me. Edward
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