- Joined
- Aug 31, 2021
- Messages
- 1,891
- Reaction score
- 974
- Points
- 113
- Location
- Roanoke VA
- Vehicle Year
- 1997 and 1999
- Make / Model
- XLT 4x4 & B3000
- Engine Type
- 4.0 V6
- Engine Size
- 4.0L in XLT, 3.0L in B3000
- Transmission
- Automatic
- 2WD / 4WD
- 4WD
- Tire Size
- 31x10.5-15 K02's on the Ranger, 235/75R15 on Mazda
- My credo
- The perfect is the enemy of the good.
I was watching some vid of Bald Mountain trail and they were running Toyota 4runners and the guy was narrating which had lockers and which didn't and the tire diameters they were running.
It seemed to me like the lockers really work and if you are on super uneven surface if you don't have it and one wheel loses traction, you're done. In a situation where the fronts can't pull you up.
My understanding is limited slip diff, which I have, won't really help you when you are stopped and trying to move from stuck and one wheel is slipping.
So I think that's one of the smartest and first things a person would want to do, I think it would run into some money, probably depends could I put it in myself.
The other thing I noticed was that bigger diameter tires didn't seem to really help, trucks running stock tire sizes, as long as they had a fairly aggressive tread, did fine.
I think a lot of people put bigger tires for the looks of them. Now I'll admit if you air down a lot you probably are going to get a better result over rocks because they can better conform to the rock and grab it but how much difference, is maybe questionable. Plus depending what you do for larger than stock, just about right away you have fitment problems. That said, I think something like 2" lift would be about right for me, wouldn't look or drive much different, and -maybe- I could go to 32" tire, or stick with stock 31". Or no lift, just stay stock until the need arises. Bigger tires are harder on the drivetrain and they weigh more so that's a couple disadvantages.
The other thing I picked up somewhere is if you are going slow a lot you should use 4Lo because it doesn't have as much tendency to overheat the trans.
Is this all making sense? I'm just talking/planning about what would I want to do for upgrades. Not trying to make a rock crawler but trying to get the most out it I can without going too far from stock.
It seemed to me like the lockers really work and if you are on super uneven surface if you don't have it and one wheel loses traction, you're done. In a situation where the fronts can't pull you up.
My understanding is limited slip diff, which I have, won't really help you when you are stopped and trying to move from stuck and one wheel is slipping.
So I think that's one of the smartest and first things a person would want to do, I think it would run into some money, probably depends could I put it in myself.
The other thing I noticed was that bigger diameter tires didn't seem to really help, trucks running stock tire sizes, as long as they had a fairly aggressive tread, did fine.
I think a lot of people put bigger tires for the looks of them. Now I'll admit if you air down a lot you probably are going to get a better result over rocks because they can better conform to the rock and grab it but how much difference, is maybe questionable. Plus depending what you do for larger than stock, just about right away you have fitment problems. That said, I think something like 2" lift would be about right for me, wouldn't look or drive much different, and -maybe- I could go to 32" tire, or stick with stock 31". Or no lift, just stay stock until the need arises. Bigger tires are harder on the drivetrain and they weigh more so that's a couple disadvantages.
The other thing I picked up somewhere is if you are going slow a lot you should use 4Lo because it doesn't have as much tendency to overheat the trans.
Is this all making sense? I'm just talking/planning about what would I want to do for upgrades. Not trying to make a rock crawler but trying to get the most out it I can without going too far from stock.