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Expedition Vehicles (how to build?) help

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Pookster

1/2 ton status
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as work on my truck progresses, im going to order tires before shipping rates are reflected in the increase of fuel cost.

I really want this truck to be almost expedition styled- meaning no real rock crawling, but similiar to the functionality of the Turtle Expedition or the Earth Roamer. (two ends of the scale). Turtle is functionality over Luxury- Earth Roamer is like a yhat on wheels.

Turtle has and still uses ALCOA hot forged aluminum one-piece wheels. Tires were BFGoodrich 255/85R/16/D Mud Terrains. They have used Ford f350's.

Earth Roamer uses f450 and f550's. They have run a variety of wheels and tires, from the 19.5's to 16" BFG muds like turtle. Currently they are running Michelin XZL 16x9's. which are 36.4" tall.

the truck that I am building the base on is a 92 k2500. Yes, it is IFS.

What is the largest tire I can fit, trimming away the fenders? They must still be 16" in diameter.
 
Coyote 305/85R16. 36" tall AFAIK.

Don't see or hear about many people running them :confused:
 
u2slow said:
Coyote 305/85R16. 36" tall AFAIK.

Don't see or hear about many people running them :confused:
Click to expand...

they would be 10.5 wide and about 34.5 tall.

if you are talking adding that much weight you can go to a 17 inch rim with a 315/70/17 BFG AT off a H2. they can be picked up cheap at the dealership tires and rims. tires are D rated and 3195 for lbs. come out to a 35 12.5 17

a little lift, maybe a 1 inch aluminum body spacer and some cut out fender flares to help a bit as well.

i have them on my 7k lbs dodge and they work great.

some of the new long travel IFS lifts would be good for your app with a nice adjustable shock as well. in my eyes, doing a live axle swap might be better and more cost effective. IFS is nice and is does better than expected most of the time, BUT if you plan on using this as its built for then the parts are a lot easier to find in remote areas for some more common axles.

grant
 
I'm running 285/75/16's on my 88 1500 right now with no problems. They measure out to approximately 33".
 
Did anyone watch that new show TopGear on the Discovery channel last night? They had this vehicle on there again called "the Bowler"

http://www.bowler-offroad.com/Pressrel.html

"The new BOWLER WILDCAT is a fully built turn key race vehicle, available in both left and right hand drive format."


This vehicle is made to run the Paris to Dakar race. I guess it is a endurance type race. I am also interested in building my truck for this kind of driving as well.

When they had this vehicle on that show last night it had some really funky nobby tires. They looked kind of cool I am curious as to what type of tires they were exactly.
 
15's wont clear the brakes, or so I've been told. I did some research a while ago and posted up my results- it showed that diameter wise, there was no real difference between a d60 rotor size and a 88+ k2500 rotor. So I never understood why 15" wheels wouldnt clear. 16" is the smallest I could get for my truck.

16.5's have some great cheap tires, but avalibility is somewhat limited.
17's are getting popular. I should acutally check on the take off's from a h2.

305/70's are real similiar in height if not just a bit wider than the 285/75.

I would love to get a set of the 9.00R16 michelin XZL's...

I'll probably end up getting the 285/75, simply because replacements are more widely avaliable.

as for the lift- I really dont want to "lift" the vehicle. im replacing all the fenders anyways, with pre-runner fenders so clearance isnt tha tmuch of an issue up to a degree.

i did see the toyo m55s- these are Steel sidewalled tires!
 
Seventy4Blazer said:
if you are talking adding that much weight you can go to a 17 inch rim with a 315/70/17 BFG AT off a H2. they can be picked up cheap at the dealership tires and rims. tires are D rated and 3195 for lbs. come out to a 35 12.5 17
Click to expand...


That's what I run on my 'Burb. great all around setup. I have done some crawling (mild), but after a 1700 mile trip with 4 other guys in the truck. No problems at all. They are great on the road/trail and surprised me on the rock.
 
35's need at least a 3" body lift to clear on the 88-98 trucks. Bodylifts also look like ass on these trucks, too much frame shows IMO.
 
u2slow said:
305/85R16 is 12" x 36.4" with my calculator :confused:

Denman's Coyote A/P in this size is a 10-ply tire with 3640lb rating. They say its only 36" though ;)

http://www.denmantire.com/catalog.php
Click to expand...

Tire sizes aren't that exact. Look at the real numbers for different brands of the same size. A BFG 31-10.50's actual numbers are different than Cooper's 31-10.50's which are different than Goodyear's 31-10.50's. IME the more odd the tire size the less consistancy in actual dimensions from brand to brand.

For the IFS trucks I would ONLY use an RCD kit. They aren't the least spendy, but their roots are in the desert (speed) and their product is well built.
 
Pookster said:
15's wont clear the brakes, or so I've been told. I did some research a while ago and posted up my results- it showed that diameter wise, there was no real difference between a d60 rotor size and a 88+ k2500 rotor. So I never understood why 15" wheels wouldnt clear. 16" is the smallest I could get for my truck.

16.5's have some great cheap tires, but avalibility is somewhat limited.
17's are getting popular. I should acutally check on the take off's from a h2.

305/70's are real similiar in height if not just a bit wider than the 285/75.

I would love to get a set of the 9.00R16 michelin XZL's...

I'll probably end up getting the 285/75, simply because replacements are more widely avaliable.

as for the lift- I really dont want to "lift" the vehicle. im replacing all the fenders anyways, with pre-runner fenders so clearance isnt tha tmuch of an issue up to a degree.

i did see the toyo m55s- these are Steel sidewalled tires!
Click to expand...

I have a set of 5 BFG A/Ts 35x12.50R16.5 mounted on Prime Wheels 16.5x9.75 (but the offset kept them tucked under the rear wheel well of my old 1999 3/4 ton suburban) sitting in my garage. I keep thinking I want to use them for something, but really don't have a use for them. When I get back to my home computer I will post some pics of them if you want. I'd like $600 and you pay shipping for the set of 5 tires and 5 wheels. 4 of the tires have less than 10,000 miles on them, and one of them is brand new. The brand new one was the spare. It would take a 3 inch body lift and maybe some trimming to fit that size tire/wheel combo, or a 6 inch suspension would clear them fine. Let me know if you are interested and I will post the pics. I live in Houston, Texas if you want to try and figure out the shipping charges for them.
 
thanks for the offer. 35x12.5 is too large, plus 16.5" tires are harder to find.

I ordered a set of 285/75R16 MT's. I'll take some pics when they arrive.
 
No problem. I see now that you are in NY anyway, so you could probably buy them for new with the price of the shipping added to it! Let me know how you like the MTRs. I thought about those for my K5, but got Boggers instead. All I can say is that I love the way they look, but I sure am glad they are not on my daily driver!
 
I've had three sets of MT's before.

Unroyale Laredo MT's
BFG Mud Terrains (non KO, the original)
and Goodyear MTR's.

Its been an interesting toss up

the uniroyale are great MT's. They dont make them anymore, but they were very very beefy in the tread area. Too bad they were a little thin in the sidewall. They acutally were relatively quiet for a MT. Was very good in mud and sand.

the BFG Muds were by far the loudest of the bunch. No amount of balancing would help. They literally sang on the road, and it wasnt pleasing. Wasnt as good as the uniroyale in the mud, but did rocks much better (a slightly sticker compound I think). Sidewals were very good, but was easily abraded.

the MTR's were by far the best street mannered of the bunch, and best in the rocks. The sidewalls were very strong, but flexible. Its mud performance was not nearly as good, and it was acutally good in sand, but only aired down. this was also the quickest wearing of the bunch.

The new set Iam getting are the MTR carcass but retreaded from hi-tec retreading. Due to a lack of real reviews of the tires, I am playing guini pig. The biggest issue with MT's are their ice performance (or rather, a really dangerous performance on ice) since there is no sipes, slits, or anything else to help the rubber grip the road. So I am getting the green diamonds, which are the embedded carbide bits.

I would have loved a 33" AT with the bits, but, nobody makes one. Heck, nobody really makes an oversized snow tire either!
 
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