Hill climbers....

[dirtwarrior17]

I was reading 4 wheeler from a couple years ago and they had an article on CG. They were saying that a lifted truck will give you more of an adrenaline rush because of the front end feeling light. It got me wondering which is better for hill climbin... lifted or non lifted. there are obvious benefits to both: for non lifted its the obvious fact that the cg is lower and you'll have better traction to all 4 tires. for lifted its the fact that you can take lines that non lifted rigs can't because they'll bottom out or get stuck but you will have less traction to the front wheels and better traction to the rear. All this is heresay once you get out and do some hills with a low and high rig.
also with a lifted rig you have bigger tires which means bigger contact patch.

I mostly want to know because my bro has a stock 91 4dr jimmy with a 4.3 and 31x10.50 baja claw radials and i have an 88 K5 with a 6" inch lift and 35x12.50 big foot m/t radials with a hot 355 in it.

How many of you have been out on some hills and been outdone by a stock rig or visa versa by a lifted rig...

basically i want to know who is king of the hill(pun intended) in my family.

 

[85burbanator]

find a hill and climb it. thats the easiest way i can think of. then post some pictures of your brothers truck cause i wana see what 31x10.5 look like on a stock 91 s blazer.

 

[dirtwarrior17]

I was hopin guys whove wheeled with stock and lifted trucks on hills would have something to say on this one. The main reason i want to know is I want to know who can run the bigger hills between me and my bro but also the general concept of a stock lower cg truck vz a lifted higher cg truck. My bros 4 wheel is busted(vacuum hubs ) so i can't just go out and get my answer.

Of course I am going to say lifted because i own one and also the ability to put bigger tires on... air them down and your contact patche is huge.

 

[pauly383]

I have done both . It really isn't bad lifted once your used to it . The steering doesn't get too light at all IMHO

 

[pvfjr]

I've done a bit of wheeling with stockers, unfortunatly we haven't really hit any hills that would tell the difference. I've tore them up everywhere else though.

 

[dirtwarrior17]

thats how i feel about the whole thing but there definetly is a different feel in my bros jimmy. I had already done hills he decided he didn't want to do after i had my truck for 4 months and did it with 35 psi in the tires... closest i've come to rollin it. I got to the top at full throttle with about 1/2 mph of speed left roastin all 4. My bro got out and watched the whole thing...that being said he didn't have his baja claws on when he decided to go the easy way up the hill. I've seen him rally his jim like it was a subaru with full on race suspension... i know he can drive. I guess helping him getting his 4 wheel drive working would be worth showing him that the K5 is king

 

[Jonny-K5]

i've seen some stock trucks do really good with hillclimbs. ground clearance isnt as big of an issue as in level ground wheeling, causs you dont want to be bouncing into big ruts anyway....unless you like rolling over. wheelbase is king on hill climbs. longer the WB, the more traction the fronts will have, and you wont overpower the rears and spin as easily.

you cant say for certain your truck will outclimb his.you also cant say lifted trucks do better at hillclimbs. yours might do better in some situations, his might do better in others. all depends on grade of hill,condition of soil, traction,speed, etc.

i remember one time at a local canyon wheeling spot, there were a few truck trying to do this 250ft hill climb to reach a plateau. it was really crazy with all kinds of off camber sections.probly 50-70* incline. wasnt one of those floor it and see how far you get ones. you had to crawl this thing.

some big trucks with 44's were having a hard time and didnt make it. several trucks came real close to rolling, at about 150ft up. a jacked up toyota w/35's tried several time, with no luck. wasnt transfering enough weight to the front and the thing would just spin. only a few really well built trucks and good drivers made it.
then there comes a bone stock early 80's long bed chevy, with about a 30" tire. pretty much scoots right up it. .sure he was dragging his bumper and diffs in a couple spots, but he was walking all over that hill. there was a crowd of about 200 trucks at the base watching. everyone was amazed. couple of the other drivers who made it were bowing down to him,saying "we're not worthy". it was pretty cool. wheelbase made all the difference.

 

[dirtwarrior17]

I can definetly see where wheelbase and low cg comes in but did the guys with 35's and 44's take their air pressure down to 11 psi? the tread patch of an aired down 35" is WAY more than a 31 and makes a huge difference in any kind of wheeling.

 

[Jonny-K5]

ya, these guys were basically all beadlocks. i dont think anyone there had more than 10 psi. the guys with 44's probly had 0-1psi. major bulge.you can take all the air out you want and still overload the rears from too much weight transfer. the higher you lift a vehicle , the more weight it will tranfer to the rears on an incline

 

[savagek5diesel]

i had some perty good hill climbs when my truck was stock and with probably less effort than my friends with their lifted trucks, and all of us had pretty equal wb. a 70 bronco, and a 78 ramcharger. i was able to do everything they could but on the really steep hills i was the one slamming my bumpers going up the hill and scraping the bottom of the truck at the top.

 

[dirtwarrior17]

44's is getting way up there... those tires were created for mud, rocks, and trails, not hills. I still think that a tread patch almost 2 times as big as a stock tire (35 vz a 31) has the advantage lifted or not but it depends on the lift size. stock K5's sat pretty low stock and even with the lift and tires I only have something like 23 inches at the frame and around 18 at the tcase crossmemer/skidplate. Now I really want to go out and put this theory to the test... I have a buyist opinion obviously, im running 35's and a 6 inch. I've been up some pretty insane hills with my tires air down, in 4 lo with my foot to the floor. When I crawl the real steep ones with loose dirt it just spins em... but when i stand on it and keep turning the wheels left and right very slightly it seems like nothing can stop it. Allthough my bro claims hes done hills just as steep i have yet to see it. damn i wish i didn't have a fusible link blown, have to cut my exhaust and weld it, tune it, get registration, insurance and then have to get my brothers 4 by working...IT's going to happen just not within the next couple weeks.

getting pretty damn tired of looking at that thing in the driveway... at least when i had my learners permit i could back it out and pull in LOL.

 

[short sub]

hi- when i built my sub 3 yrs ago during highschool i had one thing in mind to be big well 12" of lift and 39.5s were put on and here i am today. now that i am gettin more and more into trail riding and hill climbing i absolutely hate it. i want to go to about 6-8" with the 39s for more stability and to get more flex. as of now i dont feel very comfortable on hills- i still do it but it doesnt feel very nice at all.

 

[Jonny-K5]

44's is getting way up there... those tires were created for mud, rocks, and trails, not hills. I still think that a tread pattern almost 2 times as big as a stock tire (35 vz a 31) has the advantage lifted or not but it depends on the lift size.

your right, 44 is pretty big. the canyon i was in was actually a mudpit,so everyone was setup more for mudding than hillclimbing. but when people got tired of going thru the mud they'd climb the canyon walls.

if you were comparing 31's to 35's on a fullsize truck, the 35's would probly be a better choice.if your talking about contact patch to weight ratio, i'd say 35's on a fullsize is pretty close to 31's on a mini.

contact patch size doesnt always mean traction. if you dont have enough wieght pushing that rubber down(or too much) you'll lose traction. his truck would probly climb better with 31's than it would 35's,depending on terrain. its a balancing act, bigger isnt always better.

say you were climbing slickrock. you need alot of ground pressure to hold the treads to the rock surface. a 12" wide tread might be perfect for the weight of your vehicle,distributing it over the contact patch to provide maximum traction. if you had a 18" wide tread the weight of the truck would be distributed over a larger surface,lowering the ground pressure, thereby limiting traction. so even tho there is more rubber touching the ground, there isnt enough weight to hold it there.


that is just a rough example to show its not all cut and dry. there are alot of variables when it comes to traction.

 

[79Beast]

I think for all types of terrain except maybe mud, you should keep it as low as possible to still clear the tires. I'm sitting on 8" springs with 44s and a 125" wheelbase and I love hills. I don't have a picture of my truck on a good hill, but I'm gonna post my buddy's Toyota. Note the bobbed bed. It's the first year of fuel injection and the last year of solid front axle.

 

[Jonny-K5]

mmmmm, 85 yota. love those trucks, just wish i was small enough to fit in one.