I am in the planning stages of an off-road trip to Arizona and Utah. The focus of the trip is to travel some of the more scenic trails the west has to offer. I am not all that interested in extremely difficult and technical trails, the most difficult trail I plan to run would probably be Broken Arrow near Sedona if it isn't too congested with pink jeeps. I plan to be out for five to seven days and carry all of the required supplies with me to only have to make at the most one provisioning stop. The trip will be in the late spring and I am working on getting the truck ready, so my question is this:

At what tire size does axel and driveline failure become a distinct possibility?

Currently my truck is all stock. It is an '04 SE7 with all of the major service done including a recently rebuilt front prop shaft. It is my daily driver and will be for the forseeable future. As I see it I have two directions I can take the truck for this trip given my budget, each has certain drawbacks that I hope the community can help me sort out.

Option 1.) Leave the suspension stock, upgrade the tires one size from 29" 255/55-18 to 30" 255/60-18 in addition to the larger tire invest in diff guards, steering guard, fuel tank guard, and rock sliders to cope with some of the downfalls of less ground clearance. The downside of this option is that the extra body armor and added gear for the extended trip will push the limits of the stock suspension.

Option 2.) Install the TerraFirma 2" medium duty long travel lift kit and 32" tires. If I go this route I will probably limit the body armor to jus a set of rock sliders. This option will give me higher ground clearance and a tougher suspension to handle the increased load of all the gear including extra fuel and water for extended range away from civilization. The potential drawbacks I see to this route are decreased drivability on a daily basis and increased stress on the driveline because of the larger tires and stock gearing possibly leading to breakage.

I would greatly appreciate those with some experience in the matter offering some advice on which would be the smarter way to go with the truck. I am leaning towards the lift kit and 32" tire option for the piece of mind a few inches of extra ground clearance would give, but I don't want to do so at the expense of driveline and axel failure and decreased on-road drivability. Thanks in advance for the help.

Mike

 

If you won't do serious off roading, skip the armour.. He'll skip the lift.. Id go with lift too

 

I'd go with the lift and add a lil armour in the front to cover your drag link and steering components.

 

u can get that lift for around $ 700 including shipping from Lucky 8, just watch out my lift made my disco rid too high in the front. Almost like I got 3" spriings up front and 2s in the rear, Gotta add a spacer or something. Heard of a couple others with the same problem.

 

If your still on the original stock suspension I would look at replacing it with a medium duty OME or TF as you stock parts are beat. New suspension will make the ride much better. I wouldnt tie up too much on armour either. Just some fresh AT tires and go have fun.

 

I would go with a lift. Seeing as you plan on being self supporting I would consider the OME heavy duty lift. With the extra weight for 5-7 days the medium duty while it will work might not give you the needed load capacity and rendering you with a compromised suspension due to it being overloaded. IMHO, these are not the scenarios you want to have an underrated suspension, if anything you want it to be more robust than needed. The reason I say OME is after the trip you can switch out the heavy duty rear springs for medium duty and regain a slightly softer ride when not full y loaded. Make sure no matter what you do you get the steering stabilizer. And I would get the steering skid plate, sliders and diff protectors even with the lift a wrongly placed tire can quickly turn into a long *** walk out that could have been protected against. Keep us posted adn include some pics. sounds like a great trip I would make it longer.

 

Ok, so based on my initial thoughts, and the response here it looks like I will be going with the lift and some skid plates. How about the tire situation? Does anybody with 32" tires care to comment? I plan on getting either the General Grabber AT2 in 275/65/18 or the Goodyear Wrangler Silent Armor in 275/65/18 or 255/70/18. How is the daily drivability with the larger tire and how do differentials and axels hold up with the increased rotational load?

Thanks,
Mike

 

I run 275/65/18 BFG ATs and I really like them. The tread holds up really well, they still look brand new. Ride quality is good not great, but the truck still feels the same power wise. Definitely get it lifted, otherwise a Discovery just looks like a big golf cart.

 

I would stick to the 275-65-18 or drop down to a 16" wheel/tire combo. Don't go any bigger than a 31.8-32" tire.

 

I went TF medium all the way around with MD front old man emu in front with HD old man emu in rear. Rides great regardless of what people say about how it "should" ride.