Just got a stock 99 two door tracker. Pirate Search is disabled for me at the moment, and Tires stores are no help. Does anyone know the largest safe tire size that I can put under my stock tracker? Not ready to lift at the moment.... Also, what is the best selection of back spacing for rims? Greatly appreciate any assistance/sage advice that anyone can offer!!!!
Loren

Sorry, don't know exactly, but I did see one a few weeks ago with 235's on it that looked very nice. I would pick the tires I wanted, then make them fit. I think I could easily fit 225's on my 93 without lifting or trimming.

Yeah I ran 235/75r15s on my 92 kick soft top, with a little trimming and a little beating. Sometimes it rubbed a little on the frame in the front at full stuff + full lock, but that was pretty rare

My friends 03. She has a small body lift on it here but she ran 29" swampers stock no problem.
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d35/bigzook/Gayle1.jpg
Those are 30's

Sounds like I could run 29's easy enough...With regard to good tire travel, how much lift do you need for 31's? If you want to use a rim that kicks it out more than stock more lift is necessary? Saw an article that suggests 5 inches of lift for that combo... Sound about right?
Loren

Sounds like I could run 29's easy enough...With regard to good tire travel, how much lift do you need for 31's? If you want to use a rim that kicks it out more than stock more lift is necessary? Saw an article that suggests 5 inches of lift for that combo... Sound about right?
Loren

to fit 31's you will have to do a the rocksteady kit from rocky road(not recommended after comparing my rockyroad kit to calmini's in actual trail performance) or calmini's kit (better kit, but scary customer service). Even then its a VERY tight fit because of the backside of your front wheels wants to bite into the wheel well while turning the largest I could fit without trimming even with the rocky road kit and a 2" body lift was 30"s.

http://www.rocky-road.com/kicksus.html

the silver tracker on rocky road outfitter's page is mine. it is a 1999 tracker. It has the grand vitara old man emu coils, as well as doubled up coil spacers, and a 2" body lift. I have 30" muds on it, 31" fit with trimming, but dont fit well(you can see fromt he pic how close the back of the front tire is to the well...it will actually hit it when turning with 31's) As far as flex goes, because rocky road gets their lift from stiffer springs, it depends on how loaded with gear the tracker is. If my tracker is really loaded up, it gets around 23" inches of flex. if its not loaded it gets about 17"...its that significant of a difference.
http://www.rocky-road.com/media/rocksteadytracker1.jpg
http://www.rocky-road.com/media/hellsrevenge%20065.jpg

You have a 2 inch body lift,, Did you have to modify your t-case shifters? What is the backspacing on your rims? (they look great!) Is there such a thing as lift springs with changing the front a-arms? How much lift would you say you have at the moment? 2inch body lift plus how much spring lift. Lots of questions, I know...I am only two weeks into the coil world. I appreciate any guidance you may have!

Loren

You have a 2 inch body lift,, Did you have to modify your t-case shifters? What is the backspacing on your rims? (they look great!) Is there such a thing as lift springs with changing the front a-arms? How much lift would you say you have at the moment? 2inch body lift plus how much spring lift. Lots of questions, I know...I am only two weeks into the coil world. I appreciate any guidance you may have!

Loren

The body lift requires a special steering modification to make it work (which rocky road started to sell after I installed their body lift and had my steering shaft come apart because of it) no I didnt have to modify my t-case shifter, but my regular shifter had to have the area around it cut out by about 1.5" to accomodate the increaased height of the body so I could get it into 2nd, 4th and reverse. Yes you can put in lifted springs without changing A-arms, but it doesnt work nearly as well and the ride sucks in comparison to the calmini kit. You only need to make sure you dont use such a tall spring that you pop your front axles out of your steering knuckles ( you will actually bust a 'c-clip' to do this, but it can happen) As far as the spring lift goes, both the rocky road outfitters (old man emu) AND the calmini springs in my buddy's tracker have both sagged within a year. with the coil spacers and lifted springs from old man emu, you can get about 1.5-1.75 inches of lift (depending on if you went with regular springs or heavy duty) and the calmini kit is a solid 2.5 inch lift.

Does the calmini kit require the spacers? And it sounds like the steering kit is also a good idea? What does the steering kit do?
Loren

the calmini kit does not require spacers, nor a body lift. I dont remember what it does to your steering, but I think they use something to correct for it. The rocky-road kit messes with yoru tire camber and you have to get special alignment bolts (which I found very difficult to find) that go through your struts t fix the camber, and then you need a special intermediate shaft coupling for your steering shaft to make sure it doesnt come apart (like mine did) The special coupling is now sold with the kit, so that shouldnt be a problem.

Went ahead and got some starter tires today. Work well but they do seem to rub when I turn during locked in 4low. Using stock rims at the moment. Will raising it fix problems?
Loren

Raising it probably would help, unless it is rubbing the frame when you turn, in which case different rims or just a thin spacer might help.

Also, get some pics on here. We wanna see it.

And, if you don't want to lift it, I will trade you my new (2000 miles) 205's for your 235's... plus some money.

I would post pics but don't know how on this site. Must you buy the star? Very minimal rubbing on on hard turning. I will probably take the next step towards lifting or rims. I really like how they look on the tracker!
Loren