first of all, im having trouble finding my stock gearing. you all seem to say to look on the white sticker in the door jam but i dont have any stickers there.

ive seen some concern with running 35" tires, in that it will wear out bearings and transmission within a year. although i havnt test fitted yet, it seems that 33" (11.5 or 12.5?) tires look best with the lifts.

i plan on using my stock 16" rims simply because i think they look great! i also wont be doing any off-roading and i do a lot of highway driving and a lot of city driving. minor loss of MPG is ok, maybe change gears in far future.

is it required that i change gearing in near future?

will 33" put too much stress on bearings, trans, etc.?

if i add wheel spacers to compensate back-spacing, will this put too much stress?

basically, i am going to have a 3" BL and a 4" Superlift and larger tires simply to give my X a more bad ass look for the streets. i am spending most my savings to do this, and i want to be sure that my truck doesnt fall apart and im left with no money to fix my daily driver.

thank you! if it werent for you guys, i'd probably of ruined a brand new $30,000 X!!!

p.s. i have searched. my situation is confusing due to street driving rather than off-road and stock rims.

You're not going to get alot of good feedback on wear and tear from lifted explorers strictly on the street. When you lift a vehicle and put large tires on it, the purpose is for trailriding. Why are you going to compromise the ride and reliablity of such a new vehicle if you're not even going to wheel it? Come join us on a run sometime and see how much fun fourwheeling can actually be.

With that said, I will try to answer your questions. The stock IFS will hold up to 33" tires just fine. Especially if you don't take it offroad. 35" tires will put alot of wear on the front, but it's hard to know how much because the people that have them go offroad with them. I would NOT use wheel spacers as they increase the leverage on the hub assembly which is already pretty weak. Also, you will only need the 4" superlift to run a 33" tire.

For street driving I would lower it and tighten up the suspension. Heh, why am I saying I would... I did.

yea 7'' of lift will look really funny with only 33'' tires. if i were you id get the 4'' suspension lift and crank the torsion bars about an inch up front with an add-a-leaf or shackles in the back and then run 33's. or if money is a concern just get the 3'' bodylift (since you dont need the clearance) with a 2'' TT/shackles and then you can run 33's.

I'm with Jason25. If your gonna put a setup like that on a truck you might as well wheel it. I would only do the super lift with 33s. I see a lot of trucks in my area that are huge and don't have a single scratch and have never even seen the grass. I think its totally silly and j#@py.

Well, IMO once you lift, you will end up wheeling wheater you plan to or not. I just got my truck cause it was so cheap and figured I could re-sell for a profit when I found a vehicle I wanted and now look at it. Full blown offroad style and I'm loving it.

If I were you I'd save a bunch of $$$ and go with a tt/shackle lift for 2 inches then a 3inch body lift, ecspecially since you don't plan to off road it, paying all that money for a suspension lift would be a complete waste.

by red96camaro
Well, IMO once you lift, you will end up wheeling wheater you plan to or not

LOL! I keep thinking more and more about turning mine into a trail-worthy machine... :D Since I don't have money though, and the 4x4 is on the fritz, I can't do too much now...

Seriously though, I'd think putting bigger tires and everything would put more stress on things. And if you don't have good gearing/power to counter the weight, you're acceleration's gonna suck... Just plan on spending more money than you thought you would (maybe that's just for me? :))

well, ive been saving up about $3500 and was going to throw it into a system. i really want to make the system myself, but reading all the books about it started to give me a headache, and to really get the cool stuff like touch screens would of cost me a fortune and i always end up overdoing things. plus everyone and their grandmother here in the city have a system. plus, theres no pride in a system, you either have the money to make it badass or you dont.

after i found this site, i realize that it is actually possible to get lifts for the late model. i have always loved big trucks and i thought this would be a better more unique mod that i could more easily do myself and takes some good pride in hard labor.

im not going to lie, i 99% want it strictly for looks and to lift it as high as i can without SAS. i think i would love wheeling and i would prob go out a few times if i did lift it, but its hard in the city. plus, i dont like problems that prevent me from driving everyday (im so lazy i drive across the street) so im sure wheelin wouldnt help.

so to answer the "why would you drop so much money for a lift if your not wheelin", is that i dont mind spendin the money to make mine stand out in the city and something i would love to show off more than a system for the same amount. i would just love to feel the power in my hands when im on the highway and to know i could run over that divider if there is traffic! maybe its silly, but i LOVE the look too much

You can get 5.5 to 6 inches out of the superlift 4" kit. Don't buy the rear springs, just do a springover in the rear. and tighten the T-bars up front. With 3" BL on theryour 33s will look tiny (and funny), that is why I took my 2" BL out. Besides you are raising the CG of an alreay top heavy vehicle. If you do the lift, a few recomendations:

- The sway bar links suck, get new poly bushing links
- The shocks suck even more. They are too soft for a top heavy vehicle. Get some stiffer shocks or adjustable like the RS 9000 and tune them to what you like.
- Don't buy the Superlift shaft, get yours lengthened at a nearby drivline shop. You have to get an adapter for the SL shaft anyway, so why not have one made. If it is a 2 door have the rear shaft lengthend or you might regret it. You can get both lengthened for the same price as the SL shaft.

Just plan on spending more money than you thought you would (maybe that's just for me? )
Not just you!:D

by taxxman2k
Not just you!:D

:D

yes, i will have both shafts lengthened right away. i might wait on shocks till i save more money, but just drive very carefully till then. what about new sway bars? recommend?

maybe 33's will look tiny, but my two main concerns with going bigger (which i rather do than go lower) is that i need new rims and accessive wear to (things?). i am very attached to my 16" factory rims and id hate to get new ones no less spend hundreds for them. my understanding that anything wider than 33's (if that) wont fit on 16x7's.

what exactly gets stressed when going with bigger tires? bearings? what are those? overheating transmission? what else? can i strengthen/cool these components?

For the sway bars, I don't even run a rear so I wouldn't recomend replacing them. Just get good poly busings on the front and rear.

Not sure about the tires, but for the excesive wear, lots of things. THe transmission may or may not be a factor depending on gearing, but the bearings on the front axle and other components supposedly wear quicker than normal with a larger tire. It is still up for debate how much quicker. There are a lot of Jeepers out there running 35s on a D35, but like said before it is hard to tell the wear pattern caused just by the tires, cause most that run larger tires beat on them off road so other factors come into play. I myself will be going with 35s when I get new tires in a year or more. But I wheel it and by then I should have a second car to drive daily so I am not concerned about the wear.

You can keep your original 16x7's. You can run a 285/75/R16 with no problem. I have also seen a 295/75/R16 on an explorer but this is pushing it, I wouldn't go any bigger. With these tires make sure to do the chalk test to get your air pressure right.

hmmmm. do we have D35? isnt that a solid axle?

what are some good poly bushings?

how much does it cost to replace bearings?

dont really want to ruin the transmission, should change gears to match what i have now. how much is changing gears? i dont have the door jam sticker, how do i find out what i have now?

you guys are helping a lot on these questions. from the sounds of it now, i think i am more confident to get 33's or maybe even 35's. sounds like 35's will last a full year for a heavy off-roader. i dont mind making some minor repairs now and then, i just dont want to be stuck with a $1000 damage or more for something like a blown transmission in a year! but i guess if i suck it up and change gears right away too, the tranny will be working just as hard as now, right?

so i add lifts, lengthen shafts, change gears to match specs now, and get 35's. all i risk is wearing down bearings in a year or two? doesnt sound like an expensive repair, or is it?

1 more thing. spacers arnt a good idea. they decrease offset and backspacing. but, you guys get new rims, which have a lower offset (to compensate for the larger width) than factory, right? isnt this the same problem?

The D35 is your front. The rear is plenty strong enough. What you risk wearing out (especially if you have the AWD or Auto 4x4) is the front. You have outer bearings at about $120 each, axle bearings and carrier bearings each under $20 but a MAJOR job to change.

For the poly bushings Explorer Express sells the energy suspension bushing kit for the X, you will just need longer brackets for the front, but once you see them you can make longer ones.

You may not have to change the gearing just depends on what you are running now. Some came with 4.10, if you have 4.10 for 35s that should be plenty unless you hardcore offroad.
Your looking around 500 - 600 big ones (I think).

Spacers put the weight and the pressure farther out on the lugs increasing stress. Farther offset tires still put the weight on the proper place on the lugs.

i saw in the FAQ section that there are two ways to strengthen the front 35. warn and jeep spindle nuts. it says the warn is not made anymore. will this jeep spindle nut thing solve my problem? (i do have auto 4x4)

im dying to know now what my gearing is. i have no door stickers at all. the only thing i see is an upside down "31" painted on my rear differential.

Is there a tag on the rear diff? I fyou can't find it go to a dealer or maybe online and run the VIN.

The spindle nut?? Hadn't come across that. Don't know what nut that is, but it won't make a difference on the bearings, just might keep the wheel from ever falling off?

They make what is called a Super 35 kit for jeeps. Has beefed up bearings and stronger axles. However, unfortunately for us, the jeep axle is a solid axle so this kit does nothing for us.:(

ok, thanks taxxman, youve helped bigtime.

looks like im just stuck with this bearing problem. +$240 for new bearings every 2 years is an OK problem i guess. whats with this major job to change? how much would a shop charge for this?

http://www.explorer4x4.com/tips.htm

thats what i was looking at. does this help?

Originally posted by BonesDT
ok, thanks taxxman, youve helped bigtime.

looks like im just stuck with this bearing problem. +$240 for new bearings every 2 years is an OK problem i guess. whats with this major job to change? how much would a shop charge for this?

http://www.explorer4x4.com/tips.htm

thats what i was looking at. does this help?

That's for the First generation Explorer Twin I-Beam suspention not our IFS.

The outer bearings are easy (after you do them once). The other bearings are the tricky ones. For the axle bearings you have to pull both front CV shafts out, big job requires dissasembling both front sides. I can get it done in about an hour to an hour in a half now that I have done it several times. Then you can get to the bearings in the axle tube. The Carrier bearings may not be something you want to mess with, depends on how comfortable you are with dissasembling the diff. This being my daily driver I am not brave enough to try it. To get to them you have to do the steps as above for the axle bearing and then drop the diff out which isn't too bad but it takes some fanagling to get it between the lower crossmembers installed with the lift. It is cheaper to dissasemble yourself then take to the shop, however time consuming and you need to know what you are doing, if you install your lift then this stuff won't be a problem. Unless it is a specialty shop you may not find one to touch it once it is lifted. I know most common shops including the dealerships don't even want to mess with it. But if you pull the parts out they can fix it in no time.:confused: lost yet?

EDIT:
I am going home at lunch,I will take a digital pic of what your front end looks like when you go through all this crap and all the little parts here and there, since I am in the middle of getting mine fixed (or atleast attempting it).

i was looking through the mechanics book, and i saw where it shows how to replace carrier bearings, didnt seem to difficult. i couldnt find the other two bearings though in the book. are the outer bearings the "tripods"?