New to Explorers

[Del]

I have a question for all you experienced Explorer owners. I have just purchased a 2000 Explorer XLT with 62,000 miles on it. At this point in the vehicles life what problems could crop up that I might be able to nip in the bud before they reach out to bite me. Also can anyone tell me what gears would typically be in the 4.0 SOHC and what do most of you think of the motor.

When I first bought this I did not think of this vehicle as a serious off roader but it looks like some of you look at it that way. In order to get it to the point of medium off road use (non rock crawling) what would you serious off roaders suggest

 

[Explorer#2]

The gears should be on the axle tag or in the drivers door frame. And as to the motor I love my SOHC but people with OHV will say they love the OHV. And if you want to start out with the off roading, you can to a Torsion twist on the front for about 2"(search torsion twist 101) and shackles and add a leafs in the rear for about 2". Then you can fit bigger tires. But if you don’t want to lift it get some better shocks, I have rancho www.gorancho.com, and bigger tires 31x10.5 should fit with no problem, but every truck is different.

 

[Del]

Ground clearance

I currently have 30" tires on my new to me Explorer. Is this what they came from the factory with. What is the stock ground clearance if anyone knows. What would the comparison be to say an Xterra if anyone knows