Newbie with ideas

[downonthefarm]

i bought myself a 99 explorer xlt 2wd with a 4.0 sohc auto tranny, 4.10gears, and leather. this took over the daily driveing for my 91 ranger4x4 lifted 7" on 34's.
and since i have a 4x4 lifted i was thinking about gettin a mild pre runner kit Probably only lifting it 3.5-4" with 32'sx11.5r15 or 16 a/t tires.

but right now i get around 17mpg-19mpg city, and 20 highway reason so bad on highway is cause i have a 27" tire with 4.10 gears.

so my questions

with the 32x11.5" tires and 4.10 gears, should i get better highway driving? I do mostly highway/country road driving

How much will the bigger tires slow my truck down? its fairly quick right now, and i like it

how hard would it be to get 12-14" of travel? i want to enter the tough truck mild class with this. after the susp. kit ill be putting a roll cage in along with 2 racing harnessess.

any ideas for a good 3"-4" lift kit?

i think this truck will perform fairly well, i have a 7/8" aftermarket rear sway bar, and i can get it sideways on the dirt roads, and my lil dirt track at my farm. Like its really easy to control it sideways maybe its just me cause im use to a lifted ranger

 

[Rick]

Welcome to the site. 27s are definately small for the gears you have. 32s should leave you with plenty of power, but I doubt the fuel economy would improve. The larger tires are heavier and have more rolling resistance than the 27s. That would probably eat up any advantage you would gain by the ratio change.

As for your other questions, my suggestion is to use our search function to see what has already been discussed. There are many excellent threads to learn from and add to on this site.

Good luck with your project