JB74 3 inch lift with 215/75r15 tires - looking for pics

I'm on the fence between getting a 2 inch lift kit or a 3 inch lift kit. I've toyed with a 2" sus+1" body lift, but the hassle of the body lift and lack of kits in my area (and anywhere really?) closed that door.

I like the idea of greater suspension travel/articulation but not keen on a 235 tire, don't want to go through gearing changes and clutch work. (The 235 seems to be the choice of tire when looking for +3"). I was able to score a decent price on some Yokohama G003 MT's and all my research is pointing to the 215's as the optimal size. There's part of me that also doesn't want to look all goofy if +3" and a 215 tire is a wonky combo.

My Jimny already has a winch + mount and rock sliders/steps. 5th tire is always on. Future plans include a roof rack and rear ladder. Recovery kit lives in the Jimny. 

Anybody have pics and/or experience of/with said combo?

Your centre of gravity goes up as you raise the vehicle and that reduces your cornering ability and can create problems in steering due to variation in castor angle. Also excessive increases in tyre size will put extra strain on king pin bearings and wheel bearings, front and back. I fitted a 50mm lift and 215/75r15 tyres and believe this to be the option for normal road work and reasonable green lane runs.

Roger

  I’m running a 2inch lift and BFG 215/75/R15 KM3 tires. In my opinion this is a great combo if you want to keep good road manners. Anymore in mods and I feel it’s a downhill journey when it comes to road handling. A 3inch lift on the smaller tires will look odd as there is already a lot of space between the body work and tires. If you start adding alot of weight to the car then I could see the 2inch lift sagging quickly.  

I also saw this last weekend at the Jimny meet and from what I could gather it was running a 3inch lift and I would guess 31inch tires? I didn’t get to ask how it handled on the road. Also as you can see from the pics it no longer has the standard bumpers as I guess they don’t work at this level of mods. 

That front is hideously beautiful in a barbaric sort of way.

wrote:

I also saw this last weekend at the Jimny meet and from what I could gather it was running a 3inch lift and I would guess 31inch tires? I didn’t get to ask how it handled on the road. Also as you can see from the pics it no longer has the standard bumpers as I guess they don’t work at this level of mods. 

Think it had 245/75R16’s on. About 30.5”.

Sadly I didn’t get see how it flexed off road. I did follow it for a while, but they stayed on the perimeter path.

Personally I wasn’t that keen on the no bumper looK and in the U.K. I’m not sure it is actually road legal and did present sharp (and rusty) edges.

Would be interesting to know what lift kit it was running. The front ARB angle didn’t look great, but it might still have good road manners??

As for the iOS question of tyre height. I’m really torn on this. I also don’t really want to regear. At least it isn’t a planned mod at the moment. But there is no denying Jimny’s in general are under tyred in stock from.

Eg a Land Rover Series has an 88” wheelbase and typically the smallest factory tyre would have been a 205 x 16 (~29”). But Land Rovers could come on a 7.50 x 16 (~31-31.8”). The Jimny with an 88.6” wheelbase is running more like a 27-27.7” tyre. The smaller tyre certainly impacts ground clearance and all the approach/departure/break over angles.

I fell foul to this twice at the weekend. I turned up one track that I’d not even considered would be difficult in a Land Rover and promptly sat the Jimny on its diffs with all 4 wheels spinning.

Later on I also went across the side of a mound. I thought it would just flex, maybe scrabble and use the TCS, but drive straight through. But instead it sat beached on the transmission skid plate and drivers rock slider, again needing a tow out.

Of course ultimately both of these were driving errors in putting the vehicle in that place to begin with. But a 100% standard Land Rover 88 or 90 would even have seen them as obstacles.

I also like narrow tyres over fat ones as a rule off road. At least for terrain in the U.K. my current thinking is a 205/80R16 would be my choice of size. Same height as a 235/75R15 but less wide. But of course needing new rims for 16”. (A 6.50 x 16 would be even nicer, but so rare these days).

Sadly there doesn’t seem to be a tall narrow 15” tyre.