Dham mtr in the snow ur ballzy ill never do it again.

the XL7 rear springs do give more lift and are a bit thicker and hold more weight. the front are almost the exact same on my dads XL7 as the GV

I think it's time to order some springs from an XL7...

however do you guys know which year? I know one year an XL7 was just a luxury package'd version of a GV

also, the MTR's arne't bad at all running the 19psi of Air... cept it might be just a tad low but the tires don't seem to warm up too badly

when you get those xl7 springs it would be great if you took a pic and posted the 2 of side by side for visual comparison

we'll see how my swamper's like the snow...  i drive'm at 30psi on the street right now.  i'd still like to try and put some sipes on the inner treads but dunno if i'll ever get around to it.

I'll see if I can get those XL7 springs sometime, once I know which year to pick up

As for the tires... Your swampers will be just awesome in the snow
it's the ice that's the problem

Assuming you have the radials, you'll be able to air them down nicely without having to deal w/ stiff sidewall issues with a bias'd play

I called my local goodyear, and they agreed that I can run the PSI pretty low on the tracker seeing how I have E ply (10) and they are meant for a far heavier truck... again my sidewall barely buldges at 19, and they don't heat up even with a solid hour of highway speeds (fuel economy is another story)

I called around for siping, and it was the same story, roughly 35 bucks a tire (which I'm cool with) but they said they have to charge for dismount, mount and balcing for another 24 a tire...

FCUK that lol, I'm going to go to a local performance store and pick up a siping knife

Oh... BTW before I forget

I was able to fit the 245/75/16's on the unmodified rear tire holder just fine (very very barely cleared the bumper, but it's just fine)
 
I doubt I'll be able to put the 32's that I want on w/o having to re-weld the mount

ya my swampers are the radials, they drive better than i expected them too.  i'll probably run them maybe 25psi lowest for the road.  i'd be interested in what you find for a siping knife.  i called a few local tire shops and they didn't have any idea.  we don't have any snow yet though! 

i don't know what year xl7 springs would be best either.  i don't know what the price will be like either.  in case you decide to go with something different try national 4wd, they quoted me $100cdn per spring for the medium duty OME's.   this was my original plan but anything could change!

woot woot... got my tires on today. 225/75R16 from canadian tire. they have a sale on right now. The tires i got are also sold by Big O tires under the name BigFoot XT (http://www.offroad-review.com/product_reviews/BigfootXT/bigfootXT.html). I had them mounted, balanced, tax, road side assistance, tire disposal fee etc etc etc and they came to exactly $650 CAD all said and done. Good deal. I'll post some pics later.

I must agree w/ you Neil

In fact I would have a set mounted myself if I didn't get such a wicked deal on my MTRs

like once I wear down the MTRs and do the following:

2" body lift
5.12 gears w/ ARB locker
yellow box

I will definately be picking up a set of those Motomaster M\S (Big O XTs) in a 235/85/16


Lets see what kind of trouble we can get you in this Saturday

those tire aren't bad at all, orinigally i expected to buy them for mine but the swampers ended up being cheaper cause there was no sale on at the time..  i wouldn't mind having a set of 235/75's for the winter....

here she be:

looks good, even matches the ground out there!

Ngrover and I went for a little excursion at a local recreational vehicle park near Calgary and had a blast!

Looks like his V6 beast running the 225/75/16 Bigfoot XTs |removethispart|@ 35PSI is significantly better in the ice packed & snow conditions than my trucklet running 245/75/16 MTRs |removethispart|@ 20 PSI

Looks like I'll have to try hard to find a siping knife

maybe ya'll can confirm this... on our hill climbs, and other obsticles Neil was able to get up them with far less wheelspin
Could this be the factor of the following:

1. My tires are too wide for the vehicle for Winter offroading?
2. Not enough siping?
3. Sway bar not disconnected and I have lifted either front tires at one point or another

Also... just an FYI
I definately cannot run the 245's off JDMCRX's lift alone
I have removed the front bumper & splash guards (to be replaced once I hammer/cut more fender out)
The rear fender (the little part by the door jam) was not only "rubbing" at full compression but in fact yanked out and cut nice fat chunks of tire from my side lugs

Looks like I'm looking for more options to lift up the rear end and to "fold" the fender and tuck it away as much as possible

man that was fun! if there are any other zuke owners in calagary that want to head out with Paul (r3cc0s) and I then that'd be cool.

i think my GV faired a bit better even though your truck looks cooler

the differences between our setups are the following:
1) me having 225/75R16 M+S tires vs Paul with 245/75R16 MT's
2) me having 3 inch lift in the back vs Paul having 2 inch lift
3) me having 4-runner shocks in the rear vs Paul having Crown Vics
4) me no sway-bar up front vs Paul with sway bar

.... of all the differences listed above I'd say the sway bar might be the big difference. I noticed my front end worked quite freely while pauls rear end worked quite hard (articulated like mad) to make up for the stiffness up front. His tracker was bouncing around like crazy in a few situations while mine not so much. Pauls crow vic shocks are also a bit softer but i'm not sure if that had anything to do with it.

i'm quite amazed at what these things can do!

I'm a gunna disconnect the front sway ASAP and hopefully get the rear lift installed quickly too

gunna talk to my buddy to see what options I can do to tuck the fender in a bit more.... don't really want to lose any more chunks of lugs on my body no more

Alright --- removed the sway bar and didn't even have to adjust the brake lines at all
If the strut limits the full extention travel, then I have more than enough brake line leaving the line attached to the stock strut clip (perhaps cause I have a tracker w/ smaller disks/calipers than the GV)

The difference in my ability to articulate is significantly better... not having being limited to the other wheel due to the sway bar







Only problem is... I definately need more rear lift and that is coming hopefully within the next week
here is an  example why:


I am going to have to bend in the fender and w/ the 1 1/4 lift, I should have enough clearance as the suspension in the above picture is fully compressed
Surprisingly there is space inside the upper portion of the fender, however it's the width of the tire which touches the fender



then Neil, we'll have to go out and test it again