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2002 Ford Explorer Sport Wheels and Tires

5K views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  jwko 
#1 ·
I have been looking at trying to get some new wheels and tires. I kind of want a rugged look or off-road look if you like that wording better. Like on these:
The Demon 'Sploder - chicago, Illinois
Big Silver: nwerdowatz's 2001 Ford Explorer Sport - San Diego, California
But as you see with these that they all have lift kits or something done with their suspension. Do I need to modify my explorer sport to be able to use these type of tires?
When I looked on the internet on BFGoodrich tires they said that I shouldn't have any other tires on my suv other then like an All seasons tire, which the one's I'm looking at arn't all season. Could you please help?
 
#2 ·
You can put any tires you want on the vehicle. If you don't want to lift it your choices narrow a bit, but there are still offroad styles you can get. Best site to use is Tire Rack - Your performance experts for tires and wheels as you can view the sizes (stock or enter in a size slightly larger; 5% more sidewall as an example). I wouldn't go more than 1.6" taller than stock diameter or more than 10mm wider or you will have to trim some of the plastic wheel well liners. If you don't, the tires will rub.

The links you posted are of more heavily modded vehicles. If you run larger tires over 35", you should think about replacing the axles (front and rear) with stronger units and of a lower aspect ratio so performance isn't affected as greatly. The lift is the least of your problems when tackling a project such as those. A solid front axle would be the way I'd go over the independent front suspension setup, as IFS isn't nearly as strong as a solid axle. If you're more after the off road look and don't want to spend the bucks on everything else, check out tirerack above and get some light weight wheels, and tires that you like. LT tires will weigh 25-40% more than a passenger rated tire, so this is why I suggest purchasing light weight alloy wheels to help offset the added weight of the heavier tire. Cheers.
 
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