Gday Michael,
Obviously the more ground clearance you can achieve, the better chance
you have of not getting stuck. Remember though, as a rough rule of
thumb, depending upon which tyres we're talking about, a 15" tyre over
your present 14" will achieve only an extra 13-15mm clearance, not a lot
but it all helps. It's pretty much agreed by a majority of syncro buffs
the BFG AT 215 75 R15 tyres are de rigeur for the syncro, perhaps the
one exception being for snow. Not a lot of that in Oz. You'll need to
replace 5 rims that have the correct offsets as well so good luck
finding them.
So all up, 5 new 15" tyres, 5 new or secondhand wheel rims, a new rear
tyre carrier fitted, it'd be handy to have 3k in your kick just to be on
the safe side. If you're well connected, got good contacts, you'll
probably have some leftover to fill the 70 litre tank.
In my view, particularly for those such as myself with a fully fitted
out Trakka camper setup, it's all the extra weight we're lugging around
that makes soft sand driving more difficult. So a near empty syncro
would be a breeze and if that's your circumstance, then where you place
the spare probably would be inconsequential to the performance in sand
... you'd be light years ahead of the rest of us who are lugging 2.5
tons or more gross weight. Needless to say, in answer to one of your
questions, lugging around so much weight clearly would have an
accelerated adverse effect on all structural and mechanical components
of our syncros. So if all I had to worry about was the re-location of my
spare and resultant change in weight distribution, heh give me a break
.... it's NOT an issue.
I keep thinking about stripping out a lot of the crap I've been hoarding
onboard over the past 2 years ... aaarrrggghhh!
Cheers Michael and good luck with the mods. You'll love it. Just stay
friendly with your bank manager ok.
Ken
--- In
Syncro_T3_Australia@yahoogroups.com, Michael Roberts
<type500@...> wrote:
>
> G'day
> I took my Syncro into the sand for a bit of a play on the weekend (Big
Desert). It is stock standard on R14 rims. I was in there with a T3
auto and a Bay window twincab both on 215/75/R15. The first thing I
have to say is that I am continuously impressed with the performance of
the Syncro. However I quickly found that on 14 inch rims I bottomed out
a lot more that the other two on the bigger rims. In order to improve
the weight balance I removed the spare from the front and put it over
the engine. This improved the ride straight away and I didn't
bottom out as much. I have to say that many of the 4X4 drives we meet
in the trip were amazed that we were able to get where we did. The
Syncro ate up the dunes with ease and put many of the other 4X4 to same
(not that this would surprise other Syncro owners).
>
> I have decided to upgrade to the 215/75/R15 before I next got out but
am still unsure where the spare wheels should go. I have read with
interest everyone's comments of last on tyre size and spare tyre
location, but am interested in weight distribution front to rear. I
think I read that the syncro has a 50 50 weight distribution, is
this true? and if so how does the relocation of the spare wheel from
under the front affect the overall performance? Also relocating the
spare out past the rear wheels must surly affect the rear end during
rough trips. Has anyone noticed increased suspension ware or any other
side effects from the shifting of weight?
> Cheers,
>
> Michael
>
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