Lifting a 110

[DiveLife]

Hi All,

I learned to drive in a SWB 1978 when we grew up on the farm and I've always fancied one since. My mate is selling his 1999 110 Defender SW and I quite fancy buying it and converting it as a promo vehicle for our diving business.

To give it more presence I would like to give it a 2" lift and fit 33" or 35" tyres. It will not be used (at this point anyway) for any off roading and the mods will be purely for aesthetics and to make the vehicle more noticeable. Given this, would a standard set of 2" lift springs and shocks do the job or would I need to do more mods. The most it will do is a few rough car parks, the odd mild green lane and a track or two down to a beach but nothing to arduous. Would anyone recommend any particular 33 or 35 inch tyres and for what reasons. Also, the vehicle has standard boost alloys and could the tyres by fitted to these?

I know this will seem like sacrilege to purists but we all have our reasons.

I look forward to receiving feedback, scathing or otherwise.

Brett

[FridgeFreezer]

If you think that's sacrilege you need to do more reading although the usual question for adding lift is "Why would you want to?" as it just increases the centre of gravity and loses stability. Since this one is about style over substance I'll leave you to it.

Maxxis tyres (MudZilla / Creepy Crawler) look pretty cool IMHO and are pretty well behaved on the road. They're good in the mud too, not that it matters here.

[Andrew Chua]

2" lift is about the most you can go without having to change things like the trailing and radius arms and the prop shaft.

you will be able to fit a 35" after the lift, but you'll need to trim the brows to prevent rubbing from the tyres. you will need to adjust the steering stop when at full lock to prevent the raidus arms getting damanged.

[GBMUD]

If you mainly want to be noticed I would be inclined to forget the lift and go for 33" tyres - a BFG AT perhaps in 285/75 should fit the Boost alloys IIRC. More noticeable IMHO would be a bright colour and a roofrack, snorkel etc. That will make it stand out from the crowd while remaining functional and not upsetting steering castor, increasing wear on bushes, UJs etc..

Chris

[BogMonster]

One tyre option which looks 'kin fantastic, saw it on a vehicle a few years ago when I was over there, is 305/70R16 BFG's on 8.5x16 Compomotive AT alloys. Not cheap by the time you get wheels and tyres, but if you want it to look good....

[FridgeFreezer]

This 110 cost £200 and was a rotbox, but a dust over with the spray gun and a set of ProComps saw some eejit buy it for a lot more on eBay:

The chap also added a salvaged roof-rack, a few cheap spotlights and some stickers and sawed the rear silencer off - looked the part and sounded the part as long as you didn't look too closely

[DiveLife]

Thanks. The 110 is a bright blue metallic and I intend fitting an ali roof rack for a display board when we get to dive sites.

If you mainly want to be noticed I would be inclined to forget the lift and go for 33" tyres - a BFG AT perhaps in 285/75 should fit the Boost alloys IIRC. More noticeable IMHO would be a bright colour and a roofrack, snorkel etc. That will make it stand out from the crowd while remaining functional and not upsetting steering castor, increasing wear on bushes, UJs etc..

Chris

[western]

as it's a bright colour already, so eye popping graphics advertising the business would do more than a big lift/huge tyres,

[DiveLife]

Hi,

Thanks, I had already thought of that. Plenty of divers use poxy L200's and Navaras which sit around the same height in standard. What I wanted to do was make it stand out amongst other dive vehicles with regards to height and then hit them with the graphics. I figured with a 2" lift and 35" tyres it would dwarf the run of the mill 4x4.

Which 35" tyres can be fitted to the bost alloys?

Brett

as it's a bright colour already, so eye popping graphics advertising the business would do more than a big lift/huge tyres,

[FridgeFreezer]

Which 35" tyres can be fitted to the bost alloys?

That's one for whoever is selling you the tyres to say - there are too many options to list.

[DiveLife]

Hi,

It was more a query to see what other people had fitted.

Brett

That's one for whoever is selling you the tyres to say - there are too many options to list.

[GBMUD]

I think that a 10.5" wide Simex will go, but anything wider will need a wider rim - as tyre height increases, so does width sadly. There are more 34" and 33" options. Simex are not generally considered a good road tyre in terms of wear rate, wet weather performance or noise. With a roofrack and boards I think any 110 will stand out beside a Navara or similar.

Chris

[SteveG]

As Chris says, most 35" tyres won't fit your boost alloys. Even if they did the turning circle would be awful. You are better off selling the Boosts and buying some new tyre/wheels as a package. Silverline Tyres do a number of packages for 35" tyres with either 16x8 Black or Silver Sport alloys or 15x10 modular steel wheels. Silverline

The 35's will be enough on their own to lift you above all the truck cabs, so as suggested keep the height standard and just trim the arches.

If you tow a lot, consider that the 35's will increase you gearing by about 20%, so it's going to be sluggish towing any heavy loads.

Steve

[JST]

35s will also mean cr*p acceleration and potential more clutch wear etc esp if fully loaded with pax and dive gear.

33s such as BFG MT 255.85R16 will fit your alloys give good on road use and mileage and look good.

if your doing any reasonable on road mileage then stick with 33s.

if you want a lift as well and its aesthetics you could consider spacers or go for Britpart or similar el chealp springs

[DiveLife]

Thanks everyone. I may have to re-think the 35's and stick to 33s. Maybe put a 2" lift using spacers only to start. Until someone can convince me that I should use the vehicle for what it was intended and then I could do the lift properly.

All your help was much appreciated.

Brett

Hi All,

I learned to drive in a SWB 1978 when we grew up on the farm and I've always fancied one since. My mate is selling his 1999 110 Defender SW and I quite fancy buying it and converting it as a promo vehicle for our diving business.

To give it more presence I would like to give it a 2" lift and fit 33" or 35" tyres. It will not be used (at this point anyway) for any off roading and the mods will be purely for aesthetics and to make the vehicle more noticeable. Given this, would a standard set of 2" lift springs and shocks do the job or would I need to do more mods. The most it will do is a few rough car parks, the odd mild green lane and a track or two down to a beach but nothing to arduous. Would anyone recommend any particular 33 or 35 inch tyres and for what reasons. Also, the vehicle has standard boost alloys and could the tyres by fitted to these?

I know this will seem like sacrilege to purists but we all have our reasons.

I look forward to receiving feedback, scathing or otherwise.

Brett