Bigger tires what's breaking?

[jread]

Was wondering what the biggest tires people are putting on there subies and what are the weak links in the system? Do you break axles? Rubbing lots? Is it hard to drive on the highway? Does it look sketchy?

 

I'm planning on putting them in an ej25 swapped gl with a 4" lift. I have 215/75r15 wondering if I can get away with bigger. Might even consider getting a 6" if the car will stay steady on the highway.

Edited October 15, 2016 by jread

[Uberoo]

I've fit bigger tires with no lift,so yes you can go bigger.With the ej25 you might be able to go as big as a 31" tire depending on what sort of terrain you will be running in.If its really tight and technical like rocks and trees stumps than about a 29" is max so you still have something resembling gearing, for mud/sand/and bombing down fire roads than run some 31"+ tires.

 

When the cars are still powered by the 1.8L "pancake of power" expect to effectively loose 5th gear with +sized tires,however, with the ej25 that might not be as much of issue.

 

As far as parts that break,hehe, everything.

With 1.8L of fury motivating the cars,CV axles front and rear,struts,control arms,differentials,and even transmissions have been known to give up the ghost offroad.With a ej25 depending on how you drive EVERYTHING up and including the engine is fair game as far as breakage goes.

 

I'm sorry to say but subarus make very poor mall crawlers,meaning that if you want to lift it for appearance sake you will be sorely disappointed.Lifting a subaru is really only done when you want to improve how it offroads-at the expense of everything in the drivetrain being subjected to much more stress than normal, so failure of said parts is not a matter of "IF" but "when".Commuting in a lifted subaru with tires bigger than 27-29" is not really that fun.Not alot of power(with the 1.8) and the MPG takes a BIG HIT even after correcting for tire size.Ive had subarus with the 1.8 go from roughly 25+ mpg in town to 18-19 mpg.the car in my profile picture had 31" tires with an additional transfer case along with deeper 4.11 differential gears and an ej22  and there will still some times where it didn't have enough power/gearing.For instance starting from a stop in 1st gear in hi range required a little bit of clutch slipping,in the mud 2nd gear low/hi or 2nd gear hi/low was about the best it could do(subaru hi/lo range+ transfercase hi/low range, lowlow was only for rock crawling)

[Scott in Bellingham]

My recommendations on the EA82: 4" lift 27" tire, with fender trimming upto 29" , 6" lift 29" tire, I prefer a 235/75-15 MT with a 6" lift, 215/75-15 with with a 4" lift is a nice setup, if your locked up in the rear diff with a EJ you'll eventually brake a rear axle or stub if your offroading , now something people usually forget and I learned the hard way is bump stops on the rear, say you have a big tire and your off camber with opposite wheels off the ground, well all the driving force is now on that 1 rear wheel that's bottomed out jammed into the wheel well , if you haven't extended the bump stops then your tire may be rubbing the fender well and cause more stress on the rear axle and brake it, also on breakage your driving style has a lot to do with the loads and stress you put on your vehicle

[jread]

Sounds like I should probably stick with my tires, and maybe do some trimming to fit something a bit bigger but over 29 is just going to break everything. 

Also not mall crawling. Putting it over some decent obstacles to go camping but still need to DD it. 

 

Right now I have a loyale with 215/75r15s may do some extra trimming/ banging to get the extra width but don't know if I'll need it.

[Uberoo]

235/75/15's work fairly nice but it does sap some power but with a ej25 it should be about perfect with a 4" lift.