Dave is right about the 31's not fitting without a lift. I have a 1.5 inch body lift, Eibach springs in front, with the spacer on top of the strut. It's probably at least 3" of suspension lift and 1.5" of body lift, and when I run 31" mud tires, they STILL rub the plastic bumper in front on the passenger side when the wheel is fully turned to the left and I'm backing out of the driveway. This is after I cut off some of the metal fender to the rear of the wheel well, and I also cut away the metal seam in the underside of the wheel well. Before I did that it also rubbed at the back of the wheel well!

I think you will NEVER fit 31" tires without a lift.

Just for your reference this is how my Sporty looks with the 31" mudders:

Nice Sportage! 31's look huge on a sportage. Those look like the stock 6" wide wheels. I've heard you can't mount 31x10.5 tires on a wheel less than 7" wide. What do you think? By the way, I am willing to take more extreme measures to fit 31" tires and no lift. Remove stock bumpers, MUCH more trimming. And I didn't mention, I have a 2-door, so I think that gives me a lot more room for trimming around the rear wheel. I guess I'll have to quit talking about and do it, then post the pictures. Thanks for your feedback.

Well I don't think it can be done but I wouldn't really know for sure, since I don't have a 2-door. Good luck! It would be pretty cool if you manage to do it. I wanted the lift anyway though, it really helps for the places I go offroading in that have lots of rocks and stuff that used to scrape the bottom of my Kia.

As for the tires question, I haven't had any problems so far with these excellent tires. The wear pattern looks totally OK to me. I think 31" tires are great on the stock rims because when I air down to like 15 PSI they stay real good on the rims, no worry about losing a bead.

I think places like Discount Tire, etc., all have their reccommendations they follow for safety purposes, but I think they are usually very conservative. I know at least one other guy here (Maraguez) who runs 31" tires on the stock rims. If you like the stock rims, I say go for it!

Oh btw I think the hardest part you'll find will be the rear part of the front wheel well. Since you can do whatever with the rear wheelwell, that is. The back of the front wheel well is going to be hard to deal with since you could end up cutting into the body cavity of the car if you trim back very far. Keep us posted on how it goes for you! It is alwasys fun to see extreme modification of Sportages.

I'm running (and racing) 31's on 5,5 (from zuki's) for more than a year now, now noticeable damage...

i picked up 15x8 inch steel wheels for 36 bucks each from jegs. i lifted using eibach springs and upyourkia spacers. i also installed the 1 3/8 body lift. 31 inch super swampers still rubbed on the rear of the front wheel wells so good luck trying to stuff 31 inch tires without a lift.

Hi Dave,

I might be interested in 1.5" rear springs to go with the front spacers that I already have.

well, i was talking mainly about replicating the Eibach kit, not all different sizes of springs. makes quality control an easier issue if i only have to deal with 2 different sizes. if i had the coil manufacturer local to me, i would do it because i could be physically there to make sure it was done right, but since i'm not, i don't want to create chaos where stability is key. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/zombie.gif" alt="" />

Hi Dave,

That's what I was thinking you were going to do, 2.5" front and 1.5" rear (although I don't think anybody would complain if the rear was 2.0").

I just wouldn't need the fronts since I am currently getting my front lift from spacers and rear lift from airbags. With longer rear springs, I would still use the air bags but I could lower the pressure to 5 psi to keep a level ride with no payload. Now that I am running the spacers on the front with stock springs all the way around, I have to run 15psi to be level.

So....I could use rear Eibach clones but I don't need front Eibach clones.

Ron

On a somewhat related note... If I wanted to use airbags, anyone know what a good size would be to use for the Mazda MPV springs?