Making your X-90 ride right-Soft and smooth

wolf66

wolf66

Well-known member
1st:
Make sure you use Suzuki's air pressure guide on the inside of the drivers door. Mine says 23 lbs. Don't listen to people who say "You need 35 Lbs, says so right here on the tire" That tire guide is for MAX load which is way over what a X-90 weighs. Listen to Suzuki, they designed the car. Running over what Suzuki says will wear out tires in the middle fast and ride real rough.

2nd:
The 195/65 profile tires that come on it are too low for good shock absorbtion (the sidewall is skinny=less air cushion) esp off-road but on-road too. Plus they look under sized in the wheelwell. Only use those or lower profile tires if you must have the lowrider look and don't care if it rides like a dump truck.

But if you want a smoother ride and 1" more ground clearance without a lift kit then...

After careful measurement I went with 215/70/15's which fit with no rubbing and make the ride 100% smoother and add 1" to ground clearance. I went down some of the same dirt roads which had shook the car bad over 10mph with the stock tires and now went 35-40mph and
so much smoother.

I went with the Yokohama Avid S/T @ $47 each, it is a All-Season Performance tire. From w ww.tirerack.com

Antony St Pete Fl
 
I am currently running 215/65R15s on mine. But once I lift it, I am going with either a 29 or 30" tire. I have been looking at the Super Swamper Trxus STS in the 29x10.50 size. They are an awesome looking all-terrain tire and should do nicely under the X-90 for light duty offroading.

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You call those "light duty" tires ?! lol

Me cheap/broke, here's what I am gonna do, 2 sets of 1" coil spacers from RockyRoad @ $39 a set, and a set of Yokohama Geolander ($60 ea @ tirerack.com)225/70/15's (27.3") on the stock rims. The stock ground clearance is 6.5". The stock tires are 25" dia. That should put me up to around 8.5" ground cleance.
I would worry about the power train strain with really big ones like you want. Plus i use mine on road alot too.
Antony
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On another subject, I wanna get a snorkle from RockyRoad too, what else do you need to seal under the hood and drivetrain? I am not talking real deep water 'cause i don't wanna flood the interior just yet, since I doubt the door seals are water tight.
Antony

 
For the snorkle, you are going to want to add some breather hoses to the diffs as well. On top of each there is a small opening/tube to allow it to "breathe". If you plan on running through a lot of water, it is a good idea to address these. Some longer rubber hoses will do the trick nicely.

As for the drivetrain, it will do fine with the 29" tires. Besides, I will also upgrade the gears when I go bigger. I have a set of 5.12 R&Ps ready to go in the diffs to correct for the larger diameter tire. I am planning on eventually strengthening the diff housing though by switching out the aluminum cases for steel ones from a grand vitara. I am also looking at the 4.4:1 tcase gears from Rocky Road. I would love to gear down the case for better low range offroad.

And yep, those tires are light duty. I was originally looking at the SSR series swmaper. I still haven't ruled them out yet, but the STS are cheaper. And I drive it on the road a lot too so these might be overkill. ;D
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195/65-15 = 24.21"

215/70/15 = 26.85"

Difference of about 2.6" so you actual gain more like 1.25" ground clearance with this larger size tire. With a X-90 I'd say every 1/4 inch should be treasured!
 
I agree every 1/4 counts when you start at 6.5"! lol

Anywho now I think i'll go taller with a 225/75/15 Dunlop Rover P-Metric at $65 each since they are about the tallest i can get on the stock 15"x5.5" rims with a 1-1/8" (RockyRds new size spring spacer) lift.
The Dunlop says it is 28.3" dia, so 8.15" of clearance from the tires + 1.12 from the spring spacers = 9.27" of ground clearance avg i hope though it will still be 8.15" at the diff. it seems.

The Yoko's do seem to have a more agressive tread pattern though and a wider tread width (7" vs 6.3")
Whats better, .7" more tread W or 28.3" tall vs 27.6" ?????

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Well, just remember, the taller you go...the farther you are going to throw off your gearing. If you don't plan on ever changing your gearing either in the tcase or at the diffs, then try to stick as close to the original size as possible. Because the bigger you go, the more you will notice the power loss.
 
you can always throw in a set of Kick 5.13's

Were all X90's Automatics? I have seen about a dozen in real life all autos..
 
There were manual and auto X90s. But all had 4.62s in the diffs. I actually have a set of Sidekick diffs set up with the 5.12s that are going in mine once I lift in and get the bigger tires on it.
 
Hi All
I have 205/70/15s on my Australia X90 Stock
I run them at 19psi and the ride is great. On and off road. I have 8" under diff's
 

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