New RTV X1140 wheels, tires, lift questions

Island Runner, do you have any updates on your rtv now that is been a few months since all of the modifications? It looks great, would love a video of it running
 
Hunter15, sorry for the slow reply! I flew down to Miami to some fishing with a buddy in his ultra rare Comanche 400. Anyway, the machine runs flawlessly. I have zero complaints on the turbo. I have put right at 154.4 hours and 743 miles on the turbo. I am about an hour away from doing my 200 hour service on it. Although I know I can turn the fuel rack up more and tighten the wastegate to make more boost, I am pretty comfortable in where things are at. If I run wide open full throttle down the road for 10 miles my EGT's never get above 1050-1100 degrees running 8-9 PSI of boost, and the pyrometer is in front of the turbo. I have a field that is over 1 mile long and when it's wet and sloppy the engine works harder than on the road and if I run wide open for a mile through that, I can see EGT's around 1250-1300 degrees at 9-10 PSI of boost which is still safe in my opinion.

My one comlpaint, although a small one is that my 30" tires do rub a bit here and there especially when loaded heavy or with 4 adults in rough terrain. It was not intially like this but I think my coilovers have softened up now that they are "broke in". I plan to remedy this this winter by making a steel wheel well extension. I really only need 3/4 of an inch more room to fully clear the big lugs on these tires. I plan on cutting the the plastic wheel wells about 5 inches up from the bottom of the frame. Removing some of the steel square tubing in the battery tray area and welding in sheet metal in the void at a slight angle. Then bolt the remaining part of the plastic wheel well to that sheet metal instead of the sqaure tube it is bolted to now. That should get me plenty of room for full payload capacity and suspension articulation. I could have done it by now but it's not that bad and just figured I'd wait until a nice snowy weekend to get it done.

As for a video, I will try to get one this weekend. Thanks for the question!
 
Thanks bczoom! Wether it's my Kubota, my truck, golf cart, tractors, guns, chainsaws, home, land, etc., I must customize it to make it my own. I can't stop. It's probably some diagnosable obsessive compulsive disorder but that is for another forum! The biggest problem I run into, especially with the Kubota now, is I run out of things to do to it. Really the only thing left to do on the Kubota is to fabricate new rear fenders/wheel wells. I'm pretty sure I will remove the factory plastic ones and fabricate some steel ones this winter to alleviate the slight rub I get with the huge lugs on those tires when loaded heavy. After that, unfortunately, I will have to find a new project to tinker with.
 
Island Runner said:
Thanks for all the replies everyone. Thought I'd give a little update on my X1140 build. I ended up installing the Demon 2" bracket lift. For wheels I went with 14" MSA M31 Lok 2 Beadlocks. For tires I went with 30"x10"-14" STI Out & Back Max tires. I have attached a pic of before I got the wheels/tires mounted on the machine as that was the only pic I had in my phone. I will get some more pics this evening and post them up tomorrow. It all went pretty smooth but had some rub which I will detail in a bit.

I measured height to the bottom of the front bumper and bottom of the rear hitch as baselines with shocks at max preload and at minimum preload. I did the same with the Demon 2" lift and factory wheels/tires as well as with the 2" lift with the 30" tires. I originally drove it with the 2" lift and 30" tires with shocks at minimum preload. This was so I was able to clear my garage door header! I measured and measured again and knew I was going to be damn close to not being able to make it out of the garage at full suspension preload so I tried it at minimum. I had little bit of rub in the rear but it was only on the lower outer bolt head that bolt the fender to the frame and some rub on the lower part of the fender flare. No rub in the front. I then wanted to see how close I was to fitting out the garage door with suspension at max preload. I was able to get out but it rubbed the header trim. I drove it like this for a few days and had occasional rub in the rear on real off camber situations with 4 adults on board and a few hundred pound of gear in the bed.

I then set out to fix the rub. I cut the lower 6 inches of the fender flare off at an angle to the body and that solved that rub. Then I stared at it for a few days taking body and fender panels off as I was going to cut the frame and weld in a new frame and plate at an angle and shorten the inner fender and replace it with steel sheet. And as much as I know it's a wrong thing to do, I decided simplest solution was best for now and just took a grinder to the bolt head. Took about 1/4" off it and left just enough that it is still holding fine and I can get a pair of vice grips on it to remove it if ever needed. That solved all my rub! I have tested it in almost every load and terrain situation I could find and even with 5 adults and a few hundred pounds in the bed I was unable to get any rub anywhere. I will note that I adjusted out the bolts that limit the steering angle in anticipation of rub in the front but I will move them back a bit as I feel I went a bit too far and can go back in some.

As for loss of low end, it may be a bit slower of the line in a holeshot but only for the first 10 to 15 feet or so. After that, I notice no loss in power or low end torque. I do know my speedometer is way off now. It will only get to 17-18 MPH on the factroy speedometer but that turned out to be 24-26 MPH on GPS. Tires feel choppy and bumpy at crawling speeds on concrete but are smooth as can be offroad or on the road at speed. I have settled on suspension preload at max on the rear and 1/2 on the front. It took some time and patience and few cases of beer but I am really happy with the results. I have noticed no difference in low end torque as I have pulled the same loaded trailer, drug big logs around, climbed any steepness of incline I dared to try, and drove over huge logs and rocks and creeks. I'm satisifed for sure but if I did it all over I would go with 28" tires. At least 28" tires in the style I have. They are really "flat shouldered" if that is the correct description and have huge lugs that stick out from the sidewall. I feel a 30" tire in a more rounded ATV style tire like the factory tire would not rub anywhere.

I would also like to note that I installed 2 inch wheel spacers on the rear and 1 inch spacers on the front but after testing I remmoved all the spacers as they were not needed at all. I actually wish I could remove the factory spacers as I feel they are not really needed either. I left them on as I would need to replace the factory studs to do so as they are not fully threaded hence the lug nuts not being abe to tighten my specific wheels. Maybe a thicker walled wheel would work but I highly doubt it. For now, I have left the factory spacers in the front and the rear. I will post up more pics tomorrow and give the height measurements in different configurations as I wrote them all down on the wall in my garage. I do know that the rear is at least 4.5 inches higher now and the front is at least 4 inches higher. It is a noticable change for sure but has never felt unstable or tippy and believe me when I say I have tried this configuaration in every angle, scenario, and terrain I have on my land. I will say the tires are not soft yard friendly and drag alot of mud into the garage!
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Great detailed writeup. Thanks for taking the time to document your upgrades as well as the results.
 
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