Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

Has anyone fitted 31x10.5x15 BFG mud terrains? It looks like I would need an 8" rim... will that fit under my front end if I crank the torsion bars? what would I have to trim? I am going to put another leaf spring under the van in the back, that should give me more than enough lift in the back... anyone? Whats the biggest tires anyone has without a lift? mine are 235/75/15's right now.

Josh

Hi Josh,

To put 31's on I think some trimming and step removal is necessary. I also think you may need wider rims. Montero rims should fit but may be scarce. I just order a set of Big O X/T's in 30x9.5x15. I used them on my Range Rover and have been very happy with them and they have a good warranty. I went smaller to get narrower, not a fan of fat tires. Check them out :



James

Josh,

The UK web site has a detailed thread on tires (tyres) and rims with detailed photos.

Andy

yeah I got 30" bfg's on mine... wish I had gone 31", bite the bullet and get 8" wide rims. the 6" stock rims wont work with 10" wide tires. taller tires= less rmp at top speed!

Good luck.

31's will fit on an L300 without having to do a major lift, but you will have to do the following:

Remove the front steps
Remove the front mudflaps
Cut away the metalwork and plastic trim on the inside of the front wheelarch (rear part)
Cut away the plastic trim on the inside of the front wheelarch (front part)
Beat the seam flat (inside front arch at the rear)
Wind up the torsion bars
Fit 7" alloys (8" might be too wide for the sliding door depending on offset! )

The offset of the wheels will dictate how much metal & plastic needs to be trimmed, but after doing this mod on at least 12 L300's, the best advice I can give is to trim a bit at a time, drive it....see where it catches and keep trimming until the tyre clears.

The first one I did (my own L300) took me about 2 months before I got the tyre to stop catching! Just when I thought I'd sorted it I'd be out somewhere and forced to do an emergency stop with the steering 1/4 turned and the tyre would hit the arch! Not the sort of thing you cater for when the car is stationary and clearance looks good!

If you are willing to wait, I can show you everthing you need to do when I come over (maybe we could have a 'technical afternoon' on the meet?? :lol: )

Here's a photo of the Mystery Machine with the 31's I fitted (non-lifted, only the mods mentioned above.... )




Regards,

Bruce.

HI Bruce,

I love the way those 31"s look, It's hard to believe they can look so much bigger then 30"s! 8)

Did you really not lift the rear leafs in those pictures? I would guess your sliding door clears those meats, but did they throw up much mud on the Mystery Machine when the going gets wet and dirty? Would you recommend getting fender flares to help when you had those size tires (all fender flares I have seen so far on Delica's soooo right)? Would you happen to know what wheel nut spacing, from what comparable vehicles, matche the Deli's?

I have lined up a pair of 33" x 12.5 BF M/T on Jeep rims against one side of my Deli when it was jacked up 5 inches at ether end, and wow did it look just perfect viewed side on! Here's a snap of my rubber, its a lousy picture taken with my phone the day I got dinged. Those are 30" x 9.5/15s, though I'm not too impressed with them. They're very sticky off-road and in the snow - but they constantly are picking up and throwing pebbles into the fender well.



The repair was perfect, and it took then longer then excepted to fix it as the body man found the Delicas panel are far heavier then he would have thought. I think the guys went all over my van, they where extremely impressed with it and asked me a ton of questions. Of course I told them to check out delica.ca.

That red painted skid plate is sure a nice touch. I want to do that too, you know what they say about imitation! Painting my front skid plate and my rear WVO tank's skid plate (off of a Jeep YJ, mounted where the spare was) would be a real stand out.

Figure we should all ask you lots of questions now, so when we get to meet you in person Bruce we don't hound with too many Delica questions. Thanks for all the great posts! :lol:


Cheers,

Kevin

Thanks again Bruce,

I will wait till the meet. I'll run my winter tires till then.

Josh

Hey bruce,

Any idea then what offsets are going to work with these vans.. the rim I am looking for are like a 4-runner type (toyota pickup/ suv rims) i dont know what you call em over there... Surf? hi ace? I have seen them on vans in other posts.. 8" wide i think. with 31" bfg at's is what I want.

Mitch

BCDelica wrote:Did you really not lift the rear leafs in those pictures?

Nope - totally STANDARD height! :D The front was wound up about 2" on the torsion bars, but then it was riding low to begin with (usual sag after 10+ years! :lol: ) The rear is completely stock height...

BCDelica wrote: I would guess your sliding door clears those meats, but did they throw up much mud on the Mystery Machine when the going gets wet and dirty? Would you recommend getting fender flares to help when you had those size tires

The sliding door 'just' cleared the wheel!

Yes, it did kick up a fair bit of mud & dirt, but this was probably as much because I'd removed the front & rear mudflaps as well! :lol:

Having said that - the current wheel/tyre/arch set-up creates absolute havoc with any clean paintwork! I just have to think about dirt and the sides are looking like they've done 10 rounds in a mub wrestling contest! Despite the wide arches, the tyres are very exposed and kick up all kinds of mayhem in the shape of the brown stuff! :lol:

I did think of getting fender flares (wheel arches as we call them ) but quite liked the look of the 31's without them...

I didn't want to follow the typical route of wider wheels = fender flares! (except when the wheels became TOO wide not to! )

BCDelica wrote:Would you happen to know what wheel nut spacing, from what comparable vehicles, matche the Deli's?

I assume you are referring to the PCD? (distance between wheel nuts/studs in a circular pattern) If so then the L300 has a PCD of 139.7 which is the same as the Pajero, Monteray, Hilux, L200, Navara, Bighorn - in fact ALL Japanese 4x4's! :D

The centre bore is 108 - so avoid anything with a smaller bore unless you are on good terms with someone with a big lathe! :lol: (Toyota is 108mm, Isuzu is 106mm and Nissan is 108mm except for the Terrano/Mistral which is 100mm....all Mitsy 4X4 cars are identical PCD and bore..)

Its the offsets that make things interesting, but we'll cover that another time (too much vodka tonight to delve into that particular minefield! :lol: )

BCDelica wrote:I have lined up a pair of 33" x 12.5 BF M/T on Jeep rims against one side of my Deli when it was jacked up 5 inches at ether end, and wow did it look just perfect viewed side on!

All I can say is good luck if you decide to go ahead with it!

Mine is riding around 8"-10" over standard and I still get the tyres catching the front arches! When stationary, there seems to be LOADS of room for the tyres, but once the suspension starts doing its bouncy job - it doesn't take huge boulders to make the rubber beat the living daylights out of the GRP arches! When I manage to time being sober with having daylight and having charged batteries in my camera, I'll dare to venture outside to take some pics of the carnage that 33" tyres can do to a 8"-10" lifted Deli!

Maybe Canada doesn't have the cataclysmic sized pot-holes that we have to tolerate here in Blighty! :lol: If not, then maybe you'll be OK with 33's!

BCDelica wrote:That red painted skid plate is sure a nice touch. I want to do that too, you know what they say about imitation! Painting my front skid plate and my rear WVO tank's skid plate (off of a Jeep YJ, mounted where the spare was) would be a real stand out.

Go for it! Flattery will get you everywhere! :lol:

Seriously though - simple, cheap and effective mod to do! I removed ALL my front plates, had them Zinc coated (clear) then painted them all black except the upper one which I did red to contrast/compliment the yellow KC spotlight covers. A very worthwhile mod and peace of mnd knowing that they'll not rust for MANY years because they were zinc coated... :D

BCDelica wrote:Figure we should all ask you lots of questions now, so when we get to meet you in person Bruce we don't hound with too many Delica questions.

But if I answer them all now - I'll have nothing to answer when I come over - then I'll have to BORE you to death with questions about life in Canada!

Seriously - I'd LOVE to spend my time answering all sorts of questions when I come over......talking Deli is what I love! 8)

Anything I can do to help you guys.....I will! :D

Regards,

Bruce.

josh wrote:I will wait till the meet.

Looking forward to it! :lol:

Make sure you write all these questions down so that you remember them! Wouldn't want me getting bored now would you! :lol:

Bring some tools too - "UK bloke willing to work for free beer!" (beer up-front, quality of work cannot be guaranteed after 10th beer! :lol: )

josh wrote:I'll run my winter tires till then.

Sounds like you need them where you are!

I feel like such a hypocrite running chunky Mickey T's on tarmac over here in the UK! (mind you, we do have the cavernous, valley sized pot-holes to deal with! )

Keep saving up those questions now.....I can talk a LOT faster than I can type - so I'd rather answer them face to face if that's OK with you guys?? (I can show you on your vehicles too rather than having to rely on photos! )

Cheers for now,

Bruce.

Mystery Machine wrote:

BCDelica wrote:That red painted skid plate is sure a nice touch. I want to do that too, you know what they say about imitation! Painting my front skid plate and my rear WVO tank's skid plate (off of a Jeep YJ, mounted where the spare was) would be a real stand out.

Go for it! Flattery will get you everywhere! :lol:

Seriously though - simple, cheap and effective mod to do! I removed ALL my front plates, had them Zinc coated (clear) then painted them all black except the upper one which I did red to contrast/compliment the yellow KC spotlight covers. A very worthwhile mod and peace of mnd knowing that they'll not rust for MANY years because they were zinc coated... :D

Off topic I know, but I just thought I'd let you see the pics of the guards and what I did with them....

Most people just think I've painted them, but they don't know how much I detest rust, so if I ever paint anything, I always make sure I minimise the chance of it going rusty again!

Before:


Plated (clear zinc):


Painted:


Before:


Plated (black zinc):


Before:


After:


The red looks kinds orange in the photo because of the flash - but hte biggest problem is how it makes the rest of the underside look BAD!!

If I had thought about it more carefully, I would have removed even more stuff to be plated.....but then I don't think they would be able to zinc plate an L300 body - so I guess I have to draw a line somewhere! :lol: :lol:

Regards,

Bruce.

Hey Bruce, how much you figure it would cost in can.$ to do what you did with those plates and where should i inquire about it? what kind of shop zinc coats stuff like that?.. and where's those coolbox removal pictures! :P Cheers ya bloody geezer!

If anyone in the Lower Mainland is interested in making some phone calls to check on the Zinc Plating, here are some phone numbers from the Yellow Pages..

Maybe any useful companies can be added to our list of Useful Companies someplace on the forums..

http://www.yellowpages.ca/business/BC/V ... 25600.html

Hope it helps

PcSpecialist

Wow those look great, I just power wash, steel wheel and primer the parts I paint! Could you even have left them plain zinc?

Also did you change the lower radiator plate? In the last picture there are two arrows showing in the black paint that don't appear in the previous pictures (or on my vans). I noticed too that you didn't replace that rubber leading edge trim on that plate, I have knocked both of mine off already!

And thanks for the wheel information, don't know what we'd do around here with out your Delica motivational posting! 33" tires are just wishful thinking right now, but that size does looks so good on your machine.

Kev - me thinks Delica's look good very, very dirty.

surferboy wrote:Hey Bruce, how much you figure it would cost in can.$ to do what you did with those plates and where should i inquire about it?

The cost in ca$ would be about $70 (£30gbp) but I have no idea what the cost would be in Canada - things like zinc coating might be cheaper??

As to WHERE you would get it done - how the bloody hell would I know! :lol:

I dunno - some people....you'd think I live there or something! :lol: Looks like PC Specialist might have some answers for you though....

surferboy wrote:......and where's those coolbox removal pictures! :P Cheers ya bloody geezer!

Took some more today as promised - will post up in moment....still can't find the originals I took though! :( Sorry it's taken me SO long! Thought you might have got off your lazy French a$$ whilst waiting and tried to figure it out for yourself! :P :P

Regards,

Bruce.