Raising Clearance

[jefe1999]

We have a weekend home in the mountains down a fairly bad dirt road, although 90% of our driving is in the city. What's the best, easiest way to gain a little ground clearance without unduly compromising city driving?

[irwinje]

Questions: Do you want more ground clearence because you have to traverse really rough terrain & you're bottoming out with your current set up? Are you simply paranoid of getting stuck? Would you just feel more comfortable in your vehicle's overall ability if you had more ground clearence?
Short of purchasing and installing a lift, all you can really do is upgrade the stock tires to a larger size. Unfortunately the cost to benefit ratio is pretty low since you would have to purchase 4 new tires, and you'd probably only get an additional 1/4 - 1/2" raise. You may also find a loss of mpg with this solution.
I'm assuming you have an 07 so the tires you already have are still pretty new. Also, if you were to upgrade tire size you may also encounter some issues if you got a flat (on a larger tire) and had to put the smaller, than stock, spare on. In a situation like this you would have to replace the damaged tire asap so as not to compromise anything else by driving on different sized tires.
Unfortunately there really isn't a quick, easy fix. The best thing to do would probably just be extra mindful of how you are driving when on these roads to the mountains. It also never hurts to travel with another vehicle you are sure could traverse anything and pull you if you can't

[jefe1999]

Actually it's a 2002; sorry, I forgot to mention that initially. Our road dets pretty rough in the winter and in rainy season, and I'm concerned about bottoming out. We just bought it this week, so I ahven't had any problems yet, I'm just anticipating. Upping tire/wheel size is the first thing that occured to me, too, and I agree that it might be a lotta dollars for little gain. As far as a lift kit, doesn't that just raise the body, while the running gear stays in about the same place? I don't see much to be gained from that, but I'm certainly open to suggestions. Thanks!

[irwinje]

From what I understand, an actual lift kit would bring everything up a couple inches. I don't profess to be an expert. And at the same time this is something that I have been looking into myself. There are more people that know about this type of stuff on the other CR-V site.

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