Ride height unloaded is not important. Loaded is. The correct ride height allows the suspension and all it's angles and components to works as designed. To high or to low the suspension is out of best working range. What I have experience is harsh riding when not set correct. Put on you load, add the passenger and set ride height. My guess is when one adds bigger tires then one has to take that into account when wanting to set correct ride height. If one adds tires that are 2" taller then one would need to add 1" or half the increase tire height to get the correct height for the suspension to work at design.

 

Thanks Sandblaster ...I agree that unloaded is not important ...but for reference of where most people are at after setting the rig loaded it would be interesting and of course the parameters I mentioned are required ...what are you running in height ?

Thanks again for your input.

 

Also I would love Shock Therapy and Ed the Suspension Guy and others to jump into this discussion ...especially when most say set ride height with the driver only ... or driver and passenger together

I have been setting my machine with driver weight and about 75 % of the passenger weight ....I think some passenger weight must be considered from...the fat ass in the passenger seat to average passenger weight .. vs just driver?? I also base it all on 3/4 tank of fuel for averages ...

 

I set my ride height with passengers and gear. 14 front 13.5 year and I believe with 30" tires I'm about what the OP is.

 

For what it is worth I think I have found the best way to set proper ride height. 2018 XPT 2 seat with RC 2.5 Fox shocks
I just got back from a dune / dessert trip and before I left I had my ride ht set with me and passenger in the car. Total weight..I thought I had it set on the high side or stiff and I was correct. You could feel the front end was a bit stiff and more stiff in the back

I already had my offset or difference in ht between front and rear established .5 low in the back to front. So even out in the dirt I could just back off / reduce pre load by just counting turns of the collar
I did this and move the front end pre load collars first . I went for a short ride with my passenger and came back and did the rear next . After 3 adjustments I had it nailed down and it was very easy to feel the difference and get both front are rear perfect .
For now on I will set ride height this way ...Tall before you go and drop the machine and test each change in the field ...I did not change the suspension adjusters during this process so you dont confuse one from the other ...after the best ride feel is found then play with the clicks to fine tune ...of course you have to have decent click settings to start with ..Works great