How many inches of bump stops were you running?Word's right. Going larger than 37's requires trimming of the rear pinch seams. By how much depends on how the control arms get setup.
Here's my 1st lift, the Dynatrac Endurosport true 2", with 38's and chopped front and rear fenders. It was only a "starter" kit so I also did all 8 control arms and both track bars from another company, so I could recenter the axles side to side and fore and aft. If you zoom in on the last one, you can see the tire pressed into the pinch seam.
The fender chop will gain about 3.5" up front and 2-2.5" out back. You'll need to lose all of the rear plastic filler panels just for on road clearance. And assuming you have the factory steel rear bumper, you can also ditch the stamped steel bracket that goes between the bumper and frame. It's not structure for the bumper, it just serves as a rigid mounting point for the plastic filler panels to keep them from flapping in the wind at highway speeds.
Nice looking JLU. How are you liking the milestars?Word's right. Going larger than 37's requires trimming of the rear pinch seams. By how much depends on how the control arms get setup.
Here's my 1st lift, the Dynatrac Endurosport true 2", with 38's and chopped front and rear fenders. It was only a "starter" kit so I also did all 8 control arms and both track bars from another company, so I could recenter the axles side to side and fore and aft. If you zoom in on the last one, you can see the tire pressed into the pinch seam.
The fender chop will gain about 3.5" up front and 2-2.5" out back. You'll need to lose all of the rear plastic filler panels just for on road clearance. And assuming you have the factory steel rear bumper, you can also ditch the stamped steel bracket that goes between the bumper and frame. It's not structure for the bumper, it just serves as a rigid mounting point for the plastic filler panels to keep them from flapping in the wind at highway speeds.
At the time of those pics, I was using the 2" bumpstop spacers that came with the Dynatrac lift. I could've knocked it down to 1", or possibly less, but the larger tires were a precursor to a full tear out of the whole setup I built on that lift, so I never found out how little spacing was actually needed.
They're not a high mileage tire, but I knew that going in. Otherwise, I've been quite pleased with them overall. My work schedule and offroading being illegal here gets in the way of more serious off highway use, so the vast majority of my miles are as a daily driver. They are not at all loud at speed and haven't given me any slippage issues on wet or snow covered roads. Since they are a hybrid tire with a rounded side to side tread, they don't produce as much as friction as a flat tread on a similar width. They are also on the lighter side compared to similar size tires. Those last two points equal less impact to fuel economy and wear to steering and suspension components. They do need to be rotated every 5k miles at most. Some do it every 3k, but I like doing it with oil changes. I prematurely screwed these 38's by going way over 5k on my last rotation. I had a medical issue pop up that brought far more pain than when I broke 4 ribs and continued to repeatedly break them during work for the following 20 something months. By the time I got it diagnosed, had surgery, and was fully healed up enough to hump these heavy wheel/tires around, I was just shy of 10k and they were worn very uneven and inconsistent. Reversing rotation caused a bad enough side to side oscillation in the 50-60 mph range, that they had to be replaced.
Here's my favorite money shot so far, that needs to be redone after a lot of more recent changes. And this winter I will hopefully remember to hop out and take some that don't include a forklift.
So, to get the 38’s to fit, after the fender chop and trimming pinch seams and such, how much bump stops were you at?Here's my favorite money shot so far, that needs to be redone after a lot of more recent changes. And this winter I will hopefully remember to hop out and take some that don't include a forklift.
I still haven't trimmed the pinch seams due to the time required to also artfully re-engineer the AAL liners and their mounting plates to work with a larger arch. Supposedly, Nemesis liners work with trimmed seams, but I've already redone too many things as is.
I still haven't trimmed the pinch seams due to the time required to also artfully re-engineer the AAL liners and their mounting plates to work with a larger arch. Supposedly, Nemesis liners work with trimmed seams, but I've already redone too many things as is.
In the pic above, the front was pretty well stuffed and the back tires were dug deep into the tire...
With 3" of bumpstop spacers in the front, the inner corner of the tire was lightly kissing the AAL liner with the wheel straight. I couldn't turn the wheel so far out on the forks without risking a drop. I should've spread them a bit more and put the tire closer to their heels. I added a 4th Metalcloak spacer to ensure full clearance when fully stuffed and turned to lock. This is all with 17x9 wheels with -12mm offset and 4.53" of backspace. The same wheel with -38 offset and 3.5" bs would definitely work with my setup with 3" bumpstops, as it would get a stuffed front tire further away from the liners and take more advantage of the space created by the fender chop. You can see in this pic that my wheels specs don't allow the tire to take full advantage of the fender clearance when the opposite tire is drooped.
The 6-packs are about 30" fully extended, which isn't enough to write home about. But they are only 15.75" between mounting bolt centers when fully collapsed. They get paired with front upper relocation brackets that lower the mounting point by about 2.5" and outward by about 1.5". This allows full advantage of the collapsed length to simulate the extended length of a longer shock but without the downside of its longer tube. The rears get paired with lower relocation brackets that do the same thing, while also allowing one to cut off the factory lower shock mount for more ground clearance. I've yet to fully commit to doing that on mine. So yes, the 6-packs provide a considerable amount more total travel than anything other than coilovers.
That's a lot of great information. I've been eyeing those MC shock relocation brackets. Once I get on the forklift to check out my clearance I might be adding them to my setup.I still haven't trimmed the pinch seams due to the time required to also artfully re-engineer the AAL liners and their mounting plates to work with a larger arch. Supposedly, Nemesis liners work with trimmed seams, but I've already redone too many things as is.
In the pic above, the front was pretty well stuffed and the back tires were dug deep into the tire...
With 3" of bumpstop spacers in the front, the inner corner of the tire was lightly kissing the AAL liner with the wheel straight. I couldn't turn the wheel so far out on the forks without risking a drop. I should've spread them a bit more and put the tire closer to their heels. I added a 4th Metalcloak spacer to ensure full clearance when fully stuffed and turned to lock. This is all with 17x9 wheels with -12mm offset and 4.53" of backspace. The same wheel with -38 offset and 3.5" bs would definitely work with my setup with 3" bumpstops, as it would get a stuffed front tire further away from the liners and take more advantage of the space created by the fender chop. You can see in this pic that my wheels specs don't allow the tire to take full advantage of the fender clearance when the opposite tire is drooped.
The 6-packs are about 30" fully extended, which isn't enough to write home about. But they are only 15.75" between mounting bolt centers when fully collapsed. They get paired with front upper relocation brackets that lower the mounting point by about 2.5" and outward by about 1.5". This allows full advantage of the collapsed length to simulate the extended length of a longer shock but without the downside of its longer tube. The rears get paired with lower relocation brackets that do the same thing, while also allowing one to cut off the factory lower shock mount for more ground clearance. I've yet to fully commit to doing that on mine. So yes, the 6-packs provide a considerable amount more total travel than anything other than coilovers.
