By ZPukajlo on Wednesday, August 29, 2001 - 10:30 am: Edit

Most of you have stated that a 245/75-16 or a 215/85-16 will fit on a stock D1. The majority of you have said that you may need to trim a little so they don't eat the panels. My question is this. Is the trimming necessary if you keep the sway bars attached instead of removing them for the extra articulation? Would a slightly larger bump-stop make a difference? Thanks in advance!

Zane

By Perrone Ford on Wednesday, August 29, 2001 - 10:45 am: Edit

Sway bars don't stop upward compression. The longer bumpstops would though.

-P

By Mike B. on Wednesday, August 29, 2001 - 01:51 pm: Edit

I have 3.5" bumpstops from SafariGard and the 245/75/R16 tires. In my case, I also have the longer travel shocks, so my situation will be slightly different than yours.

At full compression, you WILL rub the lower piece of the fender well. When you rub, the aluminum will crack. I've attached a picture that shows the rubbing and where I think you will need to trim.

I don't recommend going too crazy on taller bumpstops. You will be giving away a lot of your uptravel. Assuming that you are also going with a moderate lift - say 2" or so, then even with modest bumpstops, you will be giving away 4.5" of travel (3.5" of new bumpstop - 1" of old bumpstop - 2" of lift = 4.5"). Given that you only have about 8" of travel on your stock shocks, you can see what kind of problem that you are getting yourself into.

I have a lot of trimming pictures on www.discocrazy.org if you are interested (under vehicle mods). If you take your time, the trimming is not really noticable unless you compare two vehicles side by side.

Best of luck with your efforts. I was totally freaked when I started cutting too. Remember, the first cut is always the hardest!

Thanks,
Mike B.

By ZPukajlo on Wednesday, August 29, 2001 - 02:30 pm: Edit

Thanks for the info Mike. I guess I will have to wait for the money tree to grow so I can get a mild lift. A lot of the wheeling that I like to do flexes the suspension pretty good. No since in destroying the truck needlessly. By the way, would OME's HD or XHD springs help in preventing the trimming? Or, is it just one of those things where you will have to do it no matter what? Again, thanks for the great info!

Zane

Ps I think I will check out the site. I am interested as to how you did it.

By RoverCon on Wednesday, August 29, 2001 - 03:15 pm: Edit

What about 245/70/R16 BFG TA KO Tires? These tires are 10mm wider but not any taller than the stock 235/70/R16. Will these rub when turning on a trail?

By Leslie N. Bright (Leslie) on Wednesday, August 29, 2001 - 04:29 pm: Edit

RoverCon,

They should be about 1/2" taller....

Remember, the 70 in the middle is a percentage of the width... 70% of 245mm is more than 70% of 235.

70% of 1cm * 2 = 1.4cm = 0.55"


But, you 'should' be okay.... never a guarantee, but you'll be that much closer to stock, so you may not have a problem....

YMMV, etc....

By Mike B. on Wednesday, August 29, 2001 - 06:07 pm: Edit

I've just been through this myself, so let me try to shed some light on this subject. Please bear in mind that I off-road my vehicle, so I tend to push the vehicle's suspension to it's limits.

On a coil sprung vehicle, the amount of lift does not change the amount of fender trimming that is required. This is different from a leaf sprung vehicle. This is a common misconception about coil sprung vehicles.

Trimming is a function of how far the suspension will compress, the size of the tire and the dynamics of the suspension (long travel suspensions push the compressed wheel further back requiring even more trimming).

So, unless you do somthing to limit the amount of uptravel after getting a lift (like taller bump stops), the amount of trimming that you will need will not change. Assuming that you keep the shocks and shock mounts the same, uptravel is only limited by bumpstops and by coil bind. Either will limit up travel.

For example, the RoverTym springs use the same number of coils and the same diameter wire on their 2" springs. So, these RoverTym coils will bind at exactly the same point as the stock springs. The OME MD's (I think this was what I was looking at) has more coils and a little smaller diameter wire. So, these will bind a little sooner than the stock springs. So, all other things being equal, you would have to trim less on a vehicle with OME MD springs than on the RoverTym 2" springs even though the RoverTym springs give you more lift.

So, should you wait to lift the vehicle before fitting the larger tires? Probably. Will you need to trim less after a lift? Probably not. The amount should be the same.

I hope that this makes sense. It sounded good in my head anyway.

Thanks,
Mike B.

I have some pictures and a write up on the www.discocrazy.org website under vehicle mods if you would like more info.

By ZPukajlo on Thursday, August 30, 2001 - 04:31 am: Edit

Thanks again Mike. It all makes sense to me. I'm used to vehicles with IFS fronts and leaf sprung rears. So, my thinking has to be rewired. I did check out your write up. I thought it was very informative. Will definitely reference it again when the time comes. Anyway, time to go to the high-country and have some fun! Again, thanks!

Zane