Bigger tires than factory

brooski

Test Drive
Location
Canton, MS
I want to upgrade my factory sized tires to 33's. I currently have no lift and 2 inch spacers on my wheels. Does anyone have any suggestions for tires and maybe a lift? (I don't want my tires to rub and i do a good bit of highway driving)
 

Xterraforce

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Founding Member
Location
Signal Mtn., TN
I read in your intro that you have aftermarket wheels. What size and whats the backspacing? I have a 2 inch body lift and still had to trim the front a little with the wheels I have.
 

Xterraforce

<img src="http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u7/ra
Founding Member
Location
Signal Mtn., TN
If you plan on keeping the spacers and don't want to cut much metal I'd say you'll need at least the 3 inch suspension lift and 2 inch body lift. Our Xterras need a lot of backspacing to keep the tires from contacting the front fenders. With as much as you have you'll be running into rear fender clearance issues too without a lot of lift.

Factory wheels have 5.5 inches of backspacing. With just the 2 inch spacers that's already reduced to 3.5, then whatever the backspacing of your wheels changed on top of that. Less backspacing increases the arc your wheel travels through as you turn which means your tire will be going further forward and rearward when turning. This of course is why you already had to trim with stock size tires. If you want to go with 33s on the wheels you have you might need to consider using smaller spacers or no spacers at all. Unless of course you're not worried about trimming metal. In that case do however much lift you can and start cutting until nothing rubs.
 

KChurch86

Banned
Founding Member
If you plan on keeping the spacers and don't want to cut much metal I'd say you'll need at least the 3 inch suspension lift and 2 inch body lift. Our Xterras need a lot of backspacing to keep the tires from contacting the front fenders. With as much as you have you'll be running into rear fender clearance issues too without a lot of lift.

Factory wheels have 5.5 inches of backspacing. With just the 2 inch spacers that's already reduced to 3.5, then whatever the backspacing of your wheels changed on top of that. Less backspacing increases the arc your wheel travels through as you turn which means your tire will be going further forward and rearward when turning. This of course is why you already had to trim with stock size tires. If you want to go with 33s on the wheels you have you might need to consider using smaller spacers or no spacers at all. Unless of course you're not worried about trimming metal. In that case do however much lift you can and start cutting until nothing rubs.

Agreed. With just a PML even my 31's were rubbing pretty bad. My old wheels (with the 31's) had 3 3/4" backspacing.

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