Front End Rebuild, Should I do a lift now?

[Jason in DLH]

I would assume even with a 4” lift that your nearly 33” x 11.22” tires and a 2” spacer would hit the front clip as mine are very close to hitting it with 265/70/17 tires and the 2” spacer.

The thing to do is lift it first, drive it for awhile to let things settle, and then do any wheel/tire modifications.

 

[FirstTimerTahoe]

Like Dan previously mentioned, yes, you certainly can fit those.

Since I was too cheap to buy new wheels with the correct offset, I simply used a 2” HUB centric wheel spacer to achieve the aggressive look. I believe I have a 2” lift and I had to perform the NorCal Mod along with remolding the front of the fender as it was rubbing badly.

Here’s the “NorCal Fender Mod”....

https://norcaltruck.com/2007-5-2013-chevy-gm-large-fender-mod

Here’s a picture of what had to be done in the front...

View attachment 268333
View attachment 268334

So you run 265/70's?

I've heard that running wheel spacers in general is not safe for our style vehicles because of the weight distribution on the wheel hub and parts.

I take my Tahoe on long road trips every other weekend. What input or information do you have on this? I've considered putting on spacers to achieve that slightly more aggressive look as well. I was thinking about mild fender flares, and want my tires to be equal or slightly outside of the fender flare. I don't want to become too far removed from the original engineering design though.

 

[FirstTimerTahoe]

I would assume even with a 4” lift that your nearly 33” x 11.22” tires and a 2” spacer would hit the front clip as mine are very close to hitting it with 265/70/17 tires and the 2” spacer.

The thing to do is lift it first, drive it for awhile to let things settle, and then do any wheel/tire modifications.

I currently run 265/75/16 LT tires that don't even come close to rubbing. This is what's confusing the crap out of me lol. I'm not really a large truck guy, i'm just getting into the "scene" if I may lol.

 

[FirstTimerTahoe]

I'm basically looking to do a Vanilla version of this. I really like this overall look, but don't want to invest in wheel hubs every 25k miles, and 1000$ of tires every year.

 

[FirstTimerTahoe]

I would assume even with a 4” lift that your nearly 33” x 11.22” tires and a 2” spacer would hit the front clip as mine are very close to hitting it with 265/70/17 tires and the 2” spacer.

The thing to do is lift it first, drive it for awhile to let things settle, and then do any wheel/tire modifications.

Also i Misposted in m original post. I am NOT running 285/75/16s. I'm running 265/75/16s.

I'll be upsizing my tires, just need to figure out by how much, and what looks tasteful.

 

[Jason in DLH]

Yes, you are correct that spacers put more strain on the wheel bearings/hubs/axles. I put my spacers on Sept 8, 2017 and so far all well. I did downsize my stock 20” wheel to the 17” prior to the spacers, so I certainly shaved weight off the bearings there. I believe we took a few 280 mile journeys with the spacers (again, without issue).

I sounds like you’ll be putting fender flares on and perhaps keeping a flush or slightly aggressive look. Here’s fender flares on my 07 Yukon with the 2” spacers just to give you an idea. Tire must be sticking out 1/2” or so.

 

[Jason in DLH]

Both our tires are nearly identical...



Tomorrow I’ll turn my wheels and measure to the front clip (it’s really close) just to give you an idea. I’ll finally measure my lift as well (I can never remember if it’s 2” or 3”).

 

[Jason in DLH]

So I measured the distance from my 265/70/17 tires (with a wheel offset of +24 and a 2” spacer) to my front clip and it’s 1” left to go before I hit it (while turning). I’m only saying this to give you sort of an idea as all trucks are different.

 

[FirstTimerTahoe]

This is great intel, I'm pretty sure i've got +44 offset (Factory rims), so i'd need some pretty narly spacers, and/or different rims.

It's wild that our tires are so similar. Your tires look so much bigger than mine.

What brand/tire are you running on yours?

So you've been running Spacers since 2017 no issues, that's good intel as well. I figure that if I just run like a small one inch spacer it wouldn't put a large amount of stress on the ball bearings.

 

[FirstTimerTahoe]

So I measured the distance from my 265/70/17 tires (with a wheel offset of +24 and a 2” spacer) to my front clip and it’s 1” left to go before I hit it (while turning). I’m only saying this to give you sort of an idea as all trucks are different.

+31 offset is what I actually have, just checked the rim specifications online.

I suspect that is in MM's so let me math a little bit. XD XD XD