Several months ago I found the stock tires were pretty much shot after around 21k miles and the battle wagon was in need of an alignment. Seeing as we do go off-road now and then and the stock Goodyear tires are utter garbage and fragile to boot I upgraded to a set of 275/60r20 Mickey Thompson Baja Boss ATs. Honestly they ride and handle just as smoothly as the Goodyear rubber while handling offroad duty with ease, the only problem is they rub. I picked up some dragon fruit plants and a couple of large pots the other day and a I backed out I heard a dragging sound when I cranked the wheel, I hopped out and looked at clear as day the tires are rubbing on the fender liner at full lock. The stock 275/60s are 33.4" OD vs the Goodyear at 32.99 so apparently that extra .41" is just enough that you'll need to either accept a little rubbing or get some fender pullback brackets.
Tires rubbing with stock size Mickey Thompsons
- Thread starter SavageDad
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A fender liner pull back will definitely help. Westcott Designs offer a kit or you can roll your own (like I did). I ran 315/70R17 (34.5") for the winter with almost no rubbing. They rubbed turning sharply at entry / exit height and once hitting a bump while turning and braking.
Are you running stock or aftermarket wheels? Offset makes a huge difference in fitment.
Are you running stock or aftermarket wheels? Offset makes a huge difference in fitment.
Joseph Garcia
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You can pull the shrouding back by putting small holes in it, and then zip tying it in the back to something solid, and pull the shroud back. You may need to do this on a couple areas of the shroud in the appropriate places to create the needed clearance.
Stock wheels, I really want to drop down to a 17 but the extra grand for wheels just wasn't in the budget at the time. My biggest concern is that if they rub on level ground how much do they rub when we're banging around in the desert? I checked out the pullback kit a while back but I didn't think I would need it until the warranty expired and we went up to some 35s and a lift.
A possible temporary fix, for now I'm going to mark the tires with some chalk and see how badly they're rubbing before I start altering anything since it's only at full lock.
Joseph Garcia
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Good idea on using chalk to identify precisely where the rubbing is taking place. I wasn't referring to this as a temporary fix, though. This is a permanent fix that many folks here on the Forum have used successfully.
275/60r20 on stock wheels should be very easy to fit w/o rubbing compared to my 315/70R17. They are 1" shorter and 1.5" narrower. Unless you're rubbing on the inside sidewall / shoulder due to having too wide / square shouldered tire for the stock offset, the fender liner pullback should provide plenty of clearance for anything you might do off-road.
This is Westcott's install video.
I DIY'd it but basically the exact same thing. I removed the brackets behind the fender liner and drilled a hole for a self tapping screw to pull the liner back to the body mount. I didn't cut anything and a never installed the lift links I purchased.
This is Westcott's install video.
Ours came without the air suspension so I'm not sure if we have the same clearance but I'm pretty sure I've got a handful of self tapping screws in one of my hardware jars in the garage, I'll have to check this out.
I also noticed they mention using a 2" lift to fit 35s with their kit the pullback or the screws should fix my clearance issues running the stock sized tires though.
