33" BFG AT KOs

Anything relating to Wheels, Tires, and Brake options and upgrades...

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RacerZX
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Postby RacerZX » Mon Jun 25, 2007 11:36 am

So with heatgun and dremel in hand I attacked the fender liners yesterday to encourage them to stay out of the way of my 33" BFGs. The first pic here highlights the issue:
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Obviously the rub mark on the frame rail is unfixable, but it's also extremely minor and doesn't make any noise when touched. The fender liners though, while also not any serious problem, do make annoying noise whenever the wheel is about 3/4ths the way to lock.

First up the forward areas.
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Just nail it with the heatgun until the black plastic has a slight wet look to it and then push it in and hold in place until it cools with the heavy gardening gloves I hope you're wearing (light mechanics gloves won't cut it, gets tooooasty). For those tough corners, use a large philips screwdriver to pop the corner in and then continue to hold all the rest with your gloves until it cools off and stays in place.
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Now for the rearward one, it's a little more complex, the contact area is much larger and involves the mud flap. Here's the detail of the problem:
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Now with the mud flap taken off (4 screws, easy as pie):
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Again heat-gun the sucka extensively. Can be kinda hard to get the whole area hot enough and hold it all in at once, and if you try to do it in two parts then the area you've already tweaked starts going back to it's original shape as you heat up the adjacent area =P, but keep at it and it'll work out.
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Then I cut out the section of the mud flap that was rubbing, here's the pic of it reinstalled:
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And in the end it all worked perfectly, no more rubbing at all that I've been able to hear in a couple test drives so far. Here's what the clearance looks like now:
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NVSteve
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Postby NVSteve » Mon Jun 25, 2007 12:20 pm

Carl,

Thanks so much for the pictures and step-by-step. That really clarifies things.

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Postby marked001 » Tue Jun 26, 2007 6:20 am

that's great, thanks! i may have to give that a whirl this weekend.. I only have an issue with the front one (as far as I know..havent looked down there in awhile) but its pretty annoying..

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Postby NVSteve » Fri Jul 13, 2007 10:54 am

NVSteve wrote:
RacerZX wrote:No hesitation at all.
Thanks. Sure makes it that much easier for me to decide. What are the odds that the dealer can re-program the computer to compensate for the tire change? Has anyone tried this? I can live with the mileage being off, as I've had to do that in almost every vehicle I've ever owned. But, it would be nice if it could be corrected.
To answer my own question, the service department I visited today said that they can't reprogram the speedo. It was quite a team effort in finding that answer, with the conversation ending up with talk of the vaporware 5" Calmini lift & larger tires. Wonder how they'll react when I bring it in with the modest OME lift installed.

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Postby RacerZX » Mon Aug 20, 2007 8:10 am

One minor downside with these bigger tires is the hit on straight line performance. Sure it's a bit slower due to the gearing change (taller tires = taller effective gearing), but I was surprised to find how much the added weight and rotational inertia effected things. I just had the truck on the Dyno this last Saturday before installing a Gibson exhaust and found only 300HP at the wheels instead of the previous 320.

Now a different dyno on a different day will show some differences, but 20 is beyond the margin of error, and that was only spinning two of these monster tires.

Gibson write-up to come soon as I can get back to the dyno to do a follow-up test...

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Postby X-4X4R8D » Mon Aug 20, 2007 9:55 am

RacerZX wrote:One minor downside with these bigger tires is the hit on straight line performance. Sure it's a bit slower due to the gearing change (taller tires = taller effective gearing), but I was surprised to find how much the added weight and rotational inertia effected things. I just had the truck on the Dyno this last Saturday before installing a Gibson exhaust and found only 300HP at the wheels instead of the previous 320.

Now a different dyno on a different day will show some differences, but 20 is beyond the margin of error, and that was only spinning two of these monster tires.

Gibson write-up to come soon as I can get back to the dyno to do a follow-up test...
Man, do you have your old wheels? Or could borrow a set from someone else, so you can get the true results. Or you going to have to redo all the other tests, with the 33s..

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Postby RacerZX » Mon Aug 20, 2007 10:05 am

I'm using my stock wheels with the bigger tires, so no, there's no going back. It would be amusing to do before and after dyno runs to see exactly how much the bigger tires loose you in power, but I can't easily do that at this point.

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Postby X-4X4R8D » Mon Aug 20, 2007 10:34 am

Gotcha :thumbs up:

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Postby X-4X4R8D » Tue Aug 21, 2007 4:01 am


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Postby NVSteve » Tue Aug 21, 2007 8:03 am

Yeah, the first time I was in Iceland, I saw trucks all over the place that were between US lifted trucks and monster trucks. I was really impressed, especially with all the great body modifications they do for the wider/taller tires. I even stopped in one of the shops to talk to them about their work. They offered to take me out in one on a tour at a discounted rate, but I just didn't have the time. I've been back since my first visit, but still haven't gone on one of their tours. The vehicles they lift and modify are built for glacier running, which I hope to experience...one of these days when I get back there.

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Postby V8Pathy » Tue Aug 21, 2007 10:43 am

big wheels !..pretty cool stuff

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Postby NVSteve » Mon Sep 24, 2007 6:11 pm

RacerZX wrote:I'm using my stock wheels with the bigger tires, so no, there's no going back. It would be amusing to do before and after dyno runs to see exactly how much the bigger tires loose you in power, but I can't easily do that at this point.
I was pretty set on the 285's until a thought popped up out of nowhere. If you have made things so that the tires *just* clear, I'm wondering about those situations when the off roading consists of dirt/muck that adheres to the tires. With little clearance between the wells and tires, I could see mudflaps snapping off and wells getting scratched & scraped through the first layer of plastic. At the absolute closest, what kind of gap are we talking about between tire & well?

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RacerZX
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Postby RacerZX » Mon Sep 24, 2007 6:19 pm

It's pretty darn close, depends on how good a job you do with the heat gun redefining the fender liners. That being said, I have a hard time imagining anything sticking out of the tread far enough and solidly enough to cause damage that isn't already causing you precipitous air loss.

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Postby amr40509 » Tue Sep 25, 2007 6:25 am

RacerZX wrote:It's pretty darn close, depends on how good a job you do with the heat gun redefining the fender liners. That being said, I have a hard time imagining anything sticking out of the tread far enough and solidly enough to cause damage that isn't already causing you precipitous air loss.
Says the man from California.

Be careful if you run in below freezing conditions. Ice can bridge that gap when you park and freeze the tire to the "other" surfaces...then you might get some snap/crackle/pop effect.

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Postby NVSteve » Tue Sep 25, 2007 7:12 am

amr40509 wrote: Says the man from California.

Be careful if you run in below freezing conditions. Ice can bridge that gap when you park and freeze the tire to the "other" surfaces...then you might get some snap/crackle/pop effect.
See, I hadn't even thought about that. I've only been thinking about tire sizes in an road/off road context. That may be too tight of a squeeze with winter buildup under the wells. I guess I'll just have to take a closer look at the situation now, then try and envision how to improve upon it for something larger. I'm all about the heat gun, but I wonder if there would be a more effective solution. Maybe removing the molded flaps and replacing with rubber? Decisions, decisions.


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