Hey there,

For anyone who's been down this road before - I have a 1990 Pathfinder SE V6 with the stock chrome rims & 235 75r15 tires. I'm about to invest in a 1.5" suspension lift by replacing the stock torsion bars with HD ones, rear coils, and a set of OME Nitrosport shocks. I'd like to go with 31x10 and would like to know #1 if the 31x10 will fit on my stock rims (are they 6 or 8"?) and #2 would I have rubbing with only a 1.5" lift.

Any beta would be most appreciated!

you can put 31 X 10.5 15's on without a lift at all. Many pathfinders (including mine) rolled out of the factory with 31's. Plus you don't need new HD torsion bars to gain 1.5" of lift, just adjust the T -Bars you already have and spend your hard earned money on headers or something else.

Thanks for that info Wheatbread. I'll probably still go with the HD T-bars considering the age of the truck, and the fatigue on the suspension - a litle less Pre-load needed, plus I can add a bull bar & winch down the road . Do you know if the 10.5s will fit the stock rims? Also - do you think there will be a noticeable drop in HP to the wheels with jumping up to 31s from the 275s?

not sure about the chrome rims as I have "Legos" but I would think so. I doubt you'll notice a drop in HP since they came with 31's from the factory, there are plenty of folks rolling 33's and lots of SAS peeps rolling 35's, you'll be OK. I installed new UCA's and cranked my original torsion bars to get about 2.5" of front lift years ago and my T-bars are still handling nicely

Little bit of a thread hijack, but I too had pretty much the same question (I too would love to get 31's on my 1988, instead of the 235/75/15's) so I am super happy to hear that the bigger tires will fit with no problems. I have an associated question...My Pathfinder has 3 15x6 wheels and 1 15x5.5. I'd prefer to go to the junkyard and get another matching (15x6) wheel, but if I can't find one, any issues with the 31x10.5x15 on the 5.5 inch wide rim? Also, how wide were the stock wheels that came with the 31 inch tires? I assume they were 7 inches, at least, but want to make sure before I go and buy anything.

I'm really not interested in trying to lift my Pathfinder or buy new wheels, it's my winter beater/camping vehicle more than a daily driver and I paid very little for it, so I don't want to put a lot of money into it if I don't have to, heh.

The wheels that came stock with 31/10.50/15 were 15x7. They are the wheels that a lot of people refer to as the lego wheels. That size tire on a 15x5.5 wheel would probably be way too wide. But who knows it could work, I run 33/12.50/15 on my stock 15x7 lego wheels and it's just fine. If you're wanting to run larger tires it's easy to just move up to a 33. All I had to do was install a 3 inch body lift and now the 33's fit just as if they came stock on the truck. The only downside you run into is the larger you go the tires the stock gearing of the truck becomes more inefficient and puts you more out of your powerband when cruising, especially on the interstate. At least it affects the automatic ones pretty significantly from my experience. When I changed my pathfinder from the stock 31/10.50/15 to 33/12.50/15 it changed the gearing a whole lot more than I would have thought. It's not terrible but like I said freeway cruising is affected quite a bit. It might not be too bad if you live in an area that's pretty flat, but where I live in the mountains of Georgia it can suck pretty bad at times when you're having to run 4,000 rpm in 3rd just to maintain 70 while pulling a hill.

I run a 32/11.50/15 on my stock steel wheels. They are a bit wide for the wheel but they work just fine. To compensate for that I got some aluminum 1" wheel spacers which helped out. As far as a lift I just cranked my torsion bars up a bit and installed an airbag-assist shocks in the rear and got a couple inches lift front and back. The tires rubbed on the backside of the front fenders a bit when turned and articulated but the tires bent the fenders out of the way and it hasn't been a problem since.