Newbie hear to the forum. I have an '04 SE S/C and love it. I have had it for 2 years and so far the mods have only been a 10lb pulley, up from the stock 4lb., boost gauge, and billet grilles. I have been going off-road a lot more than I have ever had to. I have a cabin in N. Wisconsin and the stock BFG's don't cut it in deep mud and snow. Last winter I buried 'er up to the frame in a mud/snow mix and luckily was able to use my floor mats to get it our with the help of 2 random snowmobilers passing by.

So here is my dilemma. I just bought a set of 285/70/17 Goodyear MT/R's off ebay so I can actually get through the mess of Chicago and N. WI snow and mud. I was told they would fit by my local NTB store, I had doubts but bought them anyway. Turns out they won't fit. What is the cheapest way to get these puppies on? Shackle lift? I am not a big fan of body lifts because of the strain thaty can put on the body mount area. I used to have a '71 CJ7 and I built a '71 Bronco with my bro that has a 6" lift.

But what is a AAL? and a PML?? I really don't want to butcher my X to throw on these tires.

You should go down to the tires forum and get alot of answers about your question. But the easy answer is that is almost a 33" tire (32.71"). They wont fit on a stock X as you will get lots of rubbing.

To fit them, the most appropriate action even though you dont like it is to do a Body lift (2") that gives room for the 33's. You could complement that with a PML (Poor Mans Lift) consisting of either longer shackles OR Add A Leafs in the rear and crank of the torsion bars up front to give you 1.5" of suspension lift.

If you are opposed to the BL, then a 32" tire is more appropriate for you. Good luck

That doesn't make sense to me... how does a body lifted truck place any more stress on the body mounts (or anywhere else) than a stock truck? There are a ton of us with body lifts and I haven't heard any complaints from anyone.

Those tires are basically 33's (32.7"x11.2" according to the tire size calculator I found). I assume they rub on the front when you turn all the way?

A 3" suspension or a 3" body lift will help - and then you can trim the fenders like this to stop any rubbing that you still have:


ETA: Or - you could Re-ebay 'em (Rebay?) and get some 31's.

Thanks for the PML and AAL ?. All I know is that for my Jeep, it was not good to go with too much of a body lift. 2" I would do, but I heard anything 3" or higher on the body, you have to start screwing with stuff. No thanks. Not worth it. I might have to ReBay these.

cash is really tight right now and the snow is about to start flying here in Chicago so I need to get some more aggressive rubber on the X.

Thanks Skaggs and Kaiser

The 2" body lift is really no big deal to do, you aren't having to mess with anything aside from making sure when you are lifting the body off the frame, nothing is getting caught.

The 3" BL requires a lot more work, extending shifter and steering linkage etc etc.

I'd trade you my basically new (Less then 1500 miles on them) Trxus MT/R 31's on 15" rims (will fit your truck no problem, no rubbing etc) for your 33"s if I had enough money to get the body lift at the same time.

But then we'd be dealing with shipping and all that cross-border BS. Mind you, you're only in Chicago, that's not that far from me, so...

The thing is I love my wheels and want to keep those. I always get compliments on them and they are one of the reasons I bought the S/C in the 1st place. One of the guys on here (Wolfman) has a 3" lift that he is selling. I might take that off his hands. I would love to jack this puppy up, but this is going from buying new tires to spending $2-3K project. I guess it is just a matter of me biting the bullet and spending the money now or later. Do you have pics of your tires and wheel set up you can email me? Where do you live?

Thanks,
Jason

ive always liked the 17 inch xterra wheels.

Me too, but tires for them are waaay to expensive.

yeah they can be, but if that's the look your going after then that's a decision the owner would have to deal with. i personally hate it when people say shit like "dont by tires for those 17"s there too expensive you should 15"s instead" its not your money so who gives a fuck. like purchasing a new set of rims is gonna be a significant monetary difference than buyin the 17" tires for the wheels you already have.

You can probably get away with those tires with just a 2" body lift and a little trimming if you stick with the stock wheels (a lot of people switch to steel rockcrawler wheels with less backspacing - so they stick out further.... if you do that you have to have more lift to clear a given set of tires because they don't tuck up into the wheel wells).

You can get it from http://www.4x4parts.com pretty cheap.

The instructions on the 2" suck though. Any local X club guys in his area that can help him slap the lift on?

AHTOXA one of xoc's "premiere body lift pimps" would be more than happy to help him a BL. and he lives in chicago.

:p

I guess that would make me a lift Ho. $5 a ride, $10 any fing you waaan. I am in the NW burbs about 5 min. away from Woodfield mall. How the hell does it work with lifting the front using the torsion bars. I have never owned a vehicle with these before. Everything has always been either spring or coil and if you wanted to jack 'er up, you bought bigger ones and bolted them on. Also, with this, I am going to need a caster/camber kit? I needed to put one on my mustang when I dropped it 2" and it was a bi@tch and a half to put on. All I am seeing right now are dollar signs. Crap. Gotta pay to play though right?? And might as well do it right the first time

the body lift kit is about $150-200 (i think)

cranking the tbars to lift the front is easy, do a search and you will find instructions.

no camber/caster kit needed.

have you joined midwestxterraowners.com yet?

Just did.

You must have me confused with someone else.

But, SupaXSE, if you need help with a BL, then I can help you install it.

EDIT: We need a pimp smiley on here.

AHTOXA, where do you live? How long would it take? Also, how does the flowmaster sound on your X? I have one laying around in my garage I want to weld on. Where should I get the BL from? FYI, I have a kegerator with ice cold miller lite in it. All you can drink. It usually helps out on all my projects.

nope not at all. truth hurts sometimes.

SupaX, you can get the Body Lift from Automotive customizers

Install takes around 5 hours or so with 2 people doing it. So far I have done 2. Mine and a fellow X owner from the club. Most of the work is actual prep work and loosening stuff. You can find my write up on how to do it in the Backyard Mechanic section on here.

I live on the north side of Chicago, basically by Lincolnwood and only 10 mins away from Skokie. I work out in Mundelein (way north) so I'm all over the place, usually.

If you need help with anything let me know.

P.S. My flowmaster sounds great. I have the flowmaster original 40 series. I've had it for over a year now. Sounds nice and deep without too much drone on the highway. It sounds aggressive but not intrusive. Same muffler is a lot more agressive with an intake on, however.

So if anything, let us know. Maybe we can make a mod day or something, if people need to get work done on their trucks. That way everyone helps one another, drinks beer and has fun.

That's it!!!

Bastard!

Thanks. I will let you know when the tires come in. I will probably order the lift tonight. Should I just get these, some 1.5" shackles from Calmini and crank on the torsion bar and call it a day? or go with the full 3" lift from WolfmanX? I don't know about buying a used lift kit though. Thoughts? 3" lift and 2" body woud be so sweet with the 33" MT/R's. Oooooooooooo.

I run the 1.5" shackle lift with cranced torsion bars (PML- poor man's lift) with a 2" Body lift. See pic in my profile. I run 33x12.5x15 tires. no problems.

If you get a full 3" lift, you will need a steering kit, which is expensive, but without it you will wear out your steering fast. 1.5" PML does not require a steering kit.

You can do 1.5" now and you can add the whole 3" lift later if you deside, as you will be using the parts that you already get for the 1.5" lift.

If you go the route of the PML for nowm you will need to get an alignment after the install, that's it. Otherwise the shackles are gonna cost you just $50.

SupaXSE, which suburb are you in?

Palatine. Nice looking truck. I appreciate everyone help on this. And remember... pimpin' aint easy, so keep you pimp hand strong. Respect.