395/85/20 clearance off road

[serial14]

I got my 395 XMLs mounted up yesterday and the truck looks amazing. My brother and I took it out for a spin to test it out and see how much better these tires were than balding NDT tires. When we hit a couple spots that really stress the articulation of the truck I had all sorts of issues. The rears hit the bed & bed supports and the fronts are hitting the fender wells. My passenger tire even hit the exhaust pipe at one point.

Are there any suggestions on how to fix the problem or heaven forbid limit the articulation? In the rear I was thinking it might be possible to lift the bed a bit to clear the tires. I have no ideas for the front.

I do quite a bit of off roading in my deuce so I'll need to find a solution to this problem. What have you guys come up with?

 

[Recovry4x4]

Lifting the bed would fix the back. What kind of wheels are you running?

 

[gimpyrobb]

I had the same problem in the front with the inner fenders, but not the exhaust. It is adjustable, have you looked into moving it up? I beat mine pretty good at Haspin and had no problem with the rears. Are you running hubs in or out?

 

[serial14]

The wheels are a 2 piece wheel produced by a company called C & C Equipment out of Indiana. The guy has an eBay store he sells them out of. He's got a couple of different offsets on the wheel dish so that front and rear track the same without flipping hubs. So thats what I've done.

Yeah I'm rubbing on the inside fender well. I'll look into moving them up. I can tell they aren't rubbing much so moving them will probably fix that problem. As for the exhaust my truck doesn't have the stock J pipe anymore. A previous owner had done some work on it and consequently I had to do a lot of work to make it the same shape as the original J pipe so the tires could simply fit in the fender well. I looked at it again today and it looks like I hit a pipe clamp so I think I can solve that problem with some clamp adjustments.

If I where to raise the bed how big of a job is that? Would I just add another wood strip, longer bolts, and call it good?

 

[tm america]

i think you will have hitting unless you flip the hubs and run m135 rims.my 15.5s dont hit in the back i have my hubs flipped they just hit the inner fenders at the back and the drag link .if i put the m135 rims they wouldnt hit at all.the wheels from ccequipt. set the tires out alot further than they were intended to be which is probably why they hit the bed and the fenders and exhaust .i seen those wheels on his truck they even made the tires stick out past the fenders

 

[tm america]

flip the hubs and run the wheels the other way it will fix the bed hitting

 

[vinny-socom1]

they fit better on a 5ton... sorry I know it doesn't help you right now.


Vinny

 

[tm america]

you five ton guys i dont know about you

 

[vinny-socom1]

Thats why I sold my bobbed duce and got a 5ton, power steering, you can run large tires and parts are everywhere.. I know its a duce thing right

Vinny

 

[deuce_09]

would just making a body lift for it be a possibility?
or air bags in place of body mounts.
my unc did it on his 18wheeler..not for clearance problems but for ride comfort but they where adjustable and they'll raise the cab some. and maybe try like 3 or 4" blocks

 

[deuce_09]

it'll take some fabrication though..

 

[serial14]

I don't think flipping the rear hubs will help the problem in the rear. When I raise one axle to the bump stops the tire hits the bed supports and the bottom of the bed. its simply cause the tire is soo big, not anything to do with the backspacing on the wheels. Backspacing still may be a problem since I've yet to test a crossed up articulation case where one tire is fully compressed and the other is fully dropped out. Perhaps I'll try that out tomorrow.

I think the only way to solve the problem in the rear is to raise the bed or drop the axles stops to limit travel. As anybody ever done one of these?

For the front I'll look at modifying the inside of the fender well and tweaking my exhaust routing.

 

[AZDeuce]

I've got 395/85/20s on stock rims on my Deuce. the hubs are not flipped. Out in the desert off roading last year, the tires did rub the bottom of the bed several times. Fortunately the tires rub between the braces, and rub only on the flat steel of the bed floor. It's only for a short period of time, crossing a wash, or climbing a steep bank, so I'm not too worried about it, as most of our desert journeys are relatively flat.

I never had a problem with the tires hitting the front fenders or the "J" pipe, but then it dawned on me, my truck is a 53 REO, that was rebuilt to A2 standards in the 80s or 90s, and even though its a "C" turbo'd, airshift truck, it still retains the old gas engined fenders. They have much more clearance under the wheel wells.....I guess I got lucky on that issue.

The down side is the fenders are CLOSER to the engine, and limit your access to perform certain repairs or tasks. To pull the injector on my truck, it would be VERY benificial to remove the fender first before even attempting to do so. (hope that puppy don't break!)

 

[ccequipment]

You won't change anything with flipping the hubs on the rear because the wheels will track the same front or rear I should know because I make them. The tires will touch the bed at full articulation, but it does not hurt anything. As for you hitting the inner fenders, I have not had that problem, but I have seen some of the older trucks with more of a boxed out fenderwell , no two trucks are the same there are little diffrences in all of them. As for your exahust if you had a stock j pipe just make sure its up tight against the fender and you won't have any problems. I put these wheels and tires through some severe testing, and also at Haspin this year, I didn't cut any slack with them just ask a few members. I have not seen any inner fender rubbing. I have pushed a truck to its limits, only because it was one of my parts trucks and I did not care about it, besides that the motor already had a knock in it.