Cincinnati Area Thread (Tri-State, Ohio/Kentucky/Indiana)

It looks weird...

Use to this...

Going to body shop in the morning. Hope they can fix the frame. This gap is huge now

 

And don’t get any ideas...I have rolled this into the garage and locked the door.

 

Good news. Got all four of the new spacers on the truck. Bad news, the tires still rub in the front of the front fender wells. I can’t say I’m surprised as I didn’t really think it would make a difference. I upgraded the spacers more for looks anyway. Guess I’m going to have to cut some plastic next weekend. Any tips for the best tool for the job? Or any pictures of how you guys have trimmed the front?

 

There isn’t much to the plastic in the fenders, a good razor blade can cut them. As for how much you want to cut depends on how much the tire is rubbing. You can cut it in a straight line from the outside in at where the liner is attached above where the rub is at. Or you can apply heat to them and push them further away from the tire.

 

Are you rubbing on front or the back or both? I would recommend cutting as little as possible from the back. I was able to do it without cutting the back at all. I can try to grab photos

 

Just the front. I was able to move the front tires far enough up in the fender using the UCAs to avoid rubbing in the rear. The tire gets damn close to the cab mount but so far it hasn’t rubbed. I won’t know for sure until I take it off-road.

 

@09TRDSport4x4 - I just read through the posts and got caught up. My notifications stopped appearing for this thread so I got behind.

Your setup is very similar to mine. I have SPC UCAs, 285/70r17 STT Pros, replaced my LCAs and did cam bolt gussets so I could get a good alignment with 3* Castor. I also added 1.25" spacers to OEM Sport wheels just after the UCA/LCA change. My UCA is set to position D just like yours. Without spacers and on 285/70s I'm a firm believer that one could daily drive and wheel without a CMC. Once you add the spacers it puts the wheel much further away from the hub/frame and the tires start getting into the plastics. I actually just trimmed my flare yesterday (in preparation for the RRG this weekend) because at full compression I was rubbing a bit of it.

Here's what I did in front. I think most people trim like this. You may be able to try heat but I'm not sure I'll work.


Here's what I did in back. I originally only cut the lower corner where it's close to the Cab Mount, but I just cut the rest of the lower portion yesterday. For the fender liner, I used a heat gun to flatten the plastic, then I tucked it behind the fender. I would strongly recommend keeping as much of the liner as you can. Remember your intake sucks in air from above this liner.

 

I like to call this the snowball effect

Next comes long travel
Engine cage
4 linked rear
And finally
To fix the original problem
A UMP air filter to stop water from getting to your engine

 

Thanks for the pictures @JohnnyRed!

I’ll either have to find my dremel or carefully use a razor knife to trim the fronts. The tires keep rubbing on sharp turns causing my traction control to kick on...

And I have a question again, anyone have any recommendations for where I can get a road force balance without spending an arm and a leg? I know the KO2s can be a bitch to balance and the place that installed my new tires balanced them twice and I still feel like the truck is bouncing up and down between 50-60 mph. It did not feel that way on my last set of KO2s, so I’m almost positive one of the new rear tires is not balanced properly.

 

@09TRDSport4x4

You could try calling Chad at Tire Discounters on 5 Mile Rd in Anderson. Tell him you're friends with John Weigold. Call first though because I don't remember if they have a roadforce machine at that location....I think they do though.

 

Bed is off

 

Well, I successfully trimmed both front fender liners and have greatly reduced the rubbing. That really was a lot easier than I thought it would be. With a new blade in my razor knife it sliced through that thin plastic like it was butter. But of course, when I went to test the trimming, I still heard that wonderful scraping sound... At full lock and under slight compression, the front tires are barely touching the lower corner of the front bumper.

So now I have to decide how much of the front bumper to cut off. That and this plastic is a lot thicker so I don’t know if the razor knife will suffice or not. Here’s a picture of what I still need to trim for reference:

 

Do it.

 

It’s done. No more rubbing, even under slight compression and at full lock. I cut off about an inch to an inch and a half of the bumper on both sides and that did the trick. I don’t expect to hear any more rubbing during daily driving but I’ll have to take it off-road to find out how much more trimming will need to be done. Now if I can just get the tires balanced properly, I’ll finally be able to enjoy driving the truck to and from work...

 

@09TRDSport4x4 - After wheeling at the gorge this weekend I found a few more areas that need trimming.

My fender flare trimming worked well, but found out that the rub in that area was so bad that it now began to rub on the fender behind the area I trimmed. A few hits with a 4lb sledge may have helped fix that.

I found that on full compression I'm rubbing the top of my flare. I guess the 1.25" spacers are putting my tire too far out and hitting the flare instead of stuffing in the wheel well. It almost self deleted when I was "stuffed" and turned the wheel. I had to push it back on the clips. So, I either need to trim the top of my flare, get some adjustable front bump stops to limit travel, try to find some .75" spacers, or take off the flare. ....Neither of those are ideal.

 

I guess another option would be a small, 1" body lift to get the fenders a little higher. Anyone have any experience with this? Good idea? Bad idea?

 

Which front springs are you running? And how much total lift? In other words, how much gap do you have from the fender flare to the top of the tire?

 

@09TRDSport4x4 Front springs are OME 887, they're on the bottom perch on the 5100s, which should be 3" total lift. Tire to fender height is relative based on a number of factors, but I'm currently sitting with about 5.5" clearance. I suppose another option would be to move the spring perch up one notch. It would get me more lift, but also preload the springs and the general consensus on that is it's bad to do.

 

I'd just start cutting and hammering shit

I mean, Josh's is/was a lease and we cut his fenders with a jigsaw.