Will 33" tires give me front end issues?

I'm looking to buy tires and I just put in a lift last Saturday. I wanna go with 33" but someone told me the front end will start going and need to be gone through and replaced.. Any one had issues yet?

 

The only problem you might run into is rubbing of the tires on the wheel wells when you turn. Nothing a little trimming can't solve.

Loads of people have 33's on their trucks in this forum. You'll be fine.

 

33" may rub depending on what all you did with your lift, what wheels you have and what width tire. In general 3" of lift is required for 33" tires. Minor trimming of things may be required to eliminate the rubbing even with a 3" lift.

Larger and heavier tires are harder to turn, so yes the truck will have a bit less get up and go and you may see reduced mileage but none of that will break or wear anything out in the front end. Nothing magic happens at 33" tires as far as that goes, just bigger and heavier means slower and less efficient truck. You can re-gear the differentials (expensive) to make up for some of this but usually that is something done only for even larger tires.

If you did 3" of lift and still have stock UCAs then you'll have trouble getting a good alignment. You may have low caster that will make steering less controlled. And you might have excessive camber which can cause tires to wear faster. But again, nothing is going to break.

If you did 3" of lift your drivers side inner CV boot may have the fins now rubbing which can cause the boot to crack/tear over time. If you don't notice it tear then it will lose grease and eventually destroy the CV joint. You can check and monitor this and you can replace or modify the boots to not rub if they are in fact rubbing.

If you did 3" of lift you may develop a vibration in the driver side CV because the needle bearing in the diff wears quickly when it has the side load applied by a lift. ECGS makes a replacement bushing that eliminates this problem if it occurs.

33" tires are very popular and lots of people have them. The 3" lift required to run a 33" tire is also very popular and lots of people have a 3" lift. The more you lift the more things get out of spec in the front end and the more things you may have to replace to get things "right". If you go with a 2" lift you won't fit a 33" tire and you might not have as many problems with alignment, CV boots and needle bearings. But even at 2" you might still have some or all of those issues.

So it really isn't the 33" tire that affects things, but how much lift you do and how you do the lift. And what is fine for one person doing the minimum 3" lift (little bit squirrelly steering, some vibration, faster tire wear, monitoring replacing CV boots at 30k miles) might not be acceptable to someone else who will spend money and time replacing all the parts to not have those issues.