wickedss85 Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 Looking at tires and was wondering what all is required to run and clear a 32x11.50r15 tires on the R50? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XPLORx4 Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 (edited) You need the AC 2" lift, 15x8 wheels with 3.75 or 4" of backspacing, no fender flares or front mudflaps, and trimmed or heat-deformed front fender liners. The wheel backspacing and width is most important to make sure the tires will clear the strut. To keep your performance from suffering too greatly, you should also consider regearing to 4.636:1 (ring/pinion ratio that came stock on the 96-98 SE models) Edited March 16, 2015 by XPLORx4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jyeager Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 You need the AC 2" lift, 15x8 wheels with 3.75 or 4" of backspacing, no fender flares or front mudflaps, and trimmed or heat-deformed front fender liners. The wheel backspacing and width is most important to make sure the tires will clear the strut. To keep your performance from suffering too greatly, you should also consider regearing to 4.636:1 (ring/pinion ratio that came stock on the 96-98 SE models) I would suggest that perhaps this ^ is the 'recommended' list, but the REQUIRED list would be: 1) a pair of front wheel spacers to clear your strut's spring perch. 2) Can you shoehorn 11.50" wide tires on to your stock 15" rims? Not entirely sure. Aren't they 7.5" wide? Maybe. So rims could be required, but might not be. 3) If your stock springs aren't sagging you might be OK with them if you are willing to potentially rub your fenders when you fully compress your springs. So a 1" lift (at a minimum) might be considered required. You could do that with a set of spacers. But it wouldn't cost any more or be any harder to use 2" spacers. 4) If you don't want rubbing on the fender liners when you turn tight, you would need to cut. You might get away without needing to cut if you got narrower tires (which would help with the stock rim width). Can you find 32" in 10.,5" wide? You can run 31" tires with no changes though....you might find that a better solution. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jyeager Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 One more requirement for 32" tires.... A spare must be mounted on the roof or swing-out carrier on the back. You can't fit a 32" spare tire in the location under the truck. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XPLORx4 Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 BTW, stock '98 XE wheels I think are 15x6.5 steel. They were intended to be used with 235/70R15 tires. It is unsafe to fit 11.5" wide tires on a wheel so narrow. There are lots of different techniques you can use to fit 32x11.50R15 tires on your Pathfinder. The one I suggested will accomplish that and make your rig look like it came like that from the factory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jyeager Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 BTW, stock '98 XE wheels I think are 15x6.5 steel. They were intended to be used with 235/70R15 tires. It is unsafe to fit 11.5" wide tires on a wheel so narrow. There are lots of different techniques you can use to fit 32x11.50R15 tires on your Pathfinder. The one I suggested will accomplish that and make your rig look like it came like that from the factory. Ok, here's the answer then. 6.5" wide rims are too narrow for that tire width. Since you will have to get new rims you can get them with the desired offset and not need spacers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wickedss85 Posted March 17, 2015 Author Share Posted March 17, 2015 Thanks for all the advice. Im thinking now im going to play it safe and just do some nice 31's on new 15x8's. Maybe a 2 inch lift down the road when I replace the struts and shocks. Seems like 31's will be better since it is also a daily driver. Thanks for all the great input guys! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XPLORx4 Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 If you want to keep your same 15x8 wheels when you eventually install 32's, be sure to get 15x8 wheels with 3.75" to 4" backspacing. They will fit both 31's and 32's. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Megaton Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 Has anyone tried 235/85r16's (31.7x9.3) ? Using a 16x7 or 8 with a 4 in backspace? It seems to me this would work and keep trimming to a minimum. Yeah they're narrow but my stock tires are pretty narrow and they do a pretty good job. I'm looking to get as much ground clearance as I can on a 2 in lift. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XPLORx4 Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 235/85R16's would probably fit on 16x8 wheels with up to 4.25" backspacing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle94 Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 i had 33x12.50x15's on stock toyota wheels with no lift... and they tucked! Front touched the inner fender guards just barely. ran that way for a month before i got the 2" ac lift. so really all you would need is different offset whees. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wickedss85 Posted March 18, 2015 Author Share Posted March 18, 2015 (edited) If you want to keep your same 15x8 wheels when you eventually install 32's, be sure to get 15x8 wheels with 3.75" to 4" backspacing. They will fit both 31's and 32's. I plan on keeping the same new wheels but my question is this, as far as backspacing goes im not worried about how much the tire sticks out to a certain degree. Which backspacing would give me more clearance as far as strut to tire and other items that i may run into? 3.75 or 4? Edited March 18, 2015 by wickedss85 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XPLORx4 Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 (edited) Either 3.75 or 4 will provide enough clearance for bigger tires. 4" is the max backspacing. If you get 4.25" or more, then you'll need wheel spacers. Edited March 19, 2015 by XPLORx4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
01Pathmaker Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 To do it on the cheap you just need at least 7" wide wheels with either the appropriate bs (3.75 seems to be a good universal number) or spacers and you favorite cutting tool to "clearance" the fenders. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XPLORx4 Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 To do it on the cheap you just need at least 7" wide wheels with either the appropriate bs (3.75 seems to be a good universal number) or spacers and you favorite cutting tool to "clearance" the fenders. Which technique to fit 32's did you use? What's the strut-to-tire clearance for the 32's on 7" wide wheels? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naoscaire Posted March 26, 2015 Share Posted March 26, 2015 (edited) I recently bought used 285/70/17's and bough some steel 17" rims. I am new to the tire/wheel stuff and didn't even think about the offset. When I went to get them installed they told me I would need a 2 1/2"-3" wheel spacer. Anyone have wheel spacers on that large? Edited March 26, 2015 by Naoscaire Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XPLORx4 Posted March 26, 2015 Share Posted March 26, 2015 Wheel spacers that wide are prone to causing vibrations, and will increase the stress on the lug studs. If you can trade out the wheels, that's preferable. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naoscaire Posted March 26, 2015 Share Posted March 26, 2015 Ya thats what I was reading. I might try and get a smaller width tire as well. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R3DN1CK Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 OK, bear with me here... I was WD21, now I'm R50. I have 32x11.5r15 on my legos. If I want to run them on my R50... I want to clarify the lift issue. I was going to use one of the 4x4parts kits with the 2" lift or use the 1.5 spacers that the guy on here sells. My question is besides the lift springs, are the struts any longer or does the coil just make the stock spec struts on the truck stand up higher? I'll check tire rack for some wheel options with the recommended backspacing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beatup96 Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 Struts are stock length . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R3DN1CK Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 Struts are stock length . Then the lift really doesn't do anything for travel... just tops out? might as well go spacers then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XPLORx4 Posted April 5, 2015 Share Posted April 5, 2015 Spacers 1" and up installed between the body and the top of the strut will cause the CV axles to bind and/or break if you get both front wheels off the ground. You won't get the topping out caused by reduced downtravel of the strut when new coil springs are installed. I opted to avoid 1" spacers due to the risk of breaking my CV axles while off-roading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
01Pathmaker Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 Spacers 1" and up installed between the body and the top of the strut will cause the CV axles to bind and/or break if you get both front wheels off the ground. You won't get the topping out caused by reduced downtravel of the strut when new coil springs are installed. I opted to avoid 1" spacers due to the risk of breaking my CV axles while off-roading.Sorry, but I'm not following this logic. Whether you're using spacers or springs to achieve the desired amount of lift is going to create the same cv angles, is it not? I'm running md springs on my 01 (5/8" lift over stock after settling), 1.5" spacers on my 96 (1.75" lift over stock with my saggy stock springs), neither of them bind at full droop up on the jack. 01 has Cardone select shafts, 96 appear to be unknown aftermarket replacements (replaced by the previous owner), if maybe that has anything to do with it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R3DN1CK Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 It almost seems like the spacers make more sense as they allow the stock droop compression, whereas the coil springs lessen droop and increase the compression. The kind of offroading I do needs a lot of droop. Topping out is no Bueno. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XPLORx4 Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 A couple of months ago I helped a friend with a stock 2002 QX4 install 1" spacers above the strut and after reassembly of the suspension (while the car was still on the lift and the front wheels were off), we rotated the hub/rotor/CV axles on each side and we could feel slight binding every 1/3 of a rotation. I run the AC 2" coil spring lift and 1/2" spacers installed between the body and top of the strut. There is no CV axle binding when the suspension is fully unloaded. Sorry, but I'm not following this logic. Whether you're using spacers or springs to achieve the desired amount of lift is going to create the same cv angles, is it not? Let me explain the logic: With replacement coil springs, you are not changing the maximum suspension travel of the strut. You are also not exceeding the OEM-spec max operating angles of suspension components (lower A-arms, tie rods, but most importantly, CV axles). The max travel is defined by the length of the strut, not by the height or stiffness of the coil springs. With stiffer springs, you ARE changing the ratio of suspension uptravel to downtravel when you alter the static ride height. For example, let's say that the R50 strut has 8" of total travel, and on a stock R50, there is 4" of strut compression and 4" of strut extension. If you install stiffer coil springs for a 2" lift, you will still keep the same 8" of travel, but you'll now have 6" of strut compression and 2" of strut extension. If you encounter a road surface that causes the front wheels to quickly drop more than 2", the strut reaches its max extension by making a loud thunking sound. With a spacer lift placed ABOVE the strut assembly, this has the effect of not changing the travel length of the strut- it is still 8". You are also not changing the ratio of compression to extension. It is still (in this example) 4" up and 4" down. What you ARE changing is the relative position of the strut assembly relative to the body. When the suspension fully extends, it now fully extends into a position that is lower than OEM design by the thickness of the spacer installed above the strut. This can have the effect of causing the max CV angles to be exceeded, as I discovered after installing 1" spacers on my friend's QX4.I hope that helps. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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