Question about tire size.

I had a "tire guy" tell me today, that I could put 33's on my stock 17 inch wheels without any lift other than cranking the bars & then trimming the plastic piece that hangs infront of the fender. Is this true, or is he mistaken? I want to put a bigger more aggressive tread tire on my stock wheels. As always, money is an issue, (just had to fund a huge wedding for my daughter.) or I'd buy custom rims. (9 inch). Hopefully, those will come later. Let me know what my options are.

2005 Chevy Silverado Z71 ext. cab All factory suspention, tires & wheels.
Thanks.

I had a "tire guy" tell me today, that I could put 33's on my stock 17 inch wheels without any lift other than cranking the bars & then trimming the plastic piece that hangs infront of the fender. Is this true, or is he mistaken? I want to put a bigger more aggressive tread tire on my stock wheels. As always, money is an issue, (just had to fund a huge wedding for my daughter.) or I'd buy custom rims. (9 inch). Hopefully, those will come later. Let me know what my options are.

2005 Chevy Silverado Z71 ext. cab All factory suspention, tires & wheels.
Thanks.
I am not sure about the tires, but nothing smaller than 17 inch rims will fit your truck due to brake clearance.

Im planning to stay with 17x9 inch rims whenever I do buy some. The factory rims are 17x7s.

I can tell ya for sure its going to be a super tight fit... I tried to squeaze a 315 series tire under mine (got em off an H2 for free) and there was quiet a bit of rubbing... Now I plan to do a lift down the road, so I opted for 285's for now... All I did was crank my bars to level the truck, I was a lucky one, didnt have to replace the keys and my CV angels are acutaly still good

your tire guy is right 305 will fit if you trim about a 1"x1" piece of plastic and crank your bars

One problem with clearance is by going with a wider wheel, 9 inches instead of 7 the rubbing will increase. If you find a tire that will fit on a 8 inch wide rim you will be better off. Cranking torsion bars will help with clearance but an alignment is absolutely necessary afterwards and there are consequences to messing with them such as added stress on ball joints and what not plus recalibration of speedo will need to be done and depending on what gear you have in the rear you will sacrifice plenty of low end torque and off line power with tires that big

Thanks for the input. The more I think about it the more I'm leaning toward 285's. Do you think they'll be okay on the 9inch wheels? I've also heard something about a "leveling key". Can you shed some light?

Joe

If you want to go any larger than a 305/70 then you might need the torsion keys to raise the front end. All it is is the same torsion key your truck has, but the hole is reindexed to add more lift when installed. If all you want is a 33" tire, I'd say go with 285's. Same height as a 33", just not as wide. With the 285/75's you shouldnt have to trim anything.

You could even go with a 255/85/16. They are still 33" tall but not as wide as the 285's.

Did a lot of "Tire size research" today. I'm going with the leveling key, 285/70/17's on a 9inch wheel. Havent picked out the wheel style yet. Thanks for the input.

Joe

If you want to go any larger than a 305/70 then you might need the torsion keys to raise the front end. All it is is the same torsion key your truck has, but the hole is reindexed to add more lift when installed. If all you want is a 33" tire, I'd say go with 285's. Same height as a 33", just not as wide. With the 285/75's you shouldnt have to trim anything.

What exactly do you have to trim to fit the 305s? How easy/hard is it to do?

I'm still deeply debating what to do myself. What exactly is the difference btw. the 285/75, 295/75 and the 305/70 (height difference/width difference)? Also, those 305s look really wide for the stock rims (very good look), but does this cause any problems as far as mounting and keeping the bead? I love how wide those are but I thought I'd have to get wider rims for a set of tires that wide.

Also, what size are the tires in your pic?

Thanks in advance for any info!

The tires in my pic are 285/75/16's They fit perfectly without any rubbing at all. All I did is crank the torsion bars a little.
To fit 305's all you would have to trim is the little plastic air dam right at the edge of the bumper closet to the tire. If you turn the bars some, you may not even have to do this. As far as the stock rims, they will work perfectly and to me, they look really good with that fat of a tire on them. They won't loose a bead at all, it actually helps them to retain the bead. If you get wider rims, you'll have all kinds of rubbing issues.

I've mounted tons of 305's on these trucks when I used to work at the tire store and only 1 time did I see any give trouble. They were Goodyear ATS.....those tires are crap!

If anybody knows someone who's looking for some stock '05 Silverado wheels complete with a barely used set of P265/70R17 Bridgestone Dueler A/T's, cheap, give me a holler.
Joe

jeverett....

Why is it that your 285 M/Ts look so much wider than the 285 A/Ts on Snowbrdr1122s truck? Is it just the camera angle? Are the tires on y'alls trucks both the same width? I really want that fat look and I want the A/Ts versus the M/Ts...if I can confirm that the width is the same, I'd rather go with the 285s over the 305s.

I really really hate this metric crap. Wish we could go back to the good ol' American system.

jeverett....

Why is it that your 285 M/Ts look so much wider than the 285 A/Ts on Snowbrdr1122s truck? Is it just the camera angle? Are the tires on y'alls trucks both the same width? I really want that fat look and I want the A/Ts versus the M/Ts...if I can confirm that the width is the same, I'd rather go with the 285s over the 305s.

I really really hate this metric crap. Wish we could go back to the good ol' American system.

The width is not the same, but the height is. A 305 is basically the exact same as a 33/12.5/16, a 285 is a little narrower.
Different tires will look differently when mounted. If you want the fattest look possible, get Goodyears...but I dont lke them. If you want some good A/T's, look at Bridgestone Dueler REVO's, or maybe some BFG A/T, or Cooper ATR's....
I had some of the old Coopers before they changed tread design and they rocked!!..let me find a pic for you with them.

Okay..heres the pics with the Cooper 285's
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a342/jceverett/Z714.jpg


http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a342/jceverett/Z711.jpg

Jeverett,

You said you loved the Coopers......How many miles did you get out of them, and what type of driving (city/highway)?

Thanks!

I appreciate the input guys. I think what I'm going to do is to just go with the 285s now and next year when I'm outta college and have a real job I'll get myself a set of rims and then go with the 305s.

Thanks a lot!

Jeverett,

You said you loved the Coopers......How many miles did you get out of them, and what type of driving (city/highway)?

Thanks!

I got about 50K out of them b/c i rotated them every 6k miles. I do mostly highway driving, with a bit of light off road.

They are quiet, and get good grip considering theyre a all terrain. I wouldn't heesitate to go with them again. Like I also said, they've changed the tread design since that set in the pics.

Bought my tires today... 285s. So far, I love em. I don't know if it was psychological, but I think I could actually feel the extra inch of height when I got in for the first time. I'll post pics tomorrow if I get around to it.