I've been running 32" tires for a couple years now. Goodyear Duratracs in 275/65-18. I did all the normal clearancing work to clear these - the rear heater hose and body seam mod; move the left front sensor wiring; cut back the frame horns at the rear of the front wheel wells, and some trimming of the front plastic fender liner.
The Duratracs proved to be pretty good in moderate wheeling; in snow and rain; but not so durable in rock crawling. In two years and 20,000 miles I cut two sidewalls and utterly destroyed the tread. You could literally tear pieces off with your hands, and the tires had become very loud and rough on the highway.
So time to upgrade. And you know, looking at it I think there's still a little room for more tire...
Which leads us to now. I'm currently running 275/70-18 Cooper STT Pros. They measure out at 33.3" - pretty much right on the spec sheet.
How do they fit? Pretty well actually. I haven't done any further trimming beyond what I had already done. With stock suspension they will rub the upper inner wheel well liners in front under harder cornering. With Johnson Rods installed, I could not get them to rub on the street unless I locked it into access height and then I got similar rubbing to running stock height (which you would expect).
Although these tires are theoretically the same width as the Duratracs, they are in fact a tiny bit wider at the should lugs. This gives just a tiny bit of rubbing on the front upper control arm at johnson rod off-road height with the wheel turned at full lock. Only one side will rub at a time and it's very minimal. I have a set of 3/4" spacers I could put back on, but that causes other issues in the front as it increases the swing radius when turning so I'm leaving them off and will live with the minor rub. It's only enough to touch a shoulder tread block and not the actual shoulder anyway so I don't suspect any issues.
I am also running the Proud Rhino bump stop extension kit and would recommend something like this if you were to run a tire this big. Although it won't matter in day to day use, if you have a failure w/o a kit like this, you will be fully immobile as the tires will be solidly into the wheel wells.
left front rub marks on wheel well
Right front
upper control arm touching sidewall at full lock/full lift
I should also add that they are louder than an AT tire, even an 'aggressive' AT like the Duratrac, at least new-for-new. My beat to hell Duratracs were louder than these are currently, but since I only have a few street miles on them so far it remains to be seen how they will be with some miles on them.
They do roll true and smooth, though a bit stiffer at least for now. I expect they will break in with a few hundred miles on them.
In short, I wouldn't recommend these for a daily driver, but if you wheel your rig hard they might be an option for you. As you can see though, this is clearly pushing the limits for fitment. I also expect there will be a further gas mileage penalty over the Duratracs (which were a penalty over stock) since the wheel/tire combo came in at 88 lbs.
The Duratracs proved to be pretty good in moderate wheeling; in snow and rain; but not so durable in rock crawling. In two years and 20,000 miles I cut two sidewalls and utterly destroyed the tread. You could literally tear pieces off with your hands, and the tires had become very loud and rough on the highway.
So time to upgrade. And you know, looking at it I think there's still a little room for more tire...
Which leads us to now. I'm currently running 275/70-18 Cooper STT Pros. They measure out at 33.3" - pretty much right on the spec sheet.
How do they fit? Pretty well actually. I haven't done any further trimming beyond what I had already done. With stock suspension they will rub the upper inner wheel well liners in front under harder cornering. With Johnson Rods installed, I could not get them to rub on the street unless I locked it into access height and then I got similar rubbing to running stock height (which you would expect).
Although these tires are theoretically the same width as the Duratracs, they are in fact a tiny bit wider at the should lugs. This gives just a tiny bit of rubbing on the front upper control arm at johnson rod off-road height with the wheel turned at full lock. Only one side will rub at a time and it's very minimal. I have a set of 3/4" spacers I could put back on, but that causes other issues in the front as it increases the swing radius when turning so I'm leaving them off and will live with the minor rub. It's only enough to touch a shoulder tread block and not the actual shoulder anyway so I don't suspect any issues.
I am also running the Proud Rhino bump stop extension kit and would recommend something like this if you were to run a tire this big. Although it won't matter in day to day use, if you have a failure w/o a kit like this, you will be fully immobile as the tires will be solidly into the wheel wells.
left front rub marks on wheel well
Right front
upper control arm touching sidewall at full lock/full lift
I should also add that they are louder than an AT tire, even an 'aggressive' AT like the Duratrac, at least new-for-new. My beat to hell Duratracs were louder than these are currently, but since I only have a few street miles on them so far it remains to be seen how they will be with some miles on them.
They do roll true and smooth, though a bit stiffer at least for now. I expect they will break in with a few hundred miles on them.
In short, I wouldn't recommend these for a daily driver, but if you wheel your rig hard they might be an option for you. As you can see though, this is clearly pushing the limits for fitment. I also expect there will be a further gas mileage penalty over the Duratracs (which were a penalty over stock) since the wheel/tire combo came in at 88 lbs.
