Well here it is....the first test fit....details below!
I finally was able to get the first of the sectioned fenders together enough to get a test fit done on the truck! Oh boy did that feel good! Everything was a success to say the least. I am not done yet. I still need to fill in the inner fender sections that are missing. I didn't know what these pieces where going to look like so I decided to weld them in on the truck. I may just tack them and take the inner fender out again to final weld everything. We will see. I hope to tackle this in the coming week before I leave for Moab.
The tires fit really well in the new sectioned fender. For those just turning in I took 6" total out of the fender horizontally to make them longer. I was planning on running a 37" tires but ended up finding a great deal on a set of used 325/85r16 Michelin XML's. These are a TRUE 38.5" tall ( 121" Cir ).
As it happens I was also able to keep full lock to lock steering with the big tires. I may even trim the stops and clearance the knuckles to get a few more degrees. Here is the clearance between the tire and spring.
I think the tire has plenty of room to move around. With the big Cummins oil pan you don't really get much up travel. I think even with my new front springs I only have about 3-4" at most.
On the 8" wheels the tires also don't stick out that much at all. I don't know if I will keep the 8" wheels in the long run? I will have to see what the tires wear like. They are spec'd for a 9" rim if I remember right.
Yup, that's a lot of tire! I hope these big meats will come in useful. This is suppose to be an expedition truck after all. Do you need tires like this, most likely not, but why not be a little different. I think these should provide a MARKED improvement in off road performance, especially in more extreme circumstances. It will be interesting to see how these do in the sand aired down. This big old truck isn't the lightest and hopefully these tires allow it to float a little better. The ground clearance under the D60/70 diffs will also be a big bonus! I still may do a bead-lock of some kind in the future. I will see how they do first. These tires have a pretty stiff bead for sure.
Here you can get a decent view of the room the tires have to move around. Its not a ton, but more than enough I think. I don't ever really plan to make this truck a rock-crawler with a super flexy suspension! Like I said before. I only have so much room for up travel with the oil pan.
Hopefully I can find a clean way to cover up the mess in the front of the fender where the inner and outer meet. I am going to be building a front bumper that wraps around and is tapered so that should hide most of it. I would like to get everything sealed up from the inner to outer fender though since the air box ( and its future improvement ) will always be in that area.
So what do you guys think? Did it turn out ok?
