shawnhog

I am looking at doing a sort of low-buck modifications to my truck to increase its' ability off road, fit larger tires, and in general make it more aggressive both on the trail and on the streets. I am looking at at least a set of fiberglass baja fenders, perhaps an entire desert kit for the frontend ( I will paint it a rattle-can snow camo on the nose, with the original grey appearing to be ripping off from the front), keeping the drivetrain stock, and All-Pro front and rear bumpers and rock sliders all around (if I can get my hands on a welder and a tubing bender, I can save a lot of money!).

I want to massage my engine (brand new replacement) with headers and intake, but leave it otherwise stock.

My question is this: I want to fit 33 x 12.50R15 tires in, possibly Super Swamper Thornbirds. I know the frontend will clear this, but can my rearend take this tire size? Will I have overstuffing issues? I have the AllPro rear spring lift at 2", so I think I may be alright.. What do you think? Maybe a small bodylift to be safe?

EWAYota

i think a 33 would fit, not 100% though. theres a couple guys on here with the fiberglass fenders and 33's i believe, but im not sure if they have any lift or not. i know with the total chaos kit, they run 33x10.50's (suggested) and they prefer the fiberglass, and i dont think that provides any lift so the 12.50 would just depend on the backspacing you have on your rims.

what type of wheeling are you planning on doing? just curious with the thornbird idea (not a highly praised tire for mud or rocks or.....well anything really).

edit: just re-read your question regarding the tires.....clearing the back. i'd say a small rodger brown body lift would be fine.
33x12.50 on 15x8/4.75" backspace wheels needs 1" body lift, and front torsion bar lift (1"-2") (from rogers website.)
http://4crawler.com/4x4/ForSale/BodyLiftKit.shtml#FAQ10

914runner

The fenders arent really the clearence problem, It the pinch weld at the back of the wheelwell on the firewall. Now if you want to run chains, you might want fenders. I can run chains just fine on my rig though with 32's. The chains do hit the sway bar though so I cant go lock to lock.

tc

33x10.50 will fit A LOT easier ....

deathrunner

Truck, 4runner? what do you have?

I have about 2" of lift and fibverglass that goes up 3" and out 4", I clear 33x10.50's with tons of rooms to spare. You could fit these tires with no lift and just the glass. I thinkyou could fit 33x12.50's too. Thornbirds suck on and off road. Look for something else.

Can't really advise on the rear, but either way, trimming can get the job done. I did trimming in the rear and I could probably safely run 35's now.

Buck01

Deathrunner,

Do you have any pictures of the trimming you did?

Thanks

deathrunner

yep

marked the depth and notched the perimeter. There are 2 skins (inner and outer), First you need to buzz off teh seam where they join.



Then the Outer was fold3ed in and the inner pressed up to it. Excess was trimmed.



Holes drilled and rivets popped through each "tab"



Then I chose some fiberglass sides and riveted those on:



The inside was sealed by liquid nails and then I filled the rear quarter's with expanding foam. The truck was sent off to paint. This pic shows full compression. 35's would fit fine.



And here is the final product:



Protrux did the work and there was plenty of work to be done. They rock.

Intrepid

You should do a more in depth write up on that fender trimming, I bet a lot of people would be interested in a non-weld rear fender trimming method.

deathrunner

I thought I pretty much covered it there. If they can't figure out what to do off of that, they probably shouldn't do it.

shawnhog

Sorry I took so long to reply, I got a little sidetracked with some other stuff... I am a bit reluctant to go to a 10.5" wide tire, since I have 32-12.5R15 BFG All-T's on there.. I know it is a loss of only 1/2 inch on each side (depending on the manufacturer, of course), but I am nervous about the look and the footprint. ( am a mudder/ trailrunner, with the occasional excursion onto the rocks. I am an aggressiv driver, and my vehicle is a 1991 4Runner with a brand-new 3.0 that is actually quite fast, even on stock 4.10's and 32" tires! I am looking forward to upgrading to 4.88's with a posi in the rear... I might stick with 32" and put a deep-backspaced wheel on it after the fiberglassing.

BTW: I love the work you showed on modifying the rear fenders! I have been measuring out my 'Runner for that exact same reason! I think that I am going to sawzall both my front and rear fenders for now (I think the 2nd gen. doesn't have a rounded lip in the rear, just sheeting..), custom-mount some bumpers and lighting, change out my tires, wheels, and gears, and work on my audio system. Looks like I got a plan!

I have discarded the idea of using Thornbirds. Since my rig is also my daily driver, getting a more aggressive mud tire isn't an option, and I was looking at the Trxus All Terrain's from Super Swamper. These ones:



What do you think? I think that they will fit my application (I don't want something that is run-of-the-mill around here, and that is BFG All-T's.) pretty well.

YotaJunky

deathrunner, where did you get those fiberglass fenders?

Troy