I have a stock powerwagon and am looking to get new tires. Eventually I may lift it slightly, but I need tires now. I have seen many people running 35's stock. I wonder if I could just go big now and get away with it. If if rubs some on full turn I really dont care as it will only stay this way a few months. I need the ground clearance the 37 will give. I want to use the stock wheels, but i dont know if the tires get wider in the 37in range and wont fit. Any help would be greatly appreciated.


2006 dodge powerwagon qc

 

how wide are the wheels on the PW? I own a 1998 ram on 33's and the tires are 15x12.5x33 and they are on an 8 inch wide rim. 12.5 inch wide tire on the 8 inch wide rim sounds bad but never gave me any grief. Actually it holds the bead on the rim better.

 

i know on a stock ram 4x4 you can fit 35s with no rubbing with a leveling kit and the power wagon sits up pretty high to begin with. im sure 35s would fit without any rubbing or leveling kits as you would have to do with a regular ram 4x4. im not sure if 37s will fit. a good 4x4 shop should be able to look at it and tell you with some accuracy or might already know and ive heard most tire shops will let you test fit tires for free if youre planning on buying from there. youre about to spend major money on new tires (money that will be going to them) so if they wont let you test fit them, then go find a different shop.

ive been told that with 37s going to a 8.5 inch rim is better due to stability reasons but like motorider said ive heard of ppl putting wider tires on rims that are narrower and never having problems. you can get nice aftermarket rims for fairly cheap too if you want something wider. ive seen procomp wheels in offroad magazines starting at 180 apiece (for 15 inch wheels which wont fit on your truck because of the brakes) but the 17x8.5 inch rims that i was looking at were only 210 a piece. its the flashy 20+ inch ghetto looking rims that cost a fortune. at sears yesterday i also saw some good looking american racing wheels that were the same size on sale for fairly cheap but i dont remember the price.

 

I now have 305/70-R17's that are 34" tall. Spec's on all the LT35's I looked at were less than 35 inches.
Mine fit fine. 35's would be no problem, except for the under bed spare location. My 34" spare barely fits there. If it does fit and you are planning to later install dual exhaust, you may have problems with that fitting.
My tires are heavy, and I noticed a loss of performance due to the weight and taller size.
No way would I now think of going to 37" tall tires. You would have to gain 100HP in engine upgrades to get back to the stock performance/feel. Also the handling characteristics will really suck with pinched 37's on stock wheels. Off road would be nice though.

 

Lets say the 37's fit, but what about the width. An 8" wheel is the MAX you'd want to put a 12.50" wide tire on. For me, I'm going with 35x13.50, on 10" wide rims. If your tires are wider that 12.50" you'll defiinitely want to get some wider rims, like 10". I bet the 37" tire would fit, because thats only 2" taller around the radius of the wheel. The only thing I would know is whether or not they would rub on the bumper, fenders or control arms. I'm sure the rear would be ok. Let us know what size your talking about getting.

 

35s will perform better and look great. Bigger than that starts to look like a poser.

 

My 315/70R17 tires just barely fit stock. At full steering lock, the front tires clear the control arms by about 1/4".

 

That's a 34.5" tall tire right? Equiv. to most LT35's. Is it an All-terrain or Mud?
Edit: I saw on another post that you have MTZ's. Those are 34.6"tall. Does your spare tire fit under the bed?

 

Yep, the spare fits under the bed just fine with about an inch to spare between each side and the frame rails.

 

O.K. for those who want to know how to get 37" tires under your ride. This is from me actually doing the deed. I wanted the minimal amount of lift to fit the tires.I also retained the stock rims, and stock shocks.tires are B.F.G. T/A, K.O. 37-12.5-17

remove the wheel flares and wheel well shroud in the front

2" spacer under the front coil spring

Lower the sway bar with a 2"spacer block

Adjust the concentric bushing on the lower control arm, so that the front axel is pushed as far foward as it will go on both sides

Now put the wheel flare on but only put in the front most screw, At the bottom of the fender closest to the door make a mark 1-3/4" towards the door. Now pull the bottom of the flare and mark the new arch of the flare. Now take off the flare, make some perpendicular cuts on the fender to the mark you just made. bend the sheet metal in. You will need to do this so that you have something to screw the fender flare to in order to hold the new radius. the flare now goes over the door (about 1/4" short of the horizontal trim piece), so when you install it in the new location make sure that you hold it out off the door a little or else when you shut the door it will pinch as the door is being closed. By doing this it gave me 5-3/4" from the stock tires to the bumper, and 5-1/2" from the tires to the fender flare closest to the door.

when you re-install the plastic wheel wells make sure you tuck them under the bent sheet metal that you cut.

install 4" pitman arm

install 4" drop for track bar

THAT IS IT ON THE FRONT. when I turn the wheel to an extreeme the tires just kiss the control arms. I recommend wheel spacers. Mine are on order.

FOR THE REAR.....

I wanted to remove the stacked up pieces of cut leaf springs that came with the truck.

I put a 4" tapered lift block in the rear. It turned the axel to line up with the drive shaft perfectly. The bolts that hold the springs together will have to be replaced with shorter ones. I did not know this so my truck currently has the 4" lift block plus 3 of the spirng pieces that came with the truck. It made my rear lift a 3-1/4" lift. Looks good but sits a little lower in the front than it does in the back. the bottom most piece of the spring pieces has a centering pin in it that forces you to have to keep this one on, since the dodge leaf springs have 2 bolts and lift blocks are made for one bolt in the center.

get new U bolts 9/16 x 12-5/8 for a 3-1/2" axel tube

truck rides perfect, handles great. gets a lot of looks.I thought there would be a noticable difference in performance but it feels the same. I will be getting a programmer so that I can recalibrate for the tire size.It already has a K&N filter in the stock air box. this made a big difference in performance and MPG with the stock tires. i guess this is what is helping for the bigger rubber as well

I would include pics with this but the truck is at dodge getting a wheel alighment getting brakes.
the lift kit cost me about $450.00 as opposed to getting a 4-1/2" lift kit for over $800.00. The money I saved is like getting one free tire !!!
Pics will be in my next post