ok i was going to do a sas to my dakota but I'm going to make this my trail,toy, just daily driver. OK so my questain is if i have 5 inches of lift can i fit 35 inch tires.

i read in the FAQ2 ----Modification Ideas: Lifting/Lowering, Performance, Swaps & More said that with 5 inch's of lift i can fit 35 inch tires. that means i can run 3 inch body lift, crank the torison bars which would give me about 5 inches of lift. and if need i can add a 1 inch spacer at the bottom of my 3 inch body lift. which would make 6.lol but has anyone tried putting 35 on a dakota.

 

ok so here is what I have come to understand. with a 2 inch bodylift (all I can find for sale) you can fit 31" tires with the Tbars cranked. with a leveling kit it would clear 33" tires now here is the kicker. I cant find any lift kits for sale for our trucks that isnt $2000.00 I mean I can find websites that say they have them but when you go to buy it they always say it is either out of stock or discontinued. so if your wanting a GOOD lift kit then my best suggestion for you would be to stick with the SAS swap. other wise you can try to find a used lift kit from someone. (the only one I can find that was made for our trucks was a 4 inch suspension.) in which would clear 35"s. I hope this helps you.

 

My truck has 31s now, and had 32s on it and all I have is the 2 inch body lift(that I dont like) but anyway. If you cranked the T bars you could probably fit 33s. And if you did the 1-3" torsion bar keys and whatever your flavor in the rear you could probably squeeze 35s under it.

And not to try and shoot your horse or anything...
But trail/toy/daily driver dont really go together for me.

 

Yes you can clear 35's with 3in body and indexed keys, completely maxing them out. The 3in body kit for our truck is no longer made. You can piece it together yourself though.

2in body lift is the max body hight you would want, any higher and you get negative side effects of the body lift.

But 33's is the MAX that the front axle can handle. The rear may handle it but who knows. I say your asking for trouble going 35's on stock setup.

Also I had the control arms maxed out with out the bump stops, every little bump smaller than a speed bump will make it top out and you can feel it. It feels like its going to fall apart on a hard hit.

I killed my front axle two times due to mild/hard offroading on 33's but I had enough room for 35's.

Also don't forget going to any larger size tire especially 33 or 35's you WILL need to go to lower axle gears (Higher numerical). To keep your HP and MPG the same, it will get way worst if you don't.

I hate to say it but if you want 6in lift or more and 35's or more SAS is your best option to keep it safe.

 

amen on the tire size. myne had factory hight tires on it when i got wich is about 28 inches.
looked goofy and really wore em like doughnuts (wide wheels) i went to a set of used 31's with one inch lift in the front and my power dropped pretty dramaticly and my mpg whent down some aswell.
that's with 3.21 gears wich is the fastest that was offerd and was only an option for the v8. if i was seriusly thinking about 33's i'd do something with the front axle. it's just a 7.5 axle.
you could always get a 29 spline from a later model for the rear but i don't think that the rear would have a problem with 33's. the 8 1/4's were pretty good
if you do serius off roading though you either will have to commit to a build or make constante repairs because 33's are a lott of rubber.
if you want a daily driver that you can "play" with though.
i'd say 31's would suffice. still handles really well (on 16 inch rims atleast) rides ok and you can get pretty aggressive tread if you want it.


a 6 foot tall truck can't go where your stock truck can if it breaks on the way.

 

god i am really starting to hate this truck. seems like what ever i want has to be rigged, modded and i hate doing so. i agree with everyone above and thanks for the help.

you have no clue how much i want to drop in a 350v8 350 turbo trans, and 3/4 ton axles. love this truck but everything is disconitued and no longer made. i have my 3 inch body lift i got from the truck why is it bad to have.

But thats not right to drop a chevy in a dodge...

 

i talked to my dad just now and he said we can take the running gear out of his out chevy truck that his friend has in his junk yard.

he can't remember if its a1976 chevy 3/4 truck or 1 ton.He said that i would have to go up and take the diff covers off and see what all is needed. chev-kota sounds kinda cool lol. AND nothing for nothing chevy parts are cheapper and theree more aftermarket things out there. so that works better for a kids truck. lol. and then i can still runn the awesome looking dakota body because i love the looks of my truck but not the running gear.

 

my uncle race's a dakota with the chevy 350 bored out to the max, and it runs really good

 

They make all sorts of stuff for a 318 or 360, and the best modifications are the ones you do yourself.

If you are talking about robbing axles off the Chevy too be careful, they may be wider and make your truck look goofy, unless your going for a mini monster truck look...

If I were you and really, really, really wanted a truck to beat the hell out of, I would just put that Dakota on 31s, do some work to the 318 and try to squeeze as much MPG out of it so you can still have fun in it and can still drive it everyday.

Then buy an old rusty POS Ford or Chevy to lift, and mud, and beat the heck out of. You can pick an old rusty one up for like 500 bucks.

 

yea well a small block chevy is way cheaper. and any how this is something my dad and i will do together so. i want to do it. but i mean if when we go look at his truck if its to far gone then. i 'll most likey just but 32inch tires on it a beat the crap out of it.