shush...they'll read this....

 

they need too haha

 

A fellow zone offroad owner! welcome! there's not too many of us

 

They gotta be either chewing up your fenders or tires on full turns because I have a rubbing issue with just 35's and 3" body lift.... I have to say mine didnt rub as bad until I went with slightly wider rims that stuck out a couple inches...

 

maybe he has an offroad edition truck. my 35's rub on my truck. (a little, but the still do every once in a while)

 

my 37's never rub and the only reason i havent regeared my axles is that im waiting till i find a set of D60's beacuse the stock chyrseler 9.25 can only go up to 4.88's and i want bigger tires in the future and will need a 5+ gear ratio

 

not trying to steal this thread or anything. But I have read through this thread a few times. I'm not going to lie I just turned 20 and honestly didnt know much about lift kits or anything else that needs to be upgraded. So I would like to thank every body for teaching me some new stuff. But I have one question. I have a bone stock 97 1500 sport. I wanted to put 35's under it. Nothing too fancy just a bit better then whats on it right now. by the way its an automatic, not by choice but I do love the truck. So do I want to re-gear my truck to 3.55 i wanted to do a suspension lift over a body lift . But if I did that would I have any real problems with my transmission or the tires rubbing. Thank you every body for your input and reading this mess of a paragraph.

I dont want to be one of these.

 

For 35's, good gear ratio is 4.56. You probably currently have the 3.55's. (unless your truck is an Off Road Edition...... then you have 4.10s')

Going over 3" of lift starts getting expensive. Gotta address the front control arms as well, to keep the front axle positioned correctly. Best way is going with a lift that includes 'long arms' for the front. Requires that you relocate the frame mounts for the control arms though. Not exactly a trivial undertaking. (and prolly not cheap if you pay someone else to do it.)

Also gotta consider that re-gearing isn't going to be cheap either. I am going to guess that you probably don't have the experience/tools to do it yourself, so, you are looking at anywhere between 1000, and 1800 bucks to have someone else do it. (parts and labor.) So, between the lift, and the gears, you are probably going to be very close, if not over.... the 3K mark for the price tag.

Another, cheaper... alternative, would be to go with 33" tires. You would only need two to three inches of lift in the front, which could be accomplished with a 'leveling kit', and maybe nothing at all in the rear. Gear change wouldn't be quite so critical either..... (but, it still wouldn't hurt.....)

Best bet is to figger out how you want your truck to end up, and work towards that goal. Do things in the right order, as you can afford it. (gears, lift, tires.....) First thing though, make sure EVERYTHING else on the truck is up to snuff. If there is a weakness in the drivetrain anywhere, big tires is most certainly going to make it MUCH worse.

 

Thats right I dont have the tools or experience, but my dad has been a mechanic for over 30 years, if he is willing to help me go over stuff then I might have one thing going for me. Other then that I have been doing research on here.

I have not checked the drivetrain. But every thing under the hood has been replaced in the last 2years except for the engine. I have been pretty easy on this truck since I have owned it

 

That makes a big difference. If you can have your dad help you, you can prolly rent the tools, if your dad doesn't already have them...... and save yourself big bucks on labor. That brings costs down enormously, and makes you MUCH more familiar with your truck. Which I always see as a good thing. That knocks the price of gears down to around the 5 to 6 hundred dollar mark..... (you can get gears, and install kits, front and rear, as a complete kit off ebay for around 5 hundred..... don't know what quality gears though....)