I would go with a body lift and a leveling kit. Then you won't have a prob.

 

I have a set of four Michelin LTX A/T 2 LT285/75R16 (approximately a 33x11.50 tire) on a set of factory aluminum wheels off a 2001 Ram 2500 mounted on my '96 Ram 2500 4x4. My truck had a snow plow option. The wheels/tires fit nicely and not a bit of rubbing anywhere. When I rebuild my front end, I did install Spohn upper and lower control arms, which are offset to the inside a bit.

 

My '95 2500 (a long time ago) when it was stock on 33's.





The answer is yes.

 

My 2500 has 315/75/16's which is 34.6"'s roughly. I have a leveling kit. I have some pretty bad rub. I don't have a full turning radius, only about 70% of it. It's not all its cracked up to be. Making 3 or 4 point turns to get into a tight parking space because jackasses in prius's (pri-i?) making parking difficult.
I'd recommend a 285/75/16. Its a great tire size to run factory, no rub, but bigger than stock and has a good look on a factory height truck. A 285 is 32.8" tall. Pretty damn close to a 33 and the width is narrower, so they fit better.

 

^^ You need wheels with less backspacing. That's a lot of tire for those stock steelies. If you had more offest you wouldn't rub near as much. With 2" spacers up front I don't rub my 35's at all on my '95.

 

^^ I know, but I like the stock wheels.
I'm really not worried about it. When it's tire time, I'm downsizing. I want better MPG's anyway. I don't take it offroad nearly as much as the tires want me to. The previous owner had the 315's put on and when IU bought the truck a couple years ago, two of the tires were good and two were smoked. I replaced them 2 at a time, said f it.
No worries man. I'm fully aware I need spacers. I'm just cheap. lol.

 

What gears are in your axles? I doubt with a Cummins you will get better mpg's by downsizing from 35's. These engines like having some load on them.

 

^^ I have a factory 3.55 ratio. I'm getting real close to 16 mpg's. I know its possible to see 20 but I doubt I will. The autotragic kills it I think. But 17-18 would e fantastic. I believe I read somewhere that without a tuner, you can get 17 ish mpg's, with a tuner close to 20. I dont remember for sure.

 

Some trucks came factory with 4.10's, that's why I was asking. If you had those you wouldn't wanna go any smaller. With 3.55's you could probably step down to a 33" tire and maybe pick up some mpg's, but it wouldn't be much. Auto's do suck, that's why I don't buy them Yes a tuner can actually help quite a bit.

 

You are so holyier than though when comes to talk about trannies.

Wonder why many of the ultra4 guys run automatics???



Plenty of people blow up NV4500 trannies. In stock flavors and from the stuff I've seen upfront and had my hands on, a good comparison would be done b/t a nv4500 (460 ft-lb input rating) and perhaps 47re (450 ft-lb input rating). Pretty unfair to compare to a 46re. For sure swapping a nv4500 to a half ton drivetrain will be the stronger.