Just bought a 95 Ram 1500 4X4, long bed, with the 5.9, I have been searching for a affordable lift kit to put on and I have a ton of questions.

I would like to use 315/75/16's in a mud terrain tread, however most of the popular sus lift kits in the 3" range list 33" by 12.50's tires... 315/75/16s come to approximately 34.602" tall. And 285/75/16s are approximately 32.85" tall.

Another friend of mine has a 95 1500 ecab that is running 315's, however we dont know what sus kit he's running b/c he bought it from a dealer that way. It has a red coil spacer in the front and a aal in the rear, dunno if its a rancho or not? There is not a body lift on it either, and I want to stay away from them too.

What is the most affordable way to get 315s on my truck, can I combine various sus parts to make for a taller lift, meaning ....

Can you use say two in rancho or super lift front coil springs with a two in coil spacer?
Im not too worried about the rear b/c of spacers and aal's that can be used, im primarly wondering about the front clearing those tires. I plan on keeping the nice chrome factory five spokes, dont have plans to replace them with a different offset.

Help pleas and Thanks!

 

Ok I have a 2000 1500 4X4 and an running 285/75/16 mud terrains with no problems at all. I want to go to 305/75/16s. My suspension is stock. with the 315s you will probably need to lift it, ( you already know that). I belive the cheapest route for you (and the same thing I will probably do) is 2 inch spacers for the front coils and 2 inch add a leafs for the rear. I think that pavementsucks.com has what you need. I think that you could fit the 315s no problem with 2 inches of lift but I havent tried it so i dont know for sure. Let me know whatyou find and decide.....

 

I'd do a forum search here first. This topic has been covered numerous times.

 

You'll want to lift front and rear but the rear will actually clear a 35" M/T without a lift. I have a 3" Skyjacker system and still had to trim the front fender tubs and plastic on the bumper. The mfr lists a 5" for 35's cause that's what it will take if you don't want to do any trimming whatsoever.

 

Sorry to threadjack, but will the 315s fit on the stock rim? I only ask because I'm considering this same upgrade.

 

They will fit on the stock rims but will be a pain in the a to keep balanced because they are so much wider than the rim. I ran them for about a year on the stock rims before upgrading to different rims and wider 35's. I was having them balanced every 5k.

 

After searcing and doing other follow up, I think that I might run with 255/85/16's, these work out to be 33.06", 285/75/16's work out to be 32.83". I currently have the 265/75/16's they measure out at 31.64" new, and they have seen much better days.

What are your opinions on the 255's does anyone have some pics of them on? From what I have read the 315's do sound like they are going to be just to much work for a good look. I plan on regearing, the truck already has a tranny cooler, but other than that I dont want to eat up the milage/tranny/motor that much faster.

As far as the lift goes since the truck is a budget work truck Im going to use the top gun customz 3" lift that is 180.00.

For the tires I stumbled across a sight that sells them real cheap, does anyone know if there good to work with? http://www.tires-easy.com/start.html

 

If it were me, I'd go with the 285's. Better floatation in mud and sand. I havn't seen the 255's but I would think they'd look pretty skinny from the front/back. You should be able to get good load ratings in either size.

 

I had 315's put on my truck by Les Schwab, they installed a leveling/ 2" lift kit that only raised the front end, there was more then enough clearence at the rear. No triming was required, I did have to remove the stock nerf bars as they did rubon the front tires when making a sharp turn. Kit was$115.00 plus $90 for installation. I have about 2500 miles on it with no problems.

 

I think there's some common misconceptions that many people have about reading a metric tire size. One thing that needs to be noted is that you can't just compare one 315 to another 315 because that does not actually designate the height. Tire size is measured by a ratio. If you're looking for a 35" tire you can acheive that many different ways, the effect each one has is on the width. Obviously, a skinnier 35 will be able to fit a little easier (w/o rubbing during turns) than a wider 35 on the same backspacing.
These are just examples and not necessarily an exact tire size, it is just to show you the conversion and how each of these are actually a 35".

315/75/16 comes out to a 35x12.4
290/83/16 comes out to a 35x11.4
365/65/16 comes out to a 35x14.4 (you usually rarely find this wide of a tire measured in metrics though anyway)