Suspension setup to fit 37x12.5s on stock wheels with zero rubbing, esp. on genie lamps?!!

[benking]

If this question is better posed somewhere else please let me know but I’m wondering what my best option is to use the stock wheels with 37 inch tires. I am waiting for a 19 PW to arrive in the mail in a couple months but I believe most of the suspension is very similar to a 17-18. This truck will be a daily driver, probably not much faster than 70 on the highway, but I will absolutely re-gear it and allow myself the option to yank it off the road fairly often. I won’t be doing any high speed off roading, just low speed crawling, trail driving, mudding, using the winch a lot. Is there a magic suspension setup that will give me some lift and plenty of clearance for 37s with no rub, is ideal for slow off roading and that handles well on the road? There is a lot of good info on Thuren website but I couldn’t tell if their stuff was more for off road racing or not. Thanks in advance, can’t wait to post my first pictures here, hopefully in April!

[TankerZak]

If this question is better posed somewhere else please let me know but I’m wondering what my best option is to use the stock wheels with 37 inch tires. I am waiting for a 19 PW to arrive in the mail in a couple months but I believe most of the suspension is very similar to a 17-18. This truck will be a daily driver, probably not much faster than 70 on the highway, but I will absolutely re-gear it and allow myself the option to yank it off the road fairly often. I won’t be doing any high speed off roading, just low speed crawling, trail driving, mudding, using the winch a lot. Is there a magic suspension setup that will give me some lift and plenty of clearance for 37s with no rub, is ideal for slow off roading and that handles well on the road? There is a lot of good info on Thuren website but I couldn’t tell if their stuff was more for off road racing or not. Thanks in advance, can’t wait to post my first pictures here, hopefully in April!

You don't need a lift to fit 37x12.50s. You just need +18 offset wheels.

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[benking]

Crap! I had some more stipulations! I want to have a lifted stance and I don’t want the tires to stick out to the side at all. I love the looks of trucks from the 70s and 80s, when they came from the factory just rugged looking. I won’t lie, looks are pretty important to me! Thanks for the reply!

[olyelr]

You will clear many 37’s on stock wheels for the most part aside from some minor rubbing on the radius arms.

The go-to around here for an actual upgrade in suspension is thuren. While it works for high speed stuff, its also a big upgrade for low speed technical wheeling as well. Your only gonna gain about 1.5-2” up front, and basically none out back. But for 37’s you dont need any more height. If you go taller, you will end up needing bump-stop drops and drop brackets for steering etc (like the bds kit). Carli has good products too, and I think those coils gain a bit more height than thuren, but not much.

[OffroadTreks]

You don't want anything more than the Thuren lift/level if you are serious about all that trail talk with the truck.

4, 6 and 8 inch lifts are for the street and mud holes in north Florida & Georgia only. They will make you incredibly unstable offroad in crawling, and not really ideal for tight trails or trails with trees.

As others said, nothing different on the 2019 suspension wise. You can run 37's stock on the stock wheels. Depending on the tire and the tread rub will vary in a few spots. But usually the sway bar and radius arm at full lock.

I think leveling the front looks the best, but it does nothing to clear the tires. Best offset is +18mm as mentioned, and it's worth reading this here: https://www.thurenfabrication.com/tech/ ... tment.html

[DamageWagon]

Rugged looking goes out the window when you’re off camber. If you never tilt the truck you just pay for the tall lifts every mile you drive on the street with bad steering geometry. I’d almost short-course my truck with a low ride height but tons of droop if I could. I wouldn’t go above the 30 lift and 37’s I have now.

[benking]

“You can fit 37x12.5 on a bone stock truck, on the stock wheels, but the turning radius is reduced quite a bit with radius arm and swaybar rub.”

“The ideal aftermarket wheel off-set, for the best overall tire clearance, is between +18mm and +25mm.”

“Power Wagon is from +42mm to +57mm.”

Thank you very much guys. Unfortunately, I think I will have to get different wheels when I do all of this. Too bad, I like the stock look but 42-57 is a lot different than 18-25. Thanks again!

[TankerZak]

“You can fit 37x12.5 on a bone stock truck, on the stock wheels, but the turning radius is reduced quite a bit with radius arm and swaybar rub.”

“The ideal aftermarket wheel off-set, for the best overall tire clearance, is between +18mm and +25mm.”

“Power Wagon is from +42mm to +57mm.”

Thank you very much guys. Unfortunately, I think I will have to get different wheels when I do all of this. Too bad, I like the stock look but 42-57 is a lot different than 18-25. Thanks again!

You really want +18 offset. I know he gives a range but +18 is ideal and you can even fit 37x13.50 at +18 with a whee bit of rub and trimming. I've had +20s i sold and went to +18 mainly for the style but also because I want 13.50s next and it'll fit better.

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[benking]

Thanks. Are 13.5 tires just a preference for you or is it better because they’re that much wider? I always liked a skinnier tire that stayed in line with the truck as much as possible. Skinnier is better for cutting through snow too, maybe the same for mud? I apologize if I’m beating this topic to death in the wrong place, I’m reading the tire/wheel threads as we speak.

[Low_Sky]

Thanks. Are 13.5 tires just a preference for you or is it better because they’re that much wider? I always liked a skinnier tire that stayed in line with the truck as much as possible. Skinnier is better for cutting through snow too, maybe the same for mud? I apologize if I’m beating this topic to death in the wrong place, I’m reading the tire/wheel threads as we speak.

Can’t speak for TankerZak, but sometime in my future there will probably be a 37x13.50 summer mud tire. Floatation is the name of the game in Alaska. Our mud and soft ground are deep, there is no digging to the bottom on it on pizza cutter tires.

Same concept for snow, but 35x12.50 is as big as I can reasonably go and still be able to fit HD tire chains.

Pizza cutters only work where there’s a bottom you can reasonably expect to dig down to, and that depends a lot on where you live.


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[TankerZak]

Thanks. Are 13.5 tires just a preference for you or is it better because they’re that much wider? I always liked a skinnier tire that stayed in line with the truck as much as possible. Skinnier is better for cutting through snow too, maybe the same for mud? I apologize if I’m beating this topic to death in the wrong place, I’m reading the tire/wheel threads as we speak.

Can’t speak for TankerZak, but sometime in my future there will probably be a 37x13.50 summer mud tire. Floatation is the name of the game in Alaska. Our mud and soft ground are deep, there is no digging to the bottom on it on pizza cutter tires.

Same concept for snow, but 35x12.50 is as big as I can reasonably go and still be able to fit HD tire chains.

Pizza cutters only work where there’s a bottom you can reasonably expect to dig down to, and that depends a lot on where you live.


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I'm going to do the Cooper STT Pro in a 37x13.5R17E because its an E rated with a slightly bigger contact patch. And the 37x12.50 is 13 inches wide with a 10.2 inch tread width and the 37x13.50 is 13.3 inches wide with 11 inch tread width. So overall for a little trimming i end up overall better. I still have my OEM wheels for some 35x12.50s for chains on the front or 37x12.5 studs or something like that.

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[benking]

Roger, thanks for the info guys

[DamageWagon]

You can put 37x12.5’s on a stock power wagon right off the lot with no changes and pretty much get away with it. You will have a slightly larger turning radius and usually need to trim the fender liner some.

+18mm is the rough number to aim for with new wheels but that is absolutely not a hard number. You can vary that quite a bit and even something like trackbar bushing wear knocks the +18 vs +20mm distinction out of the water. There are plenty of guys running 4.5” backspace wheels with 37x14.6” wide wheels with no rub, and 4.5” backspace can mean a big range of possible offsets. Don’t feel like you’re locked into wheels that match that exact number.

[Reloaderguy]

You can fit 40's on -32 wheels with just a set of Thuren front coils without any rubbing. Just a little trimming required.

[OffroadTreks]

You can fit 40's on -32 wheels with just a set of Thuren front coils without any rubbing. Just a little trimming required.

[olyelr]

If your stuck on the factory wheels and worried about the minor rubbage, you can always look into wheel spacers. A 1.5" spacer with the stock wheels would equal out pretty close to a +18 offset.

[DamageWagon]

If your stuck on the factory wheels and worried about the minor rubbage, you can always look into wheel spacers. A 1.5" spacer with the stock wheels would equal out pretty close to a +18 offset.

If I was going to commit suicide I would find a more interesting way to do it than wheel spacers.

[benking]

No, I found a few wheels that would work that don’t look too gaudy. Gear Alloy Trek or Manifold, Moto Metal Shift, KMC XD135 Grenade. I would rather do it right. All the writeups on thuren site have a bunch of info and if that guy recommends +18 then I’m fine with that.
To be clear, with 17x9, 18 offset wheels and most 37x12.5 tires, and apparently with or without thuren suspension, on pavement, tires will not rub at all or will rub very minimally?

[olyelr]

If your stuck on the factory wheels and worried about the minor rubbage, you can always look into wheel spacers. A 1.5" spacer with the stock wheels would equal out pretty close to a +18 offset.

If I was going to commit suicide I would find a more interesting way to do it than wheel spacers.

Like what, slitting your wrist with a piece of bubble gum? You would probably have better luck.

[KevinABQ]

You can fit 40's on -32 wheels with just a set of Thuren front coils without any rubbing. Just a little trimming required.

What metal cutting blade for the sawzall works best for this?

[DamageWagon]

If your stuck on the factory wheels and worried about the minor rubbage, you can always look into wheel spacers. A 1.5" spacer with the stock wheels would equal out pretty close to a +18 offset.

If I was going to commit suicide I would find a more interesting way to do it than wheel spacers.

Like what, slitting your wrist with a piece of bubble gum? You would probably have better luck.

A few hundred bucks in wheel spacers vs a few hundred more bucks on proper wheels? I don’t trust wheel spacers. Factory cast steel spacers with lots of meat are generally fine. Adding four new components that have a relative parallelism dimension that can vary, adding another 32 bolts into your wheels... yeah, some guys see wheel spacers as just fine, I absolutely do not. Not for people that beat on their vehicles. Ive already seen enough studs fail and wheels come off to not feel warm and fuzzy about doubling the number of them that are on my truck.

[kgries]

If I was going to commit suicide I would find a more interesting way to do it than wheel spacers.

Like what, slitting your wrist with a piece of bubble gum? You would probably have better luck.

A few hundred bucks in wheel spacers vs a few hundred more bucks on proper wheels? I don’t trust wheel spacers. Factory cast steel spacers with lots of meat are generally fine. Adding four new components that have a relative parallelism dimension that can vary, adding another 32 bolts into your wheels... yeah, some guys see wheel spacers as just fine, I absolutely do not. Not for people that beat on their vehicles. Ive already seen enough studs fail and wheels come off to not feel warm and fuzzy about doubling the number of them that are on my truck.

never use spacers.. legit had a wheel fall off from spacers while i was doing 40 with a trailer on my old truck. That was with 1.5" good quality bora spacers as well.

Anything with decent power or taking it offroad will destroy spacers