The 2007 Dodge in the high country.
It's a great truck and I have no intention of trading it away any time soon, even though my wife feels that I should be trading it in, and even though there are a few valid reasons to do so.* Indeed, I have no intention whatsoever of getting any new vehicles in the future whatsoever.
It's been a great truck. It's had a few problems over the years, as they all do, but by and large, as a vehicle with 180,000 miles now on it, it's been remarkably trouble free. As I'll post here shortly in another thread, it's also been a very safe one. It preforms very well, in that context, on highway ice and snow, and I've had it on some dicey roads to say the least. There are things that it doesn't compare favorably to in regard to newer trucks, but there are things it compares more favorably with, in my view. For one thing, it has a standard transmission, something which is now a thing of the past with American full sized trucks. Automatics, the favorite of urban dwellers, have taken over.
But there's one thing.
As a very long, and stock, vehicle, it doesn't have the kind of clearance that I'd like.
Another 07 in a parking lot, photographed from the cab of my 07. This one has about the perfect tire size in my view, and is leveled (not lifted) about 2". It looks great and has better clearance than mine. Of course, he isn't towing any stock trailers either. I wish I'd run up and taken a photo of the tire size.
I've whacked rocks with the front differential and slightly dented it. And I've high centered it on snow nearly annually.
I'm tempted to try to boost the clearance, and that would mean larger tires.
It came equipped with 265/70R17s, and I have an off road (that will also do highway) example of that on now. That tire is 31.5" in width. It will, as is, go up one tire size. Which gives you an additional .5" of clearance.
That's right. One half inch.
Hmmm.
High lift 1983 Dodge crewcab on a used car lot. Didn't this lift go a bit too far? But It looks like it does have good clearance. It also has a full sized crew cab, something that isn't the case with the 07 for some odd reason. The box here appears to be a short box, which isn't what I'd want. The tires on this truck are likely 35" tires, maybe 40".
On the other hand, there are off road tires that will fit 17" rims that are 35" in width. And that would give me an extra 1.5". That doesn't sound like a lot, but it may be.
40" tires are also made for 17" rims, but I'm not going there.
The father of all modern 4x4 trucks, the first generation of the Dodge WC truck from World War Two. These had great clearance, but this 1/2 ton model was also too high and prone to roll overs.
I'm tempted to go with 35" tires, but that means the tread width is also wider, which I really don't want if it starts to impact performance. I like narrower tires over wider. I don't want to float on wet roads or mud.
And some people claim that if you put 35" on, you need to lift the truck or put on a leveling kit. Others claim that isn't so.
Second model of World War Two WC 4x4 truck. This 3/4 ton truck was about perfect.
What would also be the case is that it would impact the gear ratio by making it higher. My gearing is the lowest possible but that would effectively make both 5th and 6th gears overdrives. A person can adjust this, I think, by changing the ring and pinion gears in the axles, but I hadn't planned on really doing that.
And of course it might mean that I'd need to lift it as well, or a leveling kit that also lifted the rear. Modern trucks are canted forward on purpose, for fuel efficiency purposes, and a leveling kit does just that. It lifts, probably about 2" in this case, which would be fine, but that also means if you have a trailer on the rear, it's going to have its nose in the air.
All of which leads me to believe that maybe no more than one tire size bigger, if that.
Which really won't achieve much.
The two Dodges.
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*It's starting to get some rust over a wheel well. It has a crack on the body of the box. My brother in law, who is a diesel mechanic by training, warns me that sooner or later it'll need some major engine work, as old as it is. And it needs a selection of odds and ends repairs to really get it back into ship shape if I'm keeping it, and that's money into an old truck.
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