Thank you Ugly Viking for this. I actually read through this twice to absorb it all. Many of the replies I have received and most definitely yours, are the reasons people come to forums for help. I appreciate you taking the time to give such a thorough and thoughtful response with examples. I've been taking what others have said, going to those companies websites and such, and trying to learn and piece this thing together. My "mantuition" tells me, this truck will be higher than I'd like, cost more than I'd like, yet will bring her smiles. I am worried we are losing the objective of a DRW with all this lifting / tires. I should have just given her the suburban and said no new truck (hahahaha)
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What the Wifey wants the Wifey gets....but i need help
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UglyViking
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I've got a wife that is out of my league, so I get it.
If it makes you feel any better, most of these kits, and the vast majority of tires, have great weight ratings, so it's really not a huge deal. Plus, from the sound of things, you're not going to be close to the max for this truck, so even if you lose a little it's not gonna kill you.
It actually feels nice being able to say that about your wife right!!! She firmly believes i'm the catch, and i have no idea why at all, just hope she doesn't wise up!
With the advice from this forum coupled with googling and researching from the advice received on here. This is what I'm hoping she agrees to:
leveling kit
air bags
35" tires
i'm hoping this is what i can get her to agree to. seems like the best of her look desires with maintaining functionality
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That will give you the best combo of function, looks, and ride improvements for the daily kid runs around town.
and man do we rack up the miles shuttling the kiddos everywhere. I'm sure that's why RAM spent so much money developing these trucks, for the sports equipment in the bed..haha
tchur1
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This is the exact setup I would go for if I were in your shoes. @gimmie11s has it pretty dialed at a reasonable price point IMO.
Keep in mind if you're just going to level you can always add the airbags at a later date (although I would recommend it from the jump)
Everyone seems to have covered all the techincal issues pretty well, all I'm going to say from personal experience, is if you can find a 37" set of tires that will work on the suspension setup your going with, make it happen. I have a stock 2500 that I put the same awesome looking Kenda Klevers, that @gimmie11s has, on in 35x12.5R17, and this truck in stock form made them look small after a few weeks of getting used to them. Now i've really got the itch to go up to 37's and I'm gonna end up taking a pretty hard hit selling my 35's and buying new 37's. The cost of 37's over 35's isn't very much if you do it right out of the gate, but I have a feeling if you do 35's, your wife will be pushing for 37's in a few months and you're gonna be in the same boat I'm in about to take a beating on selling like new 35" tires to get a set of new 37's and you're going to have to take that hit on 6 tires not just 4.
Hello to All and thank you again for all your help / guidance:
So here's the final scoop:
We received two bids from reputable shops (each shop sent two options)
It came down to a decision between 2 of the above 4 options which left us with a hard time deciding between:
1) not the winner
5" rough country lift
37x12 tires with 2" spacers
2) the winner
3.25 carli commuter suspension lift
37 x 12 tires with 2" spacers
Honestly: we wanted a 6" and 37's. However, after a lot of input and tons of laptop time, it seems Carli suspension gives you a nice "ish" ride for a DRW. With the 3.25 lift and the 37's, i feel it will realy give it a big look that she wants. It's a lot of money so i'm hoping it's the right call.
I thank you all again!
The truck gets delivered Saturday and then i'm in the Cue at the shop. So once we get it all finished up, i'll come back and share how it turned out.
Thank you again!
So here's the final scoop:
We received two bids from reputable shops (each shop sent two options)
It came down to a decision between 2 of the above 4 options which left us with a hard time deciding between:
1) not the winner
5" rough country lift
37x12 tires with 2" spacers
2) the winner
3.25 carli commuter suspension lift
37 x 12 tires with 2" spacers
Honestly: we wanted a 6" and 37's. However, after a lot of input and tons of laptop time, it seems Carli suspension gives you a nice "ish" ride for a DRW. With the 3.25 lift and the 37's, i feel it will realy give it a big look that she wants. It's a lot of money so i'm hoping it's the right call.
I thank you all again!
The truck gets delivered Saturday and then i'm in the Cue at the shop. So once we get it all finished up, i'll come back and share how it turned out.
Thank you again!
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That should work!
What rear suspension option did you go with?
What wheels are you going with?
The local shop just told me an installed price. I didn’t even ask him. Do you have a suggestion I should request for him to choose.
We are keeping the stock wheels for now. The pictures I’ve seen on the stock black alcoas look real nice.
Thanks much
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I’d probably go with the add-a-pack for the rear, since you plan to use it like a truck too.
12.5” wide tires are awfully wide for a 6” rim, but the night wheels do look sharp.
I thought the DRW wheels were no longer made by Alcoa, but rather Dicastal out of China.
Well that’s a bummer to learn about the wheels. Ah man!
I’ve read everywhere it’s too wide a tire as well. The confusing part are suspension websites (cjc) for example does that exact set up on their trucks. My buddy has a 19 or 20 who runs 35’s (toyo rt’s) and he’s only on his second set in 96k miles. And his truck is a work horse (towed heavy tractors couple times a week).
His truck has an amazing lift, but it’s just too much money for me to justify
What happened to - What wifey wants, wifey gets? Maybe you better think this through before you make any rash decisions
G Mcpherson
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Within Reason wins.
What happened to - What wifey wants, wifey gets? Maybe you better think this through before you make any rash decisions
Oh she doesn’t care about what’s under the truck making it tall. She just wants it tall.
After reviewing photo after photo together, the Carli system going to be a clear winner for her.
His is a McGauhys. Cost a pretty penny!
phatboy64
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Good call on the Carli. I have that setup except with the backcountry shock package on my 2023 limited (see Sig ) and I can’t get over how smooth it rides. 37s in my opinion are the way to go, 35s would look too small.
looking forward to seeing pics when it is done
looking forward to seeing pics when it is done
Thank you very much. I’ll most definitely post pics. She’s super excited
UglyViking
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On the topic of tire width for the OEM alcoas, I'll share what I learned from a few months ago going through this same question.
It seems that basically every manufacture recommends a minimum of 8" wheel on a 35-37" tire that is 12.5 wide. There may be some outliers higher or lower you can find, but the main players I looked at were all at 8" I believe. I'm pretty sure the factory Alcoas are 6" wide, if not they are 6.5" (double check this, I am struggling to recall the specifics right now). So you're obviously not within the tire manufactures bounds. That right there is enough to cause some people to shy away from it, since a lot of folks are rule followers and want to just stay in the lines, which is fine, it's just not me. I want to know why (and break the rules a little, because why not?).
So I was digging up some of the reasoning, and without getting too deep, what I found is generally the following:
For two, because there are so, so, so many guys running these exact setups, and you never hear about any issues towing heavy. No blowouts, no bead issues, nothing. While that isn't a very scientific reason, it's also just good to see (or not see, haha).
I'm not worried about high speed cornering "control" because the truck is a tow pig, and I'm not attacking corners Laguna Seca. I've slightly lowered the tire pressure to give myself a good tire contact patch. Also, the OEM tires have a load index of 117 (2833 lbs) while the tires I went with have a load index of 121 (3197 lbs). Both are at max psi. So I figure that I'm 360 lbs more weight rating per tire, across 4 rear tires, gives me almost 1500lbs more carrying capacity (just from tires). So even if I bring the psi down lower than max, I'm still going to have some built in overhead to do so.
Lastly, lawyers voices matter, as do business expenses. Toyo can save money by not doing testing, or load tables for across additional wheel width. It's probably almost nothing in cost per tire size, but across all the tires in all the sizes it adds up. And the most important factor being lawyers. There needs to be a large overhead for safety margin, and while I don't know exactly why, I'm sure this cuts into that overhead some. Enough for me to be at all concerned? No, absolutely not. For you? Idk, maybe? Maybe not? A lot of people are afraid of j-walking because it's technically illegal, so, ya know.
CJC has done a lot of duallys at this point with 12.5 wides on the factory Alcoas. I've seen them posted all over, some guys towing heavy and often. Then there are similar things going on over in Ford and Bowtie land. All that adds up to me not being worried.
I'll also state, that I've got a hint of rebel, but I'm not stupid, and I'm not going to endanger my family by making stupid moves. I purchased the max tow ram, which is way overkill for my 20k camper, because I wanted a lot of overhead. In part, so that I could make sure that stupid decisions still left me with margins of safety. That's also partly why I went with the tire size, so that with the lower psi and stiffer sideway it would have similar performance to oem.
This ended up being a lot longer winded than I planned on, but hopefully it's at least somewhat helpful, if not forgive my ramblings and please share pics once everything is wrapped!
It seems that basically every manufacture recommends a minimum of 8" wheel on a 35-37" tire that is 12.5 wide. There may be some outliers higher or lower you can find, but the main players I looked at were all at 8" I believe. I'm pretty sure the factory Alcoas are 6" wide, if not they are 6.5" (double check this, I am struggling to recall the specifics right now). So you're obviously not within the tire manufactures bounds. That right there is enough to cause some people to shy away from it, since a lot of folks are rule followers and want to just stay in the lines, which is fine, it's just not me. I want to know why (and break the rules a little, because why not?).
So I was digging up some of the reasoning, and without getting too deep, what I found is generally the following:
- Too wire a tire on too narrow a wheel can cause the tire to flex/roll during high speed cornering
- Too wide a tire on too narrow a wheel means that you have less contact patch if running the recommended pressures or…
- Too low pressure to get a proper contact patch
- Probably a fair amount of safety built in, along with lawyercats and ease for the business
For two, because there are so, so, so many guys running these exact setups, and you never hear about any issues towing heavy. No blowouts, no bead issues, nothing. While that isn't a very scientific reason, it's also just good to see (or not see, haha).
I'm not worried about high speed cornering "control" because the truck is a tow pig, and I'm not attacking corners Laguna Seca. I've slightly lowered the tire pressure to give myself a good tire contact patch. Also, the OEM tires have a load index of 117 (2833 lbs) while the tires I went with have a load index of 121 (3197 lbs). Both are at max psi. So I figure that I'm 360 lbs more weight rating per tire, across 4 rear tires, gives me almost 1500lbs more carrying capacity (just from tires). So even if I bring the psi down lower than max, I'm still going to have some built in overhead to do so.
Lastly, lawyers voices matter, as do business expenses. Toyo can save money by not doing testing, or load tables for across additional wheel width. It's probably almost nothing in cost per tire size, but across all the tires in all the sizes it adds up. And the most important factor being lawyers. There needs to be a large overhead for safety margin, and while I don't know exactly why, I'm sure this cuts into that overhead some. Enough for me to be at all concerned? No, absolutely not. For you? Idk, maybe? Maybe not? A lot of people are afraid of j-walking because it's technically illegal, so, ya know.
CJC has done a lot of duallys at this point with 12.5 wides on the factory Alcoas. I've seen them posted all over, some guys towing heavy and often. Then there are similar things going on over in Ford and Bowtie land. All that adds up to me not being worried.
I'll also state, that I've got a hint of rebel, but I'm not stupid, and I'm not going to endanger my family by making stupid moves. I purchased the max tow ram, which is way overkill for my 20k camper, because I wanted a lot of overhead. In part, so that I could make sure that stupid decisions still left me with margins of safety. That's also partly why I went with the tire size, so that with the lower psi and stiffer sideway it would have similar performance to oem.
This ended up being a lot longer winded than I planned on, but hopefully it's at least somewhat helpful, if not forgive my ramblings and please share pics once everything is wrapped!
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Good info.
They are 6” wide, and not made by Alcoa anymore… unless they changed back recently.
UglyViking
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I don't know about the new ones, wouldn't be surprised if they aren't made by Alcoa, cost cutting ya know. I do know my 2014 are Alcoa, thats where my focus was.