Ive got a 92 Dodge 4x4 club cab. A buddy got in a bind and needed some dough so I bought his 35's off of him. Ive heard that if you just level these rigs up you can swing 35's. I would like to lift it seeing that my springs are shot anyways. Just wanted to know what size tires yall are runnin' and whatcha got to do it. Thanks

You should be able to clear a 315/75/16 with little or no problem. My friend runs 315s (35") on one of his, and 295/75/16s (34"?) on another, both stock height. I've got an 89 W350 with 265s (32") that looks like a roller skate.
Very nice looking truck btw!

To clear 35's on the front you need about 4 inchs of lift. My current tires are 315/75/r16(34.5x12.4r16's measured)I am running 3 inchs lift on the front or so, but my fender barley contacts when im flexing and turning. I am going to to some fender triming on the front lip, cutting everything from the side turn marker down. The rear you dont have to run any lift. my .2

I was looking to get the springs in the front re-arched but for the price I might as well get a lift. Then when it comes to lifts I really dont want add-a-leafs in the rear and the "system" that comes with springs in the rear is freakin:eek: as if money grows on trees around here. Thanks for the info though. Ill throw 'em on there and see what happens and if it all sucks I may have some 35 inch Pro Comp X terrains for sell:D

Ive never like re-arching springs. Your retempering them so eventully they will sag down below where they started. Thats all my dad use to do. When I was 15, I wonderd why the really cool old jeeps outback were lowerd when he has pictures of them racing in mug bogs:laughing:. He had every set of springs re-arched a few years after I was born when the last of his 4x4 bug was getting out of him.

FWIW, on my 93 I am running Skyjacker softride 2.5" lift front springs and stock rears, truck sets nearly level, and there is no way on my truck 35's will fit without cutting sheetmetal.(I hope you don't choose to go this route with your new found ride, there's not many nice looking first gens left) I currently have 305/70R16's on it and they will rub with some flexing in a turn. The 33X12.5X16.5s I had would occasionally clip the fender under full flex with the locker and the cummins working together. I had to trim the factory fender flares to keep the 33's from rubbing.

On my truck my 33X12.5X16.5 TSL bias ply would not fit even on flat ground. I would say you are going to need at least the skyjacker 4" kit on the front.

Michael

Yeah Michael, you got the right idea and thats what I figured. I didnt really want the tires, but I did want the rims (mickey thompson classic II:D ). Theres no way in hell that Ill ever cut the fenders or anything else for that matter just so I can run bigger tires. I really dont want a lift for that matter, just would like a level ride and some slightly bigger meats. My best bud ran some 36" goodyear bias ply tires once with only a level ride, but they filled up the fenders pretty good. It was a temporary deal and now has gone to a spring lift. I knew by that that 35's would be iffy. Thanks for the replies, heres some pics of my buddies ride, I know that if your like me you always like to see other 1st gens. Anybody need some pro comp x terrains.....only 200 miles of use:D

Yeah Michael, you got the right idea and thats what I figured. I didnt really want the tires, but I did want the rims (mickey thompson classic II:D ). Theres no way in hell that Ill ever cut the fenders or anything else for that matter just so I can run bigger tires. I really dont want a lift for that matter, just would like a level ride and some slightly bigger meats. My best bud ran some 36" goodyear bias ply tires once with only a level ride, but they filled up the fenders pretty good. It was a temporary deal and now has gone to a spring lift. I knew by that that 35's would be iffy. Thanks for the replies, heres some pics of my buddies ride, I know that if your like me you always like to see other 1st gens. Anybody need some pro comp x terrains.....only 200 miles of use:D
That is one sweet ride you have there.

I can't help you with whether or not 35's will fit but I can throw in this information.
On my '90 w-350 cummins the front springs were so sacked out there was only about 1/2" up travel before hitting the bump stops. I put the skyjacker 2" kit on it and with those old worn out springs it brought the front up a measured 4 1/2". My truck was a welding rig so it weighed about 11,000 every day. I put the rear add a leafs in and they worked perfect in that work truck, I bet they are very harsh in an empty pickup tho, they are way stiff.

JTMcC.

I put the springs in around 2000, I saw the old truck the other day, the guy that bought it works it to death but it's still as tall as the day I put them in. So I think they are holding up a lot better than the stock fronts did.

I had mystery 3"+ front springs in my truck with 35s, I swapped to the Skyjacker 2" and there is no way the 35s would work now. If you are gonna use it to tow, I'd advise against taller tires unless you regear. The gearing will suck, especially if you have a 5 spd.
Travis..

Thanks for the all the info, Im leaning towards the 2.5" skyjacker springs for the front. I've got overloads in the rear and I like the way it sits when hauling a gooseneck so Im not going to fart with that. As far as the 35's they are pretty much worthless to me, like I said I was in it for the rims. It looks like I will run some 33's or some 285's though. With my 235's Im running 2100 at 70 and I would like to get that down a bit.

Just bag it. 0-5 of lift up front, 0-8 out back with the bolt on kits. Rides great(as long as the fronts are not up all the way with the supplied bags). I am swapping out to some quality bags so the spring rate will be lower with the same lift ammount. But with the high spring rate bags the truck corners awsome! nothing like racing subarus in the corners and smoking them out:D.

Also, I never touch my stock overloads unless I am really weighted down and my trailers on. Putting an overload spring on top of the stock spring pack sounds like a very hard ride. But I like my truck to ride like a cadillac and still be able to tow fine.

As far as RPM's go, with my 34.5's, and 3.55 gears, I run at 1600 rpm at 65, 75 is around 1850 rpms, both at 4 lbs of boost on flat ground.

Ive never even seen this done on a 1st gen. I helped install something like this on a 2nd gen though. The bag went in place of the coil spring. I thought it was a PITA how the dude would have to air it up from an auxillary source. Worked on a tube buggy once that had a set up like that and it was awesome. We put a 4bt in it and thats about the only way we could figure to get the front bumper off the ground. It was awesome when it was all through. Little on-board compressor, flip of a switch and presto we had lift off. Do you have any pics of your dodge with this set up. Id like to see it.

I had this kit installed on my truck when I purchased it, and its okay. Ive been modifying it a little here and there to work alot better. I wouldnt go out and buy it, as I am starting to love to build 4 link suspensions. Then add my own style of bags to make it crazy.

Kelderman: http://www.keldermanairride.com/category.php?id=21

Hell yeah, thats badass. I found it after looking around for it. I was hoping that was the set up. It looks pretty pro, Ive seen worse. I know that after doing that on the 2nd gen I worked on the first thing the guy said was that it rode so much better. Theres a dealer for those airbags farely close to me I may give him a holler and see what that will run me. It looks like the pricing on the internet is high dollar. I know a guy who has a wrecked dodge 1 ton with "air ride" in the rear. Maybe I can rob his set up and weld my own bracketry, it would be better than the grand they are asking. I bet it gets rid of that buck board ride.........:bounce:

285's (~32" dia) are the upper limit on what will fit with stock springs (assuming they aren't already sagging, which 90% of first gens are) and that may require minor fender trimming at the front corners. If you don't care about cosmetics, 315's will fit with the help of a sawzall.

On the first gens the rear corners of the front fenders are the biggest single limiting factor on tire size. Look in the front wheel wheel and see how the inner fender well curves forward at the rear- it's designed with skinny 235 tires in mind. Tire height isn't really the big issue, because it's their width that makes them rub.

Its been a day or two since I posted and Ive read and learned what I think will be best for me. Im going the airbag over spring route...front and rear. Its nothing drastic probably the equivalent to a 2" lift. My front springs are seriously sagged so I figure Im about 2" under stock so overall Im looking at 4" more than I got now. I have a bridgeport at my house that I havnt used in forever so Im pumped about making all the bracketry. I ordered the bags yesterday and the lines to plumb it all up (they threw the lines and schroder valves in for free). It will look a lot like the kelderman set up for the front, the rear will look just like firestones ride level'er set up. When all tied up I should be looking at a savings of over a grand for leaf springs and Ill have a better ride. Ill keep ya posted on this and let ya know how it does. Thanks for all the advice.

35's will fit on a 2.5" lift with a little trimming, heres the proof:http://rides.webshots.com/album/267726724AEzyAK
steve

I imagine if you can fab the bracketry for this, you should have no trouble adapting a york compressor to your engine. ;)

It's amazing what that little pump has done for my truck... I use it to work on my equipment all the time with the impact. I don't even have a shop compressor...

(On a '96 2500 CTD, so it's a little different than yours...)

Good luck with the air bags.

The thought has crossed the mind a time or two. I converted a york a/c compressor to an air compressor on my Scout II. It worked good for a while, then the clutch went out on it and I never farted with it again. Im almost done with the front top brackets for the airbags and Im about to start making the bottoms, when the crap slows down around here where I can catch my breath I'll post some pics for ya.

I am going to put a york on the cummins that is going in the limo. I need to put the engine in the engine compartment to find out where I can put it and build some brackets. I wish it was just that simple... lol

We service all the Les Schwab(Very large tire company on the west coast) trucks in our town with their fancy compressors on them. What a PITA to install what they have. I like simple, and paying 6k for a compressor that is buried in the engine and sucks to service is not good. Moral of the story, dont buy a 6k air system.

Anyone seen any frame cracking problems around the steering box on these?

My dad just took his in to the local alignment shop to track down his death wobble that occurs at 20-30 mph and they found cracks in the frame near the box.

I haven't seen it yet, supposed to look at and hopefully weld it up for him this weekend (though I'm still a beginner welder) hopefully I wont' make it a death trap. I plan to add a plate if possible as well. If it's very bad I'm going to get someone with more experience to weld it.

He just has a stock 1992 3/4 Cummins 4x4, has a flat bed and runs around 9k lb's on average with all this fuel and tools.

Frame cracking is quite common. More so the box bracket cracking. Check out ramchargercentral or TDR for fixes.
Travis..

I finally got around to taking some pics. They are crappy pics but they will give you some idea as to how I made the air bags work. In my opinion this was about a 3 on a 1-5 scale for difficulty. It wasnt all that bad, but with all the measuring, u bolt holes and the welding it turned into a pain in the ass real quick. To add to that, I should've done this years ago. The ride is comparable to my '04 cummins and its not unlevel anymore, which bugged me worse. Its well worth it too. For all the crap to do it the total was 225. I had the metal so the cost was in the bags and bolts.

Soon you will have 1/2 inch valves, nitrogen tanks, and be able to hop of the ground. Gosh I love airbags:bounce2: