Rear wheels rubbing fender flares with gear (1 Viewer)

[spurcap]

My truck is a 1991 HDJ81 that had an unknown lift from Japan when I got it. Never had problems in the past wheeling, but this weekend I was out with all my camping gear, recovery gear, spare parts, full-sized spare tire, fuel etc and the back dropped enough that the rear tires would rub bad on the bottom of the fender flares when i hit any decent bump/pothole with some speed or even when crawling with any moderate articulation.

As above I have a lift but I don't know what the details are but with the truck empty I have about 6.5" of space between the top of my 285/75R16s and the fender flares but even pushing on the bumper with my hands drops it noticably. The truck came with 1" wheel spacers - from the looks of it they seem just for looks as I don't see where the tires would rub if I took them off. That being said, from the marks on the fender flares, it seems as if I would still hit them without the spacers and potnetially the side walls would rub rather than the top of the tread which worries me.

So my first though is that I need stiffer springs but I am hoping to get some that don't change the vehicle clearance alot as I have had good success with it as current. But what would my best bet be? Take the ol springs out and measure? Even that doesn't really help match when under the weight of the truck....

Any other ideas? Thought of extended bump stops but I think if I had enough bump stop to stop rubbing my rear end would only have like 2" of travel when loaded which isn't ideal. New shocks?

Some thoughts on the best way to go would be helpful.

 

[JeepinPete]

Drop the bump stops and add air bags to the rear springs for the heavily loaded situations.

 

[inkpot]

Pull the wheel spaces on the rear and see if that cures it. Wheeling ability wins out over looks in my book. John

 

[spurcap]

Agreed with the wheeling ability over looks. In fact, I don't necessarily like the look of the spacers. But as mentioned, I am not sure removing them will fix the problem as I think they will still be too far out to clear the fender flare lips due to the offset of the rims on it.

For the air bag, how does this affect performance of the suspension offroad? I have heard of them used for towing etc and haven't found many reviews on here. Were you thinking something like this? Air Lift 1000

 

[Phildoh]

Wheel spacers help with track width. Tire position is crucial when compression is at its limits. I'd leave the wheel spacers for now and drop 40 bucks at man-a-fre on a 1" coil spacer, IF, the rear end isn't too soft when you're loaded down with gear. Also, are there any significant marks on the springs that are a part number? You can cross reference that part number, if you have one, and get the next step up in spring weight. Maybe yours are soft and you need a medium, and so forth. I'd start with trying to see exactly what springs you have, with what weight rating and go from there. A pair of coils would be the optimal choice, and they're not too spendy, to get the overall outcome you're looking for. Mine (from slee) have an attached sticker with a part number, and a left and right designation so the dumbdumbs don't put them on the wrong side and get the gangster lean. See whatcha got for springs, if ya can.

 

[spurcap]

The rear is quite soft - I can bounce it up and down with one hand on the rear bumper. Also not sure 1" would fix the issue as I am hitting going through a pothole at 20MPH. If I had an extra inch I would expect I would hit still perhaps just a little less often.

The springs are red but thats about all I know. From the surface rust, I would guess they were put on there in Japan shortly after the truck was new in 1991. Agreed that I would just get the next step up in springs, but if I go to a different manufacturer I would probably want to do the fronts and rears to avoid an oddball stance and then would probably want to replace the shocks if the ride height was different and then well ... I have pretty much just bought a new lift kit!

 

[spurcap]

To close this off for anyone reading in the future , bought the 2" longer air bags (found the part # on the forum in another thread but can't recall) as I have a lift, installed easily and fixed issue. At 7 psi, I don't notice a difference from them not being there, at 15 psi all the droop from my recovery/camping gear is gone. Truck rides a bit rougher in the back and has a big less articulation when the pressure is up but I can live with that and think that's part of the point - as other than increasing travel, it is hard to increase wheel clearance without a stiffer spring. Waiting for my first 4x4 trip to post and overall happy for a cheap fix.