Belltech Active Shocks?

[jthokie92]

Hi Everyone, I have a 2001 GMC Sierra 2WD Ext. Cab that I had dropped 3" Front and 4" Rear using Eibach springs and shackles. My problem, I used to have 20x8.5 Detata Profiler Wheels with Goodyear Eagle GTII 275/45-20 tires which had absolutely no clearance problems. Now I switched wheels and tires to 20x10 Driv Torque wheels with 295/45-20 BFGoodrich g-Force T/A KDW tires with the new tread pattern. Those tires are absolutely awesome, anyway my problem is now with the new wheel and tire combination whenever I hit bumps or dips in the road, the front tires make contact with my wheel fender wells and have put small cuts into the edges of my tires. Otherwise I have no clearance issues when driving on smooth roads or any turning problems at all, just on bumps and dips. My friend advised me to raise the truck one inch, but I like the current stance and don't want to change it. I currently have the stock shock absorbers and considering with the Belltech Nitro Active shocks for the front. Do you think it will solve my problem with the tires hitting the fenderwells at bumps if I replace with these shocks? There's about 1-1/2 inches between the tires and the wheel well when parked. Other ideas I'm thinking is going with a lower profile front tire.

Thanks for any advice anyone can give. I'd appreciate it greatly... TX...

[Indy]

If you put a lower profile front tire and not the rear it will trigger the ABS light because the diameter will be different.

[jthokie92]

Thanks for that bit of info Indy. I never thought about affecting the ABS. I've seen lots of trucks in magazines with different front and rear tire sizes. Wonder how they fix the abs problem. I've seen a few trucks with 20" wheels in front and running 22" rear wheels and they look really cool. I ordered the belltech active shocks for the front and a granatelli mass airflow sensor. I've also got a bunch of other mods to my truck, an ATI ProCharger P-1SC installed, Compcams Camshaft, lifters, valve springs, speedpro pistons, sealed power rings, edelbrock ceramic shorty headers, b&m trans pack and corvette servo in transmission. I'm tryin to think of what other mods I can do... Thanks for the reply...

[jthokie92]

Besides the ABS issue with different front / rear tire sizes. Does anyone feel that upgrading to the Belltech Nitro Active shocks might help with my problem with the tires making contact with the fender at bumps and dips in the road? Also, I've seen other trucks using different front / rear tire sizes. If this causes issues with the ABS system, is there a fix or some sort of calibration that can be done to fix this problem if I decided to go with a smaller profile front tire?

[jthokie92]

Actually, I just had another thought. Are you positive that theres a problem with the ABS system if the front and rear tires were different sizes? My friend has an 01 Suburban and had 275/45-20 on the Front and 285/50-20 on the rear of his truck and never experienced any ABS issues. My tires all the way around right now are the BFG's 295/45-20 and thinking of going slightly smaller in the front to keep the tires from rubbing the fender wells. My Belltech active shocks should be delivered tomorrow or the next day from stylinconcepts.com. Hopefully this will help fix or minimize the problem. If I still have problems, my only choices are to raise my front an inch or go with a slightly smaller profile up front...

[Freyguy]

On my 95 dropped 4/6 I had to roll my fender lips up so that it would not hit my tires. It would slice into them just as you said. Some people take an aluminum baseball bat and stick it between the tire and fender and have somebody move forward slowly. I mainly used a hammer to hit mine up, but you have to be careful not to mess up the fenders. If you only need a bit of clearance, it'll help. Plus if you do hit the fender, it will be a smooth edge instead of the sharp lip.

 

Not sure the shocks would help much. They may stiffen up the ride a bit, but you'll still get the same travel with them.

[Freyguy]

I forgot, on my 95 I have differnt sizes in front and rear and didn't have an abs issue. That may be because I only had front abs.

[jthokie92]

Hey, thanks for the advice and input. A friend of mine had actually suggested rolling the inside of the fenders as well. The new Belltech active shocks were just delivered this morning via FedEx, and will put the new shocks this afternoon. Hopefully it will help out since the stock shocks were a little bit bouncy on the bumps and dips. I'm still checking out different tire sizes too, but can't decide what would be the best size. The size I've got on now are 295/45-20 BFGoodrich g-Force tires with the New Tread pattern. If you check out BFG's website I think its the newest tread they have out. But trying to find the best possible size is another story since some of the sizes that would best fit are only available in their old tread design The overall diameter of the current tires are 30.5" with a tread width of about 11.7" My old Goodyear Eagle GT II's (which by the way suck compared to these tires) had a diameter of about 29.8" with 10.6" tread width. The closest BFG's that I found were 265/35-20 which had about the same width as the Goodyears, but only about a 27" diameter and I was worried it might look too narrow of a profile compared to the rears. I didn't have a clearance issue with the Goodyears so I was searching for a BFG g-Force tire that had about the same size specs of the goodyear 275/45-20 tires...