BigWhite
Test Drive
- Location
- Calgary, AB
33's on stock 04 X - how to
Hey guys
I defenitley did my fair share of research before making my decision on tires. On this site and with some other Xterra resources.
I found so many threads to pull from and they were all centered around 31" to 33" but there was lots of debate about what could actually fit on a stock or PML Xterra. To be more specific I read posts from some guys saying 33s on stock or only PML. A couple people actually posted that they had 33s on PML with no trimming. Others said that thier 31s rubbed even with a PML. (PML Poor mans lift or torsion bar lift - generally not exceeding 1.5")
With so much variation in what people were saying I decided a proper test fit was in order. I managed to get a single tire on the cheap for this purpose and mounted it on my spare rim.
This is a write up on what I found and some helpful tips for understanding what makes a tire fit or not.
Backspacing
First off, I saw backspacing mentioned in passing numerous times but also noticed that people were misunderstanding it. Backspacing/offset is simply how close/far out the rim sits from the vehicle. Many people think "Awsome... if my tire is farther out its less likley to rub"... but the reverse is actually true in our case.
What happens is as you turn the steering the wheels pivot around a point just behind them in an arc. The farther out your rim is the further the rim and tire are from this pivot point. This makes the arc larger. When you turn the wheels they move farther forward and backwards along that arc. This increases yor chance of rubbing the fenders.
Here is a picture showing this. This really is a killer of maximum tire size. Notice how the lines off the red arrows are much farther apart then the lines off the green arrows. Its the path the tire follows and is why the tires rub sooner.
So in any Tire size decision Backspacing plays a huge role. Unfortunatley there is no easy trick to figuring out what combination of maximum tire size and backspacing you can get away with. If your looking to do aftermarket rims to get that wide stance the best thing I can say is head out to your vehicle, crank those wheels to the side and take lots of measurements, make sketches and think it out.
For the question of "What are the largest tires that will fit on a stock Xterra" I think backspacing should be explained but then omitted as stock rims are the easier, cheaper option. To that end the last two things I will say about backspacing are:
- Don't assume all factory rims have the same backspacing. There are many different factory rims on the Xterra
so unfortunatley what I have probably isn't what you have and so how a tire fits your vehicle may be different.
It should be fairly close though.
- For this test fit, the test rim's backspacing was the same as my factory rims (phew).
Model & Mods
I should also mention the test subject is a 2004 Xterra SE.
The 2000 & 2001 models have different fenders and are a bit more restrictive. (someone confirm this pls)
Mine came with the 265/65r17 tires stock which is a 30.5" tire. This lead me to beleive I would have a decent chance fitting the 33s.
I have cranked my torsion bars up not quite 1" and I suspect all that has done is bring the vehicle back to its stock ride height after years of sagging.
Otherwise this vehicle is totally stock.
Any kind of lift will help clear larger tires but as others have said the PML will not help our situation much due to the design of the fender, the fact that its just not very much lift and that the lift disappears when flexing the suspension. I was surprised to hear that before but I totally agree with it now. The walls of our fenders are quite flat and that little bit of lift wouldn't do much to add room. Body lift will defenitly add room and keep it but I imagine trimming will still be in order.
Entree
If the last few lines weren't a dead give away... My results were trim, trim and more trim.
Here is the 285/70r17 (33s) on my stock xterra...
So this picture is the back of the driver side front tire. This is after removing the plastic moulding that makes up the outer edge (mud flap) of our fender wells. As you can see definitley too close for comfort.
The tire did fit in straight on but rubbed the plastic moulding while working the steering to the left at normal ride height. The picture actually shows the tire at the worst possible angle with the wheel lifted into the well with the floor jack (to simulate compression). Kind of a worst case scenerio shot. In this simulation the tire was even making light light contact with the metal behind the plastic moulding. Thats the bad news.
The good news: On the rear these tires had plenty of room. Even in a massive suspension flex test the tire would tuck nicley up in behind the outer edge, of the upper part of the well with plenty of room to spare. No worries on the back. The other good news was there is plenty of room in front and on top of the front tires so it really is just the one bad spot.
Triming
What kind of mod junkie would I be if I let a bit of plastic stop me? Of course I trimmed it
The trimming took 30mins per side, can be done with tin snips and a small hammer and is not visible at all after the fact. To anyone that is shying away at this point...don't. This is really easy triming and there is the potential to make plenty of room here without sacrificing looks, functionality or durability.
Recommended tools: Dremel tool, hammer, File and drill.
- As a substitute for the dremel tool you could use hack saw, tin snips, angle grinder, sawsall, sharp knife......
Materials: Two self tapping screws, one can of underbody coating
I hope this picture makes it fairly self explainitory. Just take the extra second to think through which area of the truck this is representing and it should make sense. If it doesn't let me know. So in your front wheel wells, this is the wall towards the rear of the vehicle.
The screw pulls the lining into the recess of the fender and exposes the offending metal. Use your hammer to massage the edges of the metal back about 1/4" to 1/2", seal up everything with the can of underbody spray and walk away.
The metal was only a problem for me in the very bottom left corner so you don't need to get to carried away if you don't want to. Trimming the plastic as high as I have shown is probably unnessecary but it will insure you will not be flexing back into the problem...ever.
Conclusion:
This perticular tire actually measured 33 1/4" @ 25 psi and the tread depth was measured @ 13/32. It was slightly bigger than it should have been for 285/70r17 for some unkown reason. I think that if it had measured the advertised 32.7" you might not have had to massage the metal but you would defenitley still need to trim plastic.
My conclusion to the question "Can 33s fit on a stock 04 X" is... not without mods...it doesn't take much though
I do not recommend driving home from the tire shop before trimming. Even a gentle amount of turning could pull fender liners loose on the way home.
Thanks for reading guys.
Hey guys
I defenitley did my fair share of research before making my decision on tires. On this site and with some other Xterra resources.
I found so many threads to pull from and they were all centered around 31" to 33" but there was lots of debate about what could actually fit on a stock or PML Xterra. To be more specific I read posts from some guys saying 33s on stock or only PML. A couple people actually posted that they had 33s on PML with no trimming. Others said that thier 31s rubbed even with a PML. (PML Poor mans lift or torsion bar lift - generally not exceeding 1.5")
With so much variation in what people were saying I decided a proper test fit was in order. I managed to get a single tire on the cheap for this purpose and mounted it on my spare rim.
This is a write up on what I found and some helpful tips for understanding what makes a tire fit or not.
Backspacing
First off, I saw backspacing mentioned in passing numerous times but also noticed that people were misunderstanding it. Backspacing/offset is simply how close/far out the rim sits from the vehicle. Many people think "Awsome... if my tire is farther out its less likley to rub"... but the reverse is actually true in our case.
What happens is as you turn the steering the wheels pivot around a point just behind them in an arc. The farther out your rim is the further the rim and tire are from this pivot point. This makes the arc larger. When you turn the wheels they move farther forward and backwards along that arc. This increases yor chance of rubbing the fenders.
Here is a picture showing this. This really is a killer of maximum tire size. Notice how the lines off the red arrows are much farther apart then the lines off the green arrows. Its the path the tire follows and is why the tires rub sooner.
So in any Tire size decision Backspacing plays a huge role. Unfortunatley there is no easy trick to figuring out what combination of maximum tire size and backspacing you can get away with. If your looking to do aftermarket rims to get that wide stance the best thing I can say is head out to your vehicle, crank those wheels to the side and take lots of measurements, make sketches and think it out.
For the question of "What are the largest tires that will fit on a stock Xterra" I think backspacing should be explained but then omitted as stock rims are the easier, cheaper option. To that end the last two things I will say about backspacing are:
- Don't assume all factory rims have the same backspacing. There are many different factory rims on the Xterra
so unfortunatley what I have probably isn't what you have and so how a tire fits your vehicle may be different.
It should be fairly close though.
- For this test fit, the test rim's backspacing was the same as my factory rims (phew).
Model & Mods
I should also mention the test subject is a 2004 Xterra SE.
The 2000 & 2001 models have different fenders and are a bit more restrictive. (someone confirm this pls)
Mine came with the 265/65r17 tires stock which is a 30.5" tire. This lead me to beleive I would have a decent chance fitting the 33s.
I have cranked my torsion bars up not quite 1" and I suspect all that has done is bring the vehicle back to its stock ride height after years of sagging.
Otherwise this vehicle is totally stock.
Any kind of lift will help clear larger tires but as others have said the PML will not help our situation much due to the design of the fender, the fact that its just not very much lift and that the lift disappears when flexing the suspension. I was surprised to hear that before but I totally agree with it now. The walls of our fenders are quite flat and that little bit of lift wouldn't do much to add room. Body lift will defenitly add room and keep it but I imagine trimming will still be in order.
Entree
If the last few lines weren't a dead give away... My results were trim, trim and more trim.
Here is the 285/70r17 (33s) on my stock xterra...
So this picture is the back of the driver side front tire. This is after removing the plastic moulding that makes up the outer edge (mud flap) of our fender wells. As you can see definitley too close for comfort.
The tire did fit in straight on but rubbed the plastic moulding while working the steering to the left at normal ride height. The picture actually shows the tire at the worst possible angle with the wheel lifted into the well with the floor jack (to simulate compression). Kind of a worst case scenerio shot. In this simulation the tire was even making light light contact with the metal behind the plastic moulding. Thats the bad news.
The good news: On the rear these tires had plenty of room. Even in a massive suspension flex test the tire would tuck nicley up in behind the outer edge, of the upper part of the well with plenty of room to spare. No worries on the back. The other good news was there is plenty of room in front and on top of the front tires so it really is just the one bad spot.
Triming
What kind of mod junkie would I be if I let a bit of plastic stop me? Of course I trimmed it
The trimming took 30mins per side, can be done with tin snips and a small hammer and is not visible at all after the fact. To anyone that is shying away at this point...don't. This is really easy triming and there is the potential to make plenty of room here without sacrificing looks, functionality or durability.
Recommended tools: Dremel tool, hammer, File and drill.
- As a substitute for the dremel tool you could use hack saw, tin snips, angle grinder, sawsall, sharp knife......
Materials: Two self tapping screws, one can of underbody coating
I hope this picture makes it fairly self explainitory. Just take the extra second to think through which area of the truck this is representing and it should make sense. If it doesn't let me know. So in your front wheel wells, this is the wall towards the rear of the vehicle.
The screw pulls the lining into the recess of the fender and exposes the offending metal. Use your hammer to massage the edges of the metal back about 1/4" to 1/2", seal up everything with the can of underbody spray and walk away.
The metal was only a problem for me in the very bottom left corner so you don't need to get to carried away if you don't want to. Trimming the plastic as high as I have shown is probably unnessecary but it will insure you will not be flexing back into the problem...ever.
Conclusion:
This perticular tire actually measured 33 1/4" @ 25 psi and the tread depth was measured @ 13/32. It was slightly bigger than it should have been for 285/70r17 for some unkown reason. I think that if it had measured the advertised 32.7" you might not have had to massage the metal but you would defenitley still need to trim plastic.
My conclusion to the question "Can 33s fit on a stock 04 X" is... not without mods...it doesn't take much though
I do not recommend driving home from the tire shop before trimming. Even a gentle amount of turning could pull fender liners loose on the way home.
Thanks for reading guys.
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