Looking to Lift - Can I increase my tire size?!?
 

Hey everybody! Love this site and love reading all the posts...

here's my question... i'm looking to put a 2 inch body lift on my 2000 Blazer LS (2 dr 4wd)...
Will I be able to increase the size of my tires with this lift?!?

Just wondering!!

thanks!

Matty Kling

RE: Looking to Lift - Can I increase my tire size?!?
 

Yes... you can go to 31x10.5's. If you keep the stock rims, crank your t-bars up an inch and get lift shackles for the rear, you can go to 32x11.50's (may need a small amount of trimming).

RE: Looking to Lift - Can I increase my tire size?!?
 

Thanks! So I could get a 31" tire on there wth a 2 inch lift? What would be stock as far as the tires go with this Blazer?

RE: Looking to Lift - Can I increase my tire size?!?
 

You can find what your stock tires were by looking at the lable on your drivers side door.

RE: Looking to Lift - Can I increase my tire size?!?
 

Yeah - I figured that one..... BUt it says 235/70 R15.... I don't know how this translates into the actual outside tire measurements.... Is this a 30"? 31"? How can you tell?

Basically I want to increase my ground clearance a little bit...

RE: Looking to Lift - Can I increase my tire size?!?
 

stock size tires are about 27-28in tall. and bout 9in wide

jimmyboy

RE: Looking to Lift - Can I increase my tire size?!?
 

after looking at tires online for the last few days, I believe that the origonal tire sizes, 235/75 15 is 28.8 inches in diameter, and the 235/70 15 is 28 inches.you can go online and do a search for a tire diameter calculator, and you can type in your deminsions and it will spit out the size.

RE: Looking to Lift - Can I increase my tire size?!?
 

My brother-in-law (97 blazer) put 30 9.50 with no lift on stock rims with no problem. He also tried 31 10.50 but hadsome rub on the frame. He cranked up the torsion bars (not ideal for the ride). With a 2" lift everything fit fine. Body lift is the way to go. Suspension lifts mess with drive angles and don't gain you any ground clearance. Body lift allows for larger tires and that is how you gain ground clearance. I am adding a 2" lift to my 04 blazer and am planning on 31 10.50. If you go to www.bridgestone-firestone.com and select a tire, you can view the specs. This tells you all of the dimensions for every size.

RE: Looking to Lift - Can I increase my tire size?!?
 

you will not gain any ground clearance from a 2 inch body lift.Ground clearance is measured from the ground to the lowest point on the vehicle, in this case the frame and or transfer case. This has been discussed several times in these forums. Body lifts just lift the body off of the frame, leaving the frame at stock height and stock ground clearance. Sure you can fit 31's on a 2 inch body lifted truck, however you can fit 30's on there without the lift. This is the point where you ask yourself, is it really worth all that trouble for an extra 1/2" of clearance? But as for a body lift, they look awesome, but you WILL NOT gain any more than 1/2" of ground clearance and that is from tires alone. A 2 inch suspensions lift however will also accomodate 31's. It will technically give you 2 1/2" more ground clearance.

so, to make a long story short, a 2 inch body lift will only give you 1/2" more ground clearance than you can obtain with a good set of 30's and no lift. If you get it, install it yourself or you will be out more than a few hundred dollars for an install fee. For what it costs to have a body lift put on, you could go a couple hundred more and get a good suspension lift. And good suspension lifts come with brackets and spacers to correct drive angles.

RE: Looking to Lift - Can I increase my tire size?!?
 

I thought suspension lifts would look better, dosent the frame hang way out on a body lift?

RE: Looking to Lift - Can I increase my tire size?!?
 

A-tack nailed it prety well.
Although it seems I have seen that logic before, like in something I wrote. :D

Anyways, hanging out will depend on you.
Here are some pics of a '87 with a 3" body lift, lots of fender trimming and 285/75R16 (32.8"x11.3" tires.
http://offroadworld.tenmagazines.com...nr3/148303.jpg
http://offroadworld.tenmagazines.com...nr3/148300.jpg
http://offroadworld.tenmagazines.com...nr3/148301.jpg

If you do go with a suspension lift for 2" check out how hte lift is made. If it is a torsion crank, stay away form it. Check out Superlift 2" kit. http://www.superlift.com/suspension/gm/83-S10.asp

RE: Looking to Lift - Can I increase my tire size?!?
 

the problem is, the superlift cranks the TB's too.... it has new upper control arms also.... all of the 2 inch suspension lifts for the s-10 blazers crank the tb's..... even the superlift has a warning that says, not reccomended for off-road use. Because it will break things. If you go suspensions shell out the extra for a trailmaster 5" or some random 6" lift. The 2" suspension lifts are dangerous. if you absolutely have to have two inches of lift do a body lift, trim the fenders, and run 32's... this will buy you and extra inch or so of ground clearance..

RE: Looking to Lift - Can I increase my tire size?!?
 

my frame only showes about 4-5 inches if u are far away. being a black truck, i just painted it black and it blends in. 31's rubed bad for me with only 2 inch lift. just fyi. but i dont know how hard u will wheel it. i wheeled mine hard. thus the reason it bas sat for the past 4 months waiting for a new clutch.

RE: Looking to Lift - Can I increase my tire size?!?
 

Heres a 3" Body lift with 31 M/Terrains

RE: Looking to Lift - Can I increase my tire size?!?
 

Here's a good tire size calculator to compare tire specs and see what sizes are close.

RE: Looking to Lift - Can I increase my tire size?!?
 

Where did you ever find a 3 inch body lift? That would be awsome.

RE: Looking to Lift - Can I increase my tire size?!?
 

Trailmaster or Performance assecories, although I think they are the same company now.

RE: Looking to Lift - Can I increase my tire size?!?
 

Body lift or suspention lift, it doesn't really matter. All you want to do is put on lager tires. If you do a body lift OR suspention lift and dont get bigger tires, you wont have gained any ground clearance. I, personally dont like body lifts but they're cheaper to buy so if your on a budget it'll work.What people forget is articulation. body lifts dont do anything for you suspention perfomance , but they dont screw around with drive line angles either. A good suspention lift will give you more room to put on bigger tires ( Ground Clearance ) and performe better off road. Plus no one wants to see all that frame hanging down.

RE: Looking to Lift - Can I increase my tire size?!?
 

I am planning on doing a 2-inch body and 2-inch suspension lift. I don’t know what you mean Goat when you say suspension lifts don’t give you any ground clearance because the purpose of a suspension lift is to give you ground clearance.

RE: Looking to Lift - Can I increase my tire size?!?
 

He's saying that if you don't get larger tires you really don't gain anything. This is true for the rear of our IFS rigs, but on the front, you will gain ground clearance. For the older SFA trucks, you can lift the suspension to the moon, but if you don't put bigger tires on, you aren't gaining anything under the diffs.

RE: Looking to Lift - Can I increase my tire size?!?
 

yea, thats what i ment.

RE: Looking to Lift - Can I increase my tire size?!?
 

If you dont mind doing a little fender trimming to put on larger tires and don't do a body or suspention lift you still would gain ground clearance. thanks Kyle.

RE: Looking to Lift - Can I increase my tire size?!?
 

Yea I guess your right, but the suspension lift will drop those arms 2 inches lower which will give you 2 more inches under the diff since the whole front of the truck is now sitting higher. You see on the big 6-inch suspension lifts they give you all new arms that are wider so that you can gain the ground clearance with out putting new tires on. Yes, bigger tires does play a big role in gaining clearance but I have a hard time believing you if you said a suspension lift wont give you any clearance without bigger tires. I may be wrong, but I have installed lift kits on atvs more then a dozen times and you gain a lot of clearance with just adding a suspension lift. Yes, I know atvs are a lot different from blazers lol. If I am wrong about this please clear me up, this is just what I have learned and I am by no mean a mechanic so I am always open to people correcting me.

RE: Looking to Lift - Can I increase my tire size?!?
 

No your right. a suspention lift will give you more clearance under your truck and with independent front, your right, i will give you more clearance. I have a solid front axle so we're diffrent. The diffs will drag without bigger tires. The point i was trying to make is ground clearance is almost directly realted to the radius of your tires. Bigger tires= ground clearance. But your right about independant front ends. But i'm no mechanic either, just have my own experiance. Still learning.