At least that is what the commercial and sports car enthusiasts say. While I fully accept that my Jimmy will never handle like a sports car, I am thinking of getting it about as close as I can and still call it a Jimmy. So I am curious as to what would be the widest 18" wheels I might be able to get without going beyond the fender lip and still retain good clearances on suspension components. I imagine it will require a bit of playing with the backspacing to get it 'right', but I am curious if anyone else has already tried for this kind of fitment? Thanks.

 

Double post

 

One of the problem with using a wide tire on a Blazer is the poor camber curve on the front. This is made drastically worse when you raise the ride height. The problem comes from the out board suspension pick up points being closer than the inboard pick up points. But to directly answer your question I have successfully used a 275 x 50x 18. (After I corrected this and some other front end design problems).

 

Think he said wheels not tires

 

Opps you're right. My guess, because I dont want to take them off, would be 9.5 inside lip to inside lip. C5 corvette rear. I made 2.25in adapters 4.5in to 120mm. I might narrow the rear a little to remove a little more understeer.

 

I have 3 inch back spacing rims with 10.5 wheels on stock suspension. ZR2 comes from factory with 10.5s Handles and steers fine

 

Thanks guys.

I guess I should have mentioned that if I adjust my ride height, it will be down. Nothing drastic as I have a gimpy back and have to keep that in mind. I believe I can get 2 inch spindles and possibly have my spring pack rebuilt, as someone else suggested, and still retain or even improve on the factory ride. Anything I do will be thought on for quite some time and probably bounced off of people who know more than I do to make sure I don't do something royally stupid and screw up my Jimmy or my back. That's part of my reason for wanting to go to 18" rims, I'm hoping the extra 3" will help if I do end up getting spindles.

Growing up, I was big into the minitruck scene of the 90's and I don't know if it is some leftover itch from those days or just mid-life, but I have been really trying to figure out how to make my Jimmy MY Jimmy, if you catch my meaning. Paint is the obvious solution, but I want to take it a step further. That peppy little 4.3V6 can really get up and go when I kick it in the pants and that has me thinking of making it just a bit better in performance and handling. I have no intention of racing it and living in flat Florida I won't be doing any kind of canyon carving, but if I can tweak it here and there and make it just that much better, again without killing the suspension or even the fuel economy, then I'll do it. I plan on upgrading the intake and exhaust and then have it tuned, but all the performance upgrades won't mean crap, to me, if it still handles like stock.

Thanks again for the input.

 

Smart Boy!
Of all the blazer suspensions the Xtreme S10pickups' are the best handlers. Emulate that. Try to get the lower bushing center even height as lower ball jount. That requires a new spring (I cut 1/2 coil which stiffened the ride) you might try the pickup spring. A wide tire does no good unless its flat on the ground. As mentioned before the Blazer has a negative camber gain which really gets screwed up when the truck is raised. You can fix this design fu by putting tall joints in the lower arm ( search Howe brand et.al they are a NasCar fave). This will lower the ride height slightly and improve handling more than you can imagine. Next 2in drop spindles are the icing on the cake. Install shocks of your choosing. A side benifit of lowering your center of gravity is better aero which is better gas milage. You dont need shorter shocks if you put a couple of washers between the cross bar and Aarm and trim down the lower of the top bushing pair, or just use the Xtreme Bilstene. This is not the order which I did mine but I made a few mistakes along the way.
Last thing to do is show an older Camaro or raised Blazer how to get on the freeway.