Well as much as I wanted to go bigger on tires I ended up sticking with 235 85 16. Hoping the lift settles some, I never intended to have it skyscraper high in the first place, but I got it somehow.
Plenty of room with the 235, if I had gone 255/85 I certainly would have needed a spacer with anything but maybe smooth street tires. I've run spacers in the past on other vehicles and while I never really had a problem, I'm still not crazy about the idea so I'll just deal with the smaller tires for now.
On a side note, buying 6 tires sucks, why did I have to get a dually
I did however go get it inspected and have been driving it! Its completely stock engine wise and its a slow turd, but I'm making myself leave it alone for at least a week to make sure nothing else comes up before I mess with the pump and try and wake it up some.
So my seat of the pants first impression is, it drives damn nice!!! I did a home alignment with my old school alignment tool (long bar with adjusters on the ends if you've ever seen one) and its about spot on, I will probably get it checked soon to make sure, way easy with a knuckle to knuckle tie rod as opposed to Y link I'm used to. Its fun shifting through the gears and so far the tranny is flawless which I was concerned about buying used junk from random people. Sounds like the throwout bearing is squeeling some, which is irritating, but I also still have a hole in my floor so its right there. While its a huge truck, it doesn't drive like that. I was expecting the worst but its way above that! So 8 months or so ago I had this stupid crazy idea that instead of buying a 'new' used truck, I would build this junk, and today driving it to work for the first time without being in fear of my life, or some crazy problem coming up, is a damn good feeling. While I probably have enough money into it that I could have bought a half way descent common rail or other cummins truck, it wouldn't be the same. I'm a big fan of 'built not bought' and theres no better feeling than knowing every single nut and bolt on your truck.
This thread is far from done, but I feel that I've finally reached the summit for building and now I can hopefully just do fun things to it. It needs interior work, it needs power, and details cleaned up that first priority in getting it on the road. Been a lot of text and not enough pictures, so today on my way home I plan to do my own little photo shoot to share with all you guys how it came out to this point. Thanks for following along and offering advice along the way. This forum is probably my favorite to post on because of the lack of know it alls, and bad advice/opinions flying around like elsewhere. I'm a mopar guy at heart but chevy guys are the best
