Help....Lowering Suburban

[91burb]

I have a 1991 Suburban 2wd that i am considering on lowering and puting some 20's on. I'm trying to acheive (or as close as possible) the stance the red truck below has but without bagging or notching the frame. What would you guys recommend the drop be and how would it best be done. I have leaf springs in the back. As for tires I'm thinking 295/40/20 ? Give me some ideas. I've also included a pic of the Suburban.

[Low87]

That red truck looks to be a hair taller than mine, which probably puts it at a 5/7 drop. You can do a spindle/coil spring combination in the front and a flip kit/shackle combo in the rear. From what I've heard there's a bit more cutting involved on blazers/burbs in the rear when going that low. I had a friend who wouldn't drop his blazer past 5 inches because he was going to have to do a lot of notching in the back. Either way, if you do a flip kit you'll want to c-notch the frame. Good luck!

[91burb]

Thanks for the reply. I'll let ya know what I finally end up doing.

[LONGHAIR]

Here's an idea of how it might look..........

[IoWnZa]

Not a bad chop, I bet it would look kickass with some nice 20's on it, can someone put some on it and lower it as well?

[ShamrockCustoms]

The problem that you are going to have is that when people put 20" and bigger wheels on, they completely change the drop they need to achieve the ride height they want. Those burbs came stock with 15" wheels and probably 75 series rubber. By placing 20's with 40 series, you have added another 1 to 1.5 inches in height to the vehicle just by switching. So, a 5/7 drop just became a 4/6 or 3.5/5.5 drop. Keep that in mind.....

Oh, and for the amount of drop you are wanting, you WILL need to notch, no choice on that one unless you like bottoming out. Good luck bro!

[LONGHAIR]

It's not the wheel's fault, the determining factor is tire diameter. That is determined by width and aspect ratio and easily measured with a tape. If the over-all diameter is at or near the same, it doesn't matter. Only half of this difference matters anyway.

[ShamrockCustoms]

"It's not the wheel's fault, the determining factor is tire diameter."


I am afraid I must disagree somewhat with your statement...

OD is the bottom line, and in his case, you're dead on since the tire he wants is 295/40/20. Those are 29.2 inches OD. In his case, it won't be too bad at all, since he is starting off with something like a 235/75/15, which is 29" OD. If he is going to stick with 8" wide wheels in 20's, he should go for the Nitto 225/35/20 , which will yield an INCREASE in drop from his stock setup, since the OD on that tire is 26.22".

The thing is, if one were running with 15" wheels and low-profile tires, like 60 series or 50 series, there would be no way to achieve the same OD in tire/wheel combo with 20" wheels, being that you could have a 15" wheel with 195/50/15 tires with an OD of 22". No way a 20" wheel will get you the same result.

So my opinion remains the wheels CAN make a diffference, not just the tires.

[KutThroatKustoms]

But he can easily get 20" rims with tires to equal the same height he has now and not change anything..

The tire is what matters, you can use any rim and make the tire as close to whatever height as you want.

I can get a 20" rim and run a 27" tall tire, but if i hit a pot hole at 70 you can kiss that shizzy goodbye.

[LONGHAIR]

ShamrockCustoms,
You seem to be searching for a statistical anomoly.
If he used the 225/35/20 (rubberband) the final gear ratio would be seriously out of whack too...........which is also beyond the scope of the original question.
Who would run a 195/50/15 on a Suburban?

The only way that wheels can make a difference is if you are trying to have an overall diameter of less than that of the wheel in the first place.

[swervin ervin]

Not going to get in the middle the fun you guys are having about wheel/tire sizes, but what I want to know is, what in the heck do they have behind the wheels on the red/flamed pickup above. I think from here, that looks like crap. If this belongs to someone anyone knows, sorry. But, it's not my cup of tea.

[LONGHAIR]

It looks like those are dust shields. The kind that are supposed to keep brake dust off of the wheels. Generally they are flat black, to keep from being seen.

[ShamrockCustoms]

Seeing as I am the one who took the photo of the red truck at last year's Texas Heat Wave, I can also tell you that those 20's were riding on 35 series rubber.....

swervin: i agree about the dust shields.

Kutthroat: "he can easily get 20" rims with tires to equal the same height he has now and not change anything.. " I agree. I also stated that as well in the last post.


Longhair: "Who would run a 195/50/15 on a Suburban?" Unfortunately, I have seen that, looks strange too.

I suppose my original statement kinda threw things outa whack. My original thinking was that he had a 27-28" current OD tire. After checking stock OD's for 235/75's, I realized that his changeover to a 235/40 would be appropriate, which is what I stated in the last post.

I am only saying that the current OD of most 15" wheels (not all, as illustrated here) will be less than the OD of a 20" wheel/tire combo. (I am not referencing Suburbans, just 15" wheels in general.) That being so, the drop that someone would want would be altered by that change in OD.

Since he was asking about the stance/drop level, that is why I originally gave my initial statement. I wanted him to be aware that a standard drop, ie 4/6, can be altered negatively to a 3/5 or 2/4 if a larger OD wheel/tire combo is used I hope that clears it up!

[LONGHAIR]

I think it has............
I'm certainly glad to see your anwer. I'm a newbie here and i thought after I posted that you may come back here and be p!ssed. I wasn't trying to be arguementitive, just to explain to someone who many not understand. It is quite apparent that you do, but I realize that there are lots of people who read message boards who don't. I try to "fully" explain things while trying not to sound condecending. It can be hard to do when you don't know the level of expertise of the readers.

Again I appreciate your response.

[ShamrockCustoms]

Longhair: Yeah, I definitely mess up what I'm trying to say when I type it out. Pissed? Nah, no reason to be, especially when my first post didn't come out right. Thanks for being cool! I have seen lots of threads go wayyy out of hand. You're alright bro!

[LONGHAIR]

Yeah, I saw the potential for that to get out-of-hand.
Cool.........

[91burb]

Hey guys thanks for all the input.

LONGHAIR thanks for the pic...I can now get a good feel for what it would look like.

[Dropped90Burb]

Hey 91Burb, how do you like this one?