picked the wheels i'm going with FINALLY. so it was time to start checking fit and clearance before i bought em. the one big difference i'm doing in the front is to run the dually wheel, but not a dually hub. this will let me run a hub extension of the width i choose, vs what GM made. and i don't feel too bad with 8lug or that OEM's do it.
so the standard dually extension is about 4.5". i plan to use a basic 2" wheel spacer instead. this will narrow the front end by 5" to fit under the narrower front clip of the 55. the old stock wheels off my GMC are the same 17" AL, but are only 5.37" back spacing vs the new dually wheels 7.87". With the 2" spacer the back face of the dually wheel will be 0.5" more inboard than pictured with the GMC wheels.
was perfect! ish. lots of brake, upper ball joint, pretty good steering clearance, and just enough lower ball joint clearance in the worst case of travel. and yes, the wheels i chose were in part chosen because the wheel face ties into the lip vs back in the barrel to give more caliper clearance for this narrowing. brake clearance is great to the massive 1-ton calipers, this would have never happened with steel wheels. the ONLY clearance issue is with the LCA, and only on one side of steering. the LCA lip rolls out and is really thick there, so with a simple welded-in stiffening rib to the bottom side, i can just cut out and clearance what i need. my goal is 45deg of steering thru the full travel. that might get limited by fender clearance, we'll see how that goes.
the tire behind the wheel is the size i'm using, so it's a really a good representative picture. only difference is it's sitting at about 15" and normal height will be 6"
another note is that i'm really glad i am now using all C30 parts vs the c10 bits i started with WAY back. these parts are WAY heavier, just more beef everywhere. including solid, yes solid factory control arm bushings.
