New rims. Don't do this.

I saw that Discount Tire was doing some promotional thing and I decided to order some Vision Flow wheels in the bronze color. It was under $800 installed.

Wheels are beautiful...




Suspension is a Daystar 2.5" spacer lift in the front and 1.5" in the rear, if I remember correctly. I have been running 285/70/17s on the stock rims with no rubbing issues, until I upgraded my tires last Fall.

The Goodyear Wrangler Ultra Terrains are true to size and a full 33" tall tire. I had minor rubbing when backing to the right at full lock.

Not a big deal but was annoying. I figured I would get some rims with a small negative offset to move the tires outboard a tad to see if that helped.

New rims are -12 offset. Perfect. But, I failed to realize that they were 17x9" rims. I told the Discount tire guy to test fit the driver's front tire and wheel first, to see if they would rub. He said that there would be no issue with the negative offset.

He was wrong.

Got them all installed and went to back out and the rubbing is very bad. Will be doing a lot of trimming tomorrow, as well as remove the brushguard from the front to get rid of any excess weight.

But, it looks cool...

 

Good looking wheels! I like the bronze.

I had rubbing with -6 offset and stock size tires. 17×9 also. It's the negative offset. 0 offset, or a slight positive offset would be less likely to rub.

 

Wow, the quality of the light in that photo is stunning. Are they rubbing on the mud flaps or the front bumper/fender liner? Mine rub on the mud flaps, so those are an easy thing to remove. You might also consider increasing caster, which would move the wheels forward in the wheel well.

 

That's interesting that you had rub at -6 offset. There's so many things that can contribute to it and I think @MountainMan is correct in that wheel width can definitely be one of those contributors.

I'll give my experience as an example:

I have stock Offroad wheels (+15 offset) and 7.5" wide.

I also have 285's (actual size is 32.7 which is pretty common on 285's).

Fender liner mod with caster set around +3.6. I had no rubbing with this set-up.

When I added 1.25" Spidertrax spacers, that pushed my offset out to -16.75 and still no rubbing.

When I added a 1.5" spacer, that pushed my offset to -23.1 and I started to rub, both on the front of the wheel well and back.

Other than tire size and offset, there are a lot of other variables.....like how much caster do you have and how far forward did you push your fender liner when doing that mod. And then you have things that like lift height that can effect the amount of caster you can achieve in the first place. But I do think wheel width is one of those things that contributes and should be considered.

*Disclaimer - I think I did my offset calculations correctly, but I am no mathematician.

 

Yeah but @Thatbassguy is running 295/70/17. I run 285/75/17 and had to get rid of my front mud flaps and perform a BmC. I got an aftermarket front bumper so I can’t say what it would have been like.

 

I'm not saying that wheel width doesn't contribute. But, the rubbing usually occurs on the outside shoulder lugs. The same setup might not rub at 0 offset.

Alignment could be a factor, also.

But there have been a few threads where people went to a negative offset wheel and wound up rubbing. I have yet to see a situation where someone stuck with a positive offset and rubbed on stock size tires.

The stock size KO2's I had rubbed at -6 when turning and braking simultaneously. It wasn't a constant thing. But, I'm sure it was due to moving the wheel and tire an inch outward, not the wheel width.

My 295's are on 8.5" wide wheels with 0 offset.

 

I'm rubbing on both the front and rear portions of the wheel well. I've already done minor fender and mud flap trimming. So will do some more today.

 

Have you considered doing the viper cuts on the front bumper? That opens up space to move the tires forward with an alignment. But, not everyone wants to cut the bumper that much.

Also, I think some people have been able to reshape the inner fender liner with a heat gun and something to push it in with.

Otherwise, I hope the trimming helps.

 

Did about another 1/2" of trimming of the front fenders, then used the heat gun to move the fender liner further away on the front and on the rear mud flaps.

Helped immensely.

Also, removed the front brushguard to reduce weight to see if that gave more clearence and it was a tiny bit. But I really liked the clean look of the front end and left it off.

The new wheels really make a huge difference in appearance and the rig
looks much beefier now. Very happy with how it turned out after a couple of hours of work.

 

So much better looking without the damage multiplier.

 

Looks soooooo much better now. Even better if those 2 fixing thing under the bumper was removed...

Edit-
Is that a 6db Midland GMRS antenna on the roof? Magnetic mount or permanent fix to the roof basket?

 

Magnetic mount to the roof. Works pretty well when in the woods to avoid logging trucks, and on the highway to listen to truckers get in cussing wars over politics, lol. It has been tuned.