Hey, I have a 97 f-150 ext. cab 2wd and i would love to fit some 33's under it. Right now its all stock suspension wise so if anyone could tell me how much lift i will need would be awesome. Thanks

 

you can fit them with a 1.5 inch front spacer

 

Wow, i never would have thought that. Does anyone have recomendations for leveling kits for a 97 2wd?

I measured my tires (255/65/16) from the center of the rim to the ground and got 14" x 2 would be 28". Is that right, it seems kinda small to me.

Are 33's (305/65/16) ?

 

should be 29"


Oh yeah......maybe daystar kit....

 

You will need to get a daystar 1.5" leveling kit if thats the way you decide to go. You can get the kit for $40 bucks with free shipping on amazon.

The tires you will need to be looking for is 285/75/16s which are 33" tires. You would be suprised, because I ran 285/75s on stock suspension but they do rub the sway bar. The leveling kit will keep them from rubbing at all though.

 

Is the daystar kit the same for the 2x4 and 4x4 just so i know? What do you guys think of a 2.5" in the front (does daystar make one?) and 1" or 1.5" blocks in the back on 33"s? That should bring me up to a stock 4x4 height right?

 

No you want to make sure that its for a 2wd. They dont make coil spacers for 4x4s. You need aftermarket upper control arms to run the 2.5" spacers. You can run the 1.5 with no problems though.

You would be pretty close to 4wd height in the front, but you might be a hair shorter in the back. A 3" body lift will have you a hair higher than a 4wd just about all the way around, and looks really good with 33s.

 

with the 1.5 daystar he can fit 305/70's/stock rims with minor rubbing cant he?

 

I wouldn't think it would be too minor. I have a 1.5 inch daystar and 285/75/16's and mine rubs pretty good when I get close to full lock. 3 inch body lift soon to come.

 

I have 33in nittos on mine and i used the hell bent steel leveling kit, and my 33's fit fine with out any rubbing. The hbs kit was super cheap too.

 

militia you have a new body style,totally different than the obs

OP-to fit 33's youll need the daystar 1.5" coil spacer and stock rims, if your going to use aftermarket wheels youll need more lift because they have less offset pushing them farther out. A 285/75/16 is a 33x11.5 and will fit on a stock wheel and with just a coil spacer. The stock wheels are 7.5"s wide so you cant go any wider than a 11.5" tire so a 305/70/16(33x12.5) like i run requires more lift and a wider wheel. There is a vast difference between a 2x4 and a 4x4 leveling kit. A 4x4 uses torsion bars so a leveling kit are torsion keys. A 2wd uses coils so you need coil spacers.

And lastly search, theres a ton of threads about this exact topic recently.

 

if you check out my gallery you can see a 98 2wd with just a 1.5" daystar and 285/75/16 bfg all terrains. its very simple and well worth it.

 

I have 12.50's on my stock wheels and they are on only 7"s wide. The only problem i noticed is where the rim is so skinny/tires so wide it pulls the edges of the tires up to where they just slightly don't come in contact with the road. so about and inch on either side of the tread doesn't wear as much. The fronts are fine cause the engine weighs it down enough to where there is contact. You can't tell they don't touch on the back, but you might notice the wear on tread pattern, but actually maybe not with a 7.5" rim. Just my personal opinion...i go for width too...But anyway that is on the back tires and your supposed to rotate your tires every few thousand miles anyway so they'll be fine. They should all wear normal. You have to use your stock rim, but i'm 95% sure you can go 305/70's with very minor rubbing on hard turns..like full lock... But im just giving you some food for thought.......honestly take a look at Jake's album...he's prolly got the best looking 97-98 2wd's on here. I believe he's 285's too.

 

The 4.5"s I mentioned is just a general rule for good tire wear. You can of course go wider but as you mentioned the tires will wear funny cause the skinny rim will pull the edges in. I have 5.5"s of lift in the front and had to trim the valance and get slight rubbing on the rear fenderwell with my 305/70s so Id be hard pressed to think you could get away with just slight rubbing on a truck with just a coil spacer.

 

I used a daystar 1.5" kit, easy to install and cheap. I also put on 295/75/r16 bfg a/t ko's on it, which did rub on the rear fender well. Trimmed that, still rubs very slightly at full lock, otherwise unnoticeable.