Fellas,

I'm new here and have found a lot of great info since I looked around today...very nice site.

I've got a dinky 97 4x4 reg cab(standard 4x4, no off road kit) sittin' on 235's. I've got ball joint issues and the schocks need to be swapped to boot. I looked at some aggressive Coopers and Pro Comps today and have settled in on 285s on the stock 16 in rim.

My questions are as follows!?!! How much will the 285's fill the well out? What are you guys with the 4.6 gettin' for mileage with a similar set up? And last but not least, what shocks have been the favorite so far?

I'm gonna do all this work to it in the next two weeks. I bought the truck when I came home from Iraq, and now it's time to beef her up a lil' bit!!!

Please help guys!!

If anyone has pics of a similar rig please post to give me some ideas!!

 

I've got 285's on my stock 17's, but i've got the 5.4 so I cant speak for the 4.6 performance but I havent really noticed much of a difference jumping up from 265 to 285. The jump from 235 to 285 however will be quite noticeable I would imagine...but nuthin you cant handle i'm sure

Take a look at my gallery for picks of the 285's, just click on the little camera top right.

 

285's will fit, they are about as big as you can go on a stock suspension.
Cant answer your mileage question, but you should expect mileage to drop when moving to a tire that is nearly 3" smaller in diameter. Also remember that your speedo will be WAY off, about a 10% difference on the speedo. You'll need to replace the VSS gear to compensate, you can also re-gear but that is a quite a bit more expensive.

As for shocks, what do you use the truck for? If you never/rarely go off road, then bilsteins or monroes are a good choice to look at. Rancho RSX, RS5000s, or Pro Comp ES3000, are some good all around shocks. If you plan to go off road quite a bit, I would look at the Rancho RS9000X's.

 

As far as the type of use goes, she's certainly a on/off truck. I'm seeing a lot of guys going witht he 265's, is there a reason? I use the truck for duck/turkey hunting more than anything else and living in northern IL we get some pretty good winter weather to boot.

I want to stiffen up the suspension some and can use all the advice you fellas have!!

 

I noticed a big difference going from 265's to 285's in appearance for sure but like mentioned I have the 5.4. and a SuperCrew.

Shocks like mentioned you can go with a monroe factory type shock if it may be used some offroad. I don't see why spend the money to change something when you can upgrade for around the same price so look at some what I call standard shocks from one of the major companies, Superlift, SkyJacker, Bilstein, Rancho etc.

Now I am going with the Robby Gordon Adjustable shocks (bout $90 apiece)but that is because I tow,offroad,hunt all year so I want the adjustability.

 

I have 265's simply because that was on the truck when I bought it, as well as price. When I get more money I plan on getting new rims and bigger tires.

 

not quite what your doing to yours but does look nice and beefy
3"pa body lift 315/75/16 m/t radial claws on 16x8 rims
4 new rough country nitro shocks(a little stiff on road but good offroad)
gas milage is ok not as bad as i thought cant get exact cause odometer doesnt work