Clueless. Shopping for husbands birthday :) HELP?? LIFT KIT

[2005TB]

I'm leaning more towards the warden ATs. Any experience with them anyone?

I will look at the guard dogs more too but how well are those with continued street use?

[Cable810]

Mike is running the Wardens on a truck of his.

[v7guy]

A couple guys have done the wardens, the gaurddogs are by far the most popular. Most figure they're good for 30-40000 miles. They're fine on and offroad.

[2005TB]

And what's this I'm reading you can request the sidewall? I'm confused

[Cable810]

When you order your tires you can request like a BFG Carcass, Goodyear Mtr, etc....

[fishsticks]

And what's this I'm reading you can request the sidewall? I'm confused

When ordering Wardens, request BFG sidewalls. They will use recycled BFG (most likely AT) tire carcasses and put their tread on them. You'll have, for all intents and purposes, new BFG ATs.

[2005TB]

I dont know; i've been reading through review after review and while the company has grown and become better at what they do..theyre still retreads :/ I'm not knocking on anyone who has them but safety wise (DD and we have an infant) i'm not sure if I can pull the trigger on them. Especially since we'll be making a round trip from Wisconsin to Colorado and back hear soon.

I'm tossing back and forth in my head here and I just dont know! haha

EDIT: IF I do go with treadwright, it will be the Wardens. Now I need to decide (D) or (E)

[navigator]

If you want to run 265s on a budget, here are a few ideas.
You could run the SkyJacker N8030 in the rear. You can get them on Amazon for about $50 each. A lot of people run them and they are good shocks (better than the ones that came stock). They may not be as good as the Bilsteins but I run them and cannot complain. That would save you about $50. The only issue with them is that you have to use a bunch of washers as spacers on the bottom mount. I think I am running 12-14 spacers for each shock. It is really no big deal but just want you to be aware.

I would still run the Bilsteins in the front. I would go ahead and bite the bullet. As was mentioned previously you don't want to do the work 2X. I did it the hard way and did it 2X.

You could also get the rough country lift instead of the 3 inch lift. You can get it shipped for under $150. It is a solid kit that won't break the bank. It should allow you to run the 265s with possibly minor trimming on the fender liner. Running this lift would limit you to not being able to run the 285s in the future without a body lift. So if you go this route make sure you plan to stay at 265s or run a body lift later.

On the wheel spacers, the only way to save there is find them used. They sometimes show up here, on GMTNation.com or trailvoy.com. You can look around and possibly score a set. There are some that are a little cheaper on ebay but personally I can't tell from the ebay guys who has a quality product and who doesn't. We know that Mark has a good product.

[v7guy]

if it's any consolation the treadwrights aren't the same old retreads you're used to, they shave down the old tread and then inject rubber into the mold that contains the old carcass. Which is exactly how new tires are made. In contrast the treads you see on the side of the road from tractor trailers is generally from a retread that the newtread was "glued" onto the old carcass.
Generally speaking, the reason the tractor tailors lose those is because they lose air pressure, overheat, and fly apart accordingly.

[dvanbramer88]

Generally speaking, the reason the tractor tailors lose those is because they lose air pressure, overheat, and fly apart accordingly.

Yea, tractor trailers run 100-110 psi, weigh 80,000 pounds full, and drive for 11 hours at a time. Very extreme conditions. A small drop in pressure overheats the tire over that amount of time and the tread flies off.

Hardtrailz runs treadwrights and has driven 11 hours straight to go to Tecore a couple of time on those tires, and never had a problem. I wouldn't consider them unsafe at all. Any tire has the potential to be unsafe if you don't take care of them anyway.

[navigator]

I've seen a few reviews of some very minor cracks at the joint on TW.
I don't recall ever reading about a separation.
It seems that the guys that reported the cracks to TW were shipped a replacement set quickly and allowed to keep the old set as well.
From the reports they are a little heavy and may not last quite as long as set of name brand tires but end up costing much less.
Most folks really like them at that price point.

For me the TW don't make sense because of the shipping costs. If I lived closer and shipping were cheaper I would look at them a lot harder. I would call around to a few shops especially the smaller independent shops. A lot of times they might not stock the tire but get it the next day. Since they don't have the huge inventory, they don't have that overhead and can offer good prices.

I usually call them and look up some of their recommendations online to see if I like the tread. I'll get a few of their suggestions/prices and after the call do some research on them. Once I figure out what I want I'll call them back and get them to order them.

[dvanbramer88]

It seems that the guys that reported the cracks to TW were shipped a replacement set quickly and allowed to keep the old set as well.

This is true, Rory messed up a TW Guard Dog at the country fried weekend before the last Tecore, They sent him a new one pretty quickly.

[Moots1288]

I got a tire with a bad belt and they sent me a new one no questions asked in a week

[fishsticks]

I dont know; i've been reading through review after review and while the company has grown and become better at what they do..theyre still retreads :/ I'm not knocking on anyone who has them but safety wise (DD and we have an infant) i'm not sure if I can pull the trigger on them. Especially since we'll be making a round trip from Wisconsin to Colorado and back hear soon.

I'm tossing back and forth in my head here and I just dont know! haha

EDIT: IF I do go with treadwright, it will be the Wardens. Now I need to decide (D) or (E)

I run the Guard Dogs in 35x12.5x17. I have beat these tires as much as I would beat a "new" set. I've driven 20+ miles on them at 15psi or less on the road, spun them on sharp rocks and rubbed the sidewalls against trees. I'll still get 40000 miles out of these tires. They haven't lost 1psi of air that I didn't intentionally take out.

I haul my kids to school everyday with them, make daily calls to clients' houses, and have made 1000+ mile trips to CA and back.

I rarely even carry my spare anymore.

My biggest complaint is that they are loud. I doubt that would be the case with the Wardens though.

[plaen]

We live in Wisconsin at the moment, but are in the middle of planning a move to Colorado.

I'm from the Denver metro and there is a few guys down south in the springs. When you get out here, could see about arranging a little offroad trip with a few of us on here.

[2005TB]

I wish tax returns would just deposit already so that instead if tossing and turning in my head I could just click checkout.

I'm trying to hold off the hubby long enough without spoiling the surprise too. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to talk about lifts an tires with him and not give it away that I'm in the works.

I will say this, thanks to many people's advice and past experiences, it's getting all done at once.
Struts, shocks, spacers, 3" lift, and tires. And I know he's looking at a roof rack for our trip that way we can strap the spare up there. (We'll be using a rear hitch carrier with Stanley box for extra luggage)

[2005TB]

We live in Wisconsin at the moment, but are in the middle of planning a move to Colorado.

I'm from the Denver metro and there is a few guys down south in the springs. When you get out here, could see about arranging a little offroad trip with a few of us on here.

That would be awesome! We're starting to keep an eye on trails and whatnot posted and check ratings for them

[dvanbramer88]

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=3161

Here, this is probably the best deal in roof racks. Just be warned that the plastic factory cross bars don't hold much weight and mounting a roof rack to them with the supplied brackets is generally weak. guys report that with weight in the rack, (spare tire) the rack will slide left to right no matter how tight you get the cheapo mounting brackets.

Most scrap the factory bars and replace them with steel bars that they bolt directly to the factory channels. Than bolt the roof basket right to the steel bars. Much stronger and it makes the profile of the roof rack lower.

I had pictures but I can't seem to find them atm, but at sears, they sell the materials to build modeler shelving. The bigger of the two sized "rails" for the shelving in the 5 foot length can be had for $11 each. You need 2, cut a little off each one, and some hardware and you're on your way.

[2005TB]

Glad to hear good reviews on it because that's the one were looking at, talked to sears already and can get it sent directly to them to save on shipping

[fishsticks]

If you were closer to WA, I'd sell you the one sitting on the side of my house. Already has steel rails welded to it.