Chevy & GMC Vans

Alright so I finally joined up and am excited to be a part of the Astrosafarivans comunity!

I have a '99 AWD that I am currently fabricating a 4" lift for. I am going with welded subframe spacers in the front (probably moving the sub frame forward a little as well). In the rear I am going wiht 2" spring mount drop brackets, 2" longer shackles, and currently a 2" block. Eventually I may replace the rear springs to eliminate the blocks.

I will be running 31-10.5 x 15s most likely Wrangler Duratracs. I also need to be able to run chains since our house in 3/4 of a mile down an unplowed road and we live at 4000 feet in the sierras. I am no stranger to fender well modifications so i am not too worried about the front clearance. The rear fender well clearance shouldn't be an issue either, I may have to move the rear axle a little rearward to increase the clearance with the front of the wheel well.

My concern and question here is with the slider door clearance. I would like to run 8" wide chevy rally rims. Looking at the back spacing and the tire width I believe the slider will contact the tire as it opens. I have done quite a bit of searching on here and there is a lot of talk about this issue but I haven't seen many solutions posted. There must be solutions since I can't imagine soomeone like petey settling for a door that only opens halfway when the rest of his van is so well sorted. What have you guys got?

And of course the obligitory pic:

Welcome to the site, LABBE66. That's a good looking van you've got. Where do you hail from?

I assume you've already checked out the wheel info sticky:
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=44

Maybe you can just shave off some of the plastic trim on the inside of the slider.

Yea I have studied the wheel sticky info and it looks like the 8" rims might work according the that info. BUT someone has to have modified their slider for tire clearance SO how as it done...

I have looked at the slider track mechanism to see if I can just make the door pop out further at the back edge when opened. I don't think I can make it work without significant fabrication.

It depends on the backspace (offset) of the wheel. Why don't you try the wheel on first to see what you have to work with? Maybe you won't need to do anything at all.

I haven't purchased the wheels and tires yet. I am trying to decide between the 7" wide wheels which I know will fit and the 8" wide wheels that may hit the slider. I woould definitely prefer the 8" wheels but I'd like to know what I might be getting myself into if the slider hits...

The Rallyes I have are 8" wide with either a 4 or 4.25" backspace(I can't recall exactly, but it is definitely one of those 2 numbers)...and the rubber is 255/60, which has a section width of 10.03"...a 31x10.50 is a 10.5" section width(the bulge)

My slider opens 90% then it just touches the tire...a slight push but starting to wedge agaist the tire yeilds 95% opening...and I've never tried, but I'm sure I could just push the door all the way open.

Using that math, and if you want your door to open at least 90%(more than adequate I find)...you probably want 4.5" backspace on that 8" rim. They aren't too common.

Loopie, thanks for the post. By my measurements the tire should interfere with the inside of the slider by about 3/4" so that correlates to what you were saying. I think i could replace part of the lower section of the interior panel of the slider with an aluminum panel and make it open all of the way but I knoe there are people out there who have had to do more drastic things that that to make the slider work.