Chevy & GMC Vans

I've been mulling this around in my head for a couple weeks now. I was looking at Grumpy and my wife's Jeep and how much bigger her wheel wells are and it got me thinking. What if I forgo a lift kit and increase the fender well's radius by 1.5" to match the Jeep's size?. I'd still crank out the torsion bar and probably add an inch block spacer in the rear as Grumpy has 4 leafs in the rear and already sits an inch higher. Might need wheel spacers too.

What do you guys think? Am I a crazed mad man, or could this work?

Well......if you go that route,there would be no goin' back

It's Grumpy, don't need to worry about going back.

Cutting out the fenders is the best way to install larger tires without raising the center of gravity any more than tire diameter difference. The problem with cutting is you don't gain any ground clearance. If you are just doing dirt roads or rally type racing, you don't need or necessarily want more ground clearance. If you are running through mud or rock covered trails you MUST raise the van up for clearance.

I'm gonna have to take measurements. I want to be able to take the same trails as my wife in her Liberty, while keeping as low as possible.

Always loved the look of Baja and Trophy trucks, big and low.

I know this is an old post,. but I was thinking the same thing as the OP. If you're going to spend $745 for O.Lands 4" lift and then shocks, steering shaft, etc. Just to get 31x10.5's on there, then why not cut out the fender wells, add Jeep style fender lips I've seen in the catalogs. If you go with say a 33" tire on a 16" rim then in my case ('95 AWD 15" rim with 26" tires) I would gain 8" divided by 2 = 4" inches of ground clearance for the chassis AND body without changing anything else. If you're buying AT tires, lifting, etc. then you're already making mods/spending the $$. Spend the lift kit savings on bigger tires, fender shrouds and sawsall blades.

Has anybody done this? Am I missing something?

I would think your turning radius would be affected since you wouldn't be able to turn the wheel all the way with out hitting the inside edge....

I've had these same disturbing thoughts: keeping my current suspension lift, do some cutting and add 32 or 33 inch tires. But I quickly shew those thoughts out of my head.

How much room is there before you hit the front doors?

Its time to turn Grumpy into the first Astro Trophy Truck, sponsored by Team ASV and Red Bull, of course!


Question: Technically speaking, is "ground clearence" one measurement of the lowest point, or more of a combination of measurements that includes, lowest point overall clearence, break over clearence, and approach angles?

Why you want a suspension lift, too:
http://www.off-road.com/trucks4x4/artic ... ?id=429856

Break over increased with OLand's lift kit.

Ground clearance is measured from the lowest point on the vehicle. Usually the bottom of the transmission.

I mean this is a legit way of building an offroad vehicle. Really it all comes down to purpose. If you wanna go down rugged trails and through rock fields and mud then you need the lift as it helps with articulation as well. But if you just wanna bomb down some gravel roads or dirt roads rally style then ya this is pretty much the thing to do.

The real difference between this and the usual sub frame spacer method used on these vans is effort. Either your cutting up the wheel wells or spacing the sub frame and the interesting part is the sub frame and engine and such stay at the same height no matter the method( when the same sized tires are fit).

Of course it will work, but in my personal opinion I think it would look like crap. Our vans don't have much for body styling and the fenders are pretty much it for the side of the van. Cut those down and you'll be driving a box. If you do go this route I suggest fabbing up some fender flares.

Are you talking about cutting the fender lip out and then replacing it with a fender flare? I would imagine you could fit the tire in there, but the turning radius would suffer unless there is some spaces on there... not sure how close it would be to the front and rear of the front wheel well. There doesn't seem to be that much room as is.

Absolutely getting a snorkel!

And yes those are what I mean about fender flares.

Turning radius could be somewhat mitigated with increased rim offset. I believe stock is 4.5"? maybe go 5.5"? I was hoping someone had done it.

Insofar as it looking like crap, you may be right, but I'm looking at this as a functional BOV as opposed to some thing to go cruisi'n in.

I'd like a safari rack on top, serious bumper with winch out front, etc. The issue would be with the sliding door. It could be cut in half with the top half hinging at the top and the bottom hinged at the bottom for a clam shell style opening. I saw it done on a limo van. But, of course that would be a huge amount of work.

I weld/fabricate but I'm just not familiar with these vans yet, exploring the possibilities!

I seem to remember a post about modding the slider so it pops out further from the body.

You can outperform the Liberty in a stock AWD. Jeez. You'll probably be able to do that without even exploding the front differential, like the Liberty will.
Liberty...the ruin of Jeep as we knew it.
Now, the new 4 doors are pretty cool. Kinda Cherokee with a removable roof cool.