What we did:
- Upgraded wheels to 16” Alloy Aluminum
- Upgraded tires to BFGoodrich KO2’s
- Trimmed the front wheel wells to fit the tires
Why we did it:
We wanted to add a little bit of lift all around and we wanted all terrain tires that could be put through the ringer on any road we encounter from San Francisco to Ushuaia. It took a little over 3 months and many dead end phone calls to find the wheels that would fit our specs. We are starting to understand why import is synonymous with custom and why custom takes more time. It’s just harder to find and source parts that fit and meet the specs you need.
The Details:
We chose HiSpec trailer wheels because we only had three options and they had the best looking “unfancy” alloy wheel available. We wanted to keep a lower profile on the wheels because we didn’t want to draw any more attention as we travel throughout Central and South America. Only two other manufactures made an aluminum alloy wheel that met the specs: Method and Ion Alloy. There are, however, a plethora of steel wheels from various manufactures, but we wanted less weight.
I researched so many different wheel manufactures and specs, I never want to search for wheels again. Being an imported vehicle, we can’t just look up wheels based on Make and Model. When ever I spoke to a Rep on the phone there was always a very long explanation as to what we were looking for and in the end 9 times out of 10 they couldn’t search for wheels based off of their specs. It was quite the obstacle and I am so happy with our end results.
It wasn’t really difficult to decide on tires as the overwhelming majority of overlanders feedback suggested the KO2’s are the best. We have heard of a few others, but in the end we wanted a tire that we could find fairly easy if needed. We picked them up from Discount Tire. For extra clearance in the wheel well, we trimmed the metal to fit.
Before
Wheel – 15”x6” -4 offset on 6 lug pattern
Tire – 215/80R15
After
Wheel – 16”x6.5” with 0 offset on 6 lug pattern
Tire – 245/75R16
We ended up with a 1” lift from this upgrade. Peso looks so beastly now! Grrr!
Comments
8 CommentsChris Eaves
Jun 16, 2018Don’t know how you guys got those tires to fit. We raised the front 1” and no way. Same set up too. Just ordered a 2” lift. Hope this works. Hope all is well guys.
Lucia Papineau
Jul 21, 2018We also had to to remove the foot steps and mud flaps. The foot steps hit the worst but we didn’t want those on so that was no big deal. The mud flaps were a necessity since we didn’t want mud flinging into our engine compartment. For those we just hammered the brackets flat and were able to mount them a little farther back, but still using the original mounting holes. After this the tire fit well except for the back rear corner of wheel well, which would scrape while turning if we hit a bump while driving. So we cut off a little triangle shaped piece there, roughly about 25mm off and never had it rub again…. for a while lol.
So about 6 months after this modification we were ready to leave on our trip, loaded the van and did a test run to SLC (about 800 mi) and everything on the van was working and running great. We decided we didn’t like the hi lift attached to the rear bumper so I mounted it on the front bumper in SLC. The front bumper ended up being the new home for the jack. About a week after it was mounted we noticed the front end was low and then driving it we definitely knew it had sagged. I removed the hi jack but to no avail. The torsion bars sagged for good and now the front end was too low to fit the tires. They would scrap under articulation and this was on streets not off road. Now we had the choice of re indexing 29 yr old metal or replacing. We opted for replacing with Dobinson hd torsion bars. We replaced the torsion bars and instead of using the torsion bars (like we previously had) for lift, we did a 1” ball joint spacer (from Jesse at Delicaliftkits) and left the torsion bars un cranked. Now the front end was even higher than our original supposedly 1” lift and now was a true 1” front original height the Delica was supposed to sit at.
Lesson learned here for us was that we were working with borrowed time since the metal of the torsion bars were already fatigued and our 1” lift was only lifting 1” from a worn out height. Besides the mud flaps and foot step if you are still getting bad rubbing I would suggest that its probably because your torsion bars are sagging from age and the only way to figure out true numbers and height is either measuring from the center hub to center wheel arch or ground to center wheel arch not the amount lifted from your previous height. That would be the only accurate way to see truly where your van is sitting for height compared to stock height.
Personally, I would try to verify this before lifting too high and see if torsion bars can help. It looks really cool, the higher the lift, but it also wears out steering/drive line components faster the taller you go. I’ve been told that 2” is fine from people that are smarter than myself when it comes to Delica suspension but I also have been told by one of the best Delica techs in North America that 2” will wear your axles and ball joints out prematurely, and he has been working on these specifically for over 30ys (Butch at CVI in B.C.) Where that fine line is I don’t know, but there are tolerances in the engineering of axles. For long life of the components, I wanted to air on the side of caution while traveling for 2 years through remote areas.
If you go the route of torsion bars you can either re index them, find stock ones or HD ones. I wouldn’t recommend the Dobinson bars unless you’re really weighed or hard core off roading. We are extremely heavy and they are almost too stiff for us, but have been life savers in gnarly terrain. The stock ones are supposed to be very heavy duty alone. I feel re indexing is a temp fix, but maybe I’m wrong with that opinion. I also know new ones aren’t that expensive if they are still available. Hope this info helps and everything gets situated nicely with a new beastly look. We are in and out of wifi but please feel free to ask anymore questions and when we get back to around cities I will respond. Oh and curious how were you doing a 2” lift? Ball joint spacer and torsion bars?
brody
Aug 1, 2018but the real question is…how do you use a hilift with these vans!?
Adam
Oct 12, 2018Also wondering this!
brody
Jul 15, 2018looks great. when you say “trim the wheel wells,” do what do you mean?
Lucia Papineau
Jul 28, 2018We cut the bottom corner of the wheel well behind the front tire. Our body is metal at that point so a cutting wheel worked just fine. We cut until the outermost screw on the mud flap so that we could still attach the mud flap. Some Deli’s are plastic bodies at that point so I am not sure what you could do in that case. We’ll try to post a pic soon to show you.
Adam
Oct 12, 2018Love your website guys!
How did the new wheels and tyres affect the ride? Do they slow you down? Make noise on the highways? Put the speedo out of whack?
I’ve been going through the same dramas with sizing down here in Oz, so sick of looking at tyre numbers I think I’ll just copy you! 😉
Cheers
Lucia Papineau
Oct 20, 2018The new tires are a little louder on the road. The size adds weight so it does affect our speed and braking; but that’s just physics. As far as the speedo goes it didn’t affect it enough to make any adjustments. We had it tested and it is near spot on. I think if we had gone any bigger it would’ve caused the speedo to be off.
In hindsight, I think we would have gone with the biggest tires for the 15” wheels. It’s a learning process that’s for sure. We do love the way they handle though. Off road it has been amazing!