[RockyMtnRay]

Originally Posted by fcatwo

Good info Ray. JOTTOMH, and from a poor-man's standpoint, could 10% smaller tires accomplish the same thing? I know you people that live in snow country don't want to be closer to the ground but some of us don't see much snow. Personally, I wouldn't mind our truck being a little lower.

Yes, smaller tires would do the same thing as regearing for small (~10% changes). There are a variety of tire size calculators available on the 'Net to help you determine the best size. Normally, the easiest way to do it is to reduce the aspect ratio (e.g. substitute a 50 to 60 series tire for the stock 70 series). You can also, to a degree, use a narrow tire (e.g. use a 245 tire instead of a 265 width tire). There a few considerations however:

• Be wary of getting too narrow a tire for the rim.
• Lower aspect ratio means less sidewall height to absorb road shock. The tire will be rougher riding and a really sharp blow (e.g. deep pothole) could actually damage the rim.
• Reduced ground clearance.
• Appearance. The wheel wells were designed to look right with the stock tire size. Go much smaller and the tires won't look at all right.
• Load capacity. A smaller tire may have too little capacity.
• For those with limited slip differentials, the spare should also be changed to the new size. Otherwise if a rear tire has a flat, to avoid destroying the clutches in the LSD a front tire would have to be moved to the rear and the spare put on the front.