This weekend was the first trip after I installed the lift kit and moved up to 15" tires. There were no issues and I didn't notice any difference in ride or handling. However, I did find a couple of tight clearances that I hadn't thought about before doing the upgrade, along with one other issue.
1) Putting a 15" spare on the old-style bumper carrier reduces the clearance to the aft shell when opening or closing the trailer. There was only about a finger's width of clearance as the shell moved over the spare. If there had been interference here, I suppose I would have had to re-work the spare tire carrier to regain clearance.
2) There is also only about a finger's width of clearance between the tire sidewall and the wheel well skirts. I checked it carefully each time we stopped and I saw no evidence of any rubbing so presumably it's OK. If I see evidence of rubbing I suppose I'll have to trim down the skirts. If one of the tires develops a sidewall bubble it could get ugly. For what it's worth, I have no idea what the clearance was here with the original 14" tires. Maybe it was the same.
3) When I went to check the tire pressure before the trip, I found out that my trusty dial gauge only goes up to 60 psia (need to inflate the new tires to 65). My closest auto parts store did not have any dial gauges that went higher, I was forced to buy a cheap plastic digital one with a non-replaceable battery
. I'll be looking for a dial gauge with a bigger range online.
15" upgrade on older TMs
Threaded Mode
