Rear wheels off center?

[J Ski]

anyone running a 3/2 kit that noticed the rear wheels sit off centered inside the wheel well viewing vehicle from the side post installation? Just curious as to what might cause this

 

[gixer2000]

Its the way the rear suspension pivots and lifting the rear also drives the rear wheels forward

 

[Rigpig]

It also pushes the front wheels rearward, just the geometry of the suspension. Once you put bigger tires and offset wheels on it, it isn't as noticeable. Every leveling kit on every vehicle with independent suspension does this, BTW.

 

[J Ski]

It also pushes the front wheels rearward, just the geometry of the suspension. Once you put bigger tires and offset wheels on it, it isn't as noticeable. Every leveling kit on every vehicle with independent suspension does this, BTW.

Thanks! I'll be running stock wheels and 275/55/20s until I need new tires but will be looking for either 295/60/20 or 295/65/20 sometime later this year

 

[crector080862]

So I have a question is there a fix for this can you get longer trailing arms

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

 

[gixer2000]

So I have a question is there a fix for this can you get longer trailing arms

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Ive never seen anything to allow the wheels to move back to center.

 

[briandye]

I have the 3/2 lift, 35" Nitto's on factory 20's. The front to my eye looks almost perfectly centered in the wheel well, but the back sits a stupid amount forward. It drives me nuts. I noticed right off the bat, but after one friend pointed it out, its eating at me. Id love to see someone come up with some modification to move them back.

 

[Adieu]

Rear suspension is at an angle

Lift kits push wheels out of the center of the wheel well

 

[AllBoostNoEco]

The way the suspension is designed, the rear wheels move in an arc from a pivot just in front of the wheels. As they move up, they also go forward, and as they compress, they move backward. If you modified the control arms to re-center the wheels in the wheel wells at lifted height, the geometry would be all wrong, therefore causing them to hit the back of the wheel well when the suspension compressed over bumps or when carrying weight.
You’d have to redo the entire suspension and lower the pivot points in order to prevent that from happening.

 

[sjwelds]

And this is the biggest reason why I don't like the looks of these trucks lifted. This and the fact that I like my wheel well gap to be the same front to rear. Personal opinion, don't flame me.

 

[Adieu]

And this is the biggest reason why I don't like the looks of these trucks lifted. This and the fact that I like my wheel well gap to be the same front to rear. Personal opinion, don't flame me.

Boys and girls, we have ourselves a heretic hiding in our midst

 

[LRNAD90]

The way the suspension is designed, the rear wheels move in an arc from a pivot just in front of the wheels. As they move up, they also go forward, and as they compress, they move backward. If you modified the control arms to re-center the wheels in the wheel wells at lifted height, the geometry would be all wrong, therefore causing them to hit the back of the wheel well when the suspension compressed over bumps or when carrying weight.

You’d have to redo the entire suspension and lower the pivot points in order to prevent that from happening.

Yup. There are solutions to everything, but just like the original design, they have compromises. The rear axle has an upper and lower trailing link, and as they swing down (suspension droops), the axle assembly moves forward, and as the swing up (suspension compression) the Axle moves rearward. For this not to happen, and the axle to stay in the same place front to rear would require these links to vary in length throughout the suspension travel, not very practical.

You could compensate for the static position after lift by fitting longer trailing arms, but as AllBoostNoEco mentions, then you run the risk of the tire contacting the rear of the wheel opening or other hard parts on severe compression. Of course, when you use a spacer lift like are most commonly available, your fully compressed position is two inches lower than it was from the factory. Without working numbers its impossible to tell, but I’d venture a guess that you could run longer and/or adjustable length arms to center the wheel at static load, and *probably* not run into interference on compression, since compression is reduced anyway.

So why don’t longer arms exist? Maybe my ‘back of a napkin’/’in my head’ calculations are wrong, and there become interference issues.. Maybe there is just not demand enough of a market for it to be profitable? I dunno, you decide..

 

[LRNAD90]

Yup. There are solutions to everything, but just like the original design, they have compromises. The rear axle has an upper and lower trailing link, and as they swing down (suspension droops), the axle assembly moves forward, and as the swing up (suspension compression) the Axle moves rearward. For this not to happen, and the axle to stay in the same place front to rear would require these links to vary in length throughout the suspension travel, not very practical.

You could compensate for the static position after lift by fitting longer trailing arms, but as AllBoostNoEco mentions, then you run the risk of the tire contacting the rear of the wheel opening or other hard parts on severe compression. Of course, when you use a spacer lift like are most commonly available, your fully compressed position is two inches lower than it was from the factory. Without working numbers its impossible to tell, but I’d venture a guess that you could run longer and/or adjustable length arms to center the wheel at static load, and *probably* not run into interference on compression, since Compression is reduced anyway.

So why don’t longer arms exist? Maybe my ‘back of a napkin’/’in my head’ calculations are wrong, and there become interference issues.. Maybe there is just not deemed enough of a market for it to be profitable? I dunno, you decide..

 

[Adieu]

Probably because screwing too much with suspension geometry could inadvertently cause safety issues and unnecessary liability for the manufacturer