Basic Truck Info:
I have 2004 4x4 Edge w/ stock 16x7 rims with 5 inches of backspacing. 245/75 tires. I do not currently have a lift and have not cranked the t-bars.

New Tire Info:
I bought 15x8 MB Motoring Overdrive rims w/ 3.75 inch backspacing. The new tires are 33x12.5 BFG AT KO's.

Issues;
My concern about fitment was really only in the front, I was worried about the width of the tire and rubbing on the inside of the fender well. With the backspacing difference, the tires stick out far enough that they do not rub anything inside with just a very slow test drive, and mild bumps. I also turned the wheel as far as I could to see if they hit anything... see video at end.

I am a little concerned with how close the tires come to the fenders and the bumper when the wheel is being turned. It is about an inch away. Am I going to tear into my fenders if I'm turning and hit a bump?

Also, the angle the tire sits at is weird. I don't know the technical term, but basically it sticks out more at the bottom and leans inward at the top. Shown in the 4th and 5th pics. It does this a little w/ the stock wheels/tires, but not this bad, and it's been aligned. Would cranking my t-bars fix this (straighten it out) or make it worse?

My other concern: They are smaller diameter rims.. and have balancing weights on the inside and outside of the rim. The innermost part, closest to the engine, sounds and looks like it is rubbing on the caliper for my front brakes. They were only double sided taped on, and it looks like when I went for my test drive, I rubbed the top layer off.
With only maybe 1/4" between the caliper and rim and even less between the caliper and the balancing weight.. am I going to run into issues and rip my calipers off or damage them from the rubbing?

I haven't cranked my t-bars, and I'm not sure I even know exactly how, even after searching. Lots of pics, bear with me... my camera kept dying while taking pics, so some are cell phone pics. USB on the power inverter FTW, haha.

Anyway, lot of pics here, and a video of the wheel turning side to side to show how close it comes to hitting the fender and bumper.

Let me know what you think, any concerns, issues, advice, etc. I just want to make sure I'm not going to mess up my truck by running these wheels. Here we go w/ the pics.





















Is this the bolt I turn to crank the torsion bars? It has a black bar about 8-9 inches long above the lower control arm... I'm assuming this is the torsion bar.. but what do I know, haha.


And... the video of the wheels turning

 

Ok I might miss something cause you've got a lot going on. Cranking the bars will have the opposite effect that you want on your tire and make it worse. I would crank the bars as far as you want and then go have the alignment checked. The bolt your looking at is for the sway bar. The bolt you want is further back kinda under the doors. The weight issue wont hurt your caliper but may pull your weight off throwing your wheel out of balance. I would take them back to whoever put them on and tell them to put the weights on the out side of the rim.

 

Yea, I didn't think I had the right idea on the t-bar. Couldn't find any good pics through searching on which bolt, nut, bar... or whatever to wrench on. Figured if I could get that figured out, crank em a bit, then when I go for an alignment, I could have em balance it, moving the weights so they won't come into contact with the caliper, and the little bit of lift might help keep the tires away from the fenders. The calipers rubbing is my biggest concern out of all of it.

 

Crank the bars, get and alignment, re-balance the rims, and youll be good to go

 

So the 15x8's are ok to run where the 16x7's used to be? I know this has to have been done by lots of people on here. And if anybody has any better detailed pics on how to crank the t-bars than the ones they have on the ranger station tech library, that would be helpful.

 

The bolt is right here, and the rims are fine if the calipers dont rub the actual rim, then you would have to shave the caliper a bit

 

Ah, so it's on that long *** horizontal bar. I'm gonna go out with a flashlight and crawl under the truck, haha.

 

Calipers will not rub you are fine on that you just cant have stick on weights near the caliper you have to mount them way inside the wheel close to the face for clearance

 

I can't quite tell from the pics, but it looks like the tire shop stacked the strips of weights on top of each other? If they need lots of weight you might have some luck by having them break the tire loose from the bead and rotating it on the rim 180 degrees. sometimes when the tire is mounted you end up with the heavy end of the tire inline with the heavy end of the rim. Many times with larger tires you can get away with less wheel weights by doing this.

 

Yes, that's exactly what they did. They used a double sided foam tape to stack the weights, the caliper took the top layer off. That's where you can see the white foam in the last few pictures. I did the find how to adjust the torsion bars. So, I'll have to give that a try to give a little more clearance in there.

 

I guess my last question would be... how many people are running 33x12.5's on stock height with just the t-bar crank, and what limitations they have run into. I don't do much wheeling, but I don't want to be prevented from doing so. Also, anybody know about how much it costs to get your speedo calibrated for the new size tires?

 

Go to the dealership to have it recalibrated, it doesn't cost much.

As for the tires, you will end up rubbing the swaybar. Everyone runs 33x12.50 with BL's or SL's. I'd assume you're going to have rubbing issues.