I took a wheel off today to check my brakes to see when new ones would be needed. They are good but I noticed that my driver side control arm is rubbing pretty bad on my tire. I have 265/75/16 Cooper ST on the 16x7 stock teardrops. I was curious if anyone else had any similar rubbing issuses. I am a completely stock height truck. Thanks everyone!!!

 

Ball joints?

 

Wow....I think I stumped Bob. Guess at 64k it is time for ball joints.

 

Is it like a glaze on the tires? If os, I've had that forever (since 31s and 32s). I just did my ball joints at 63k, make sure you have the right tools, and a LOT of patience if you have a 4wd! I tried to avoid taking the CV out as much as possible, and it is possible...just a HUGE PITA!

 

Yeah it pretty much a glaze on the tires. And some of the rubber is balled up from where the raised lettering is rubbed off and smeared down the rest of the tire. Itz pretty nasty lookin

 

Not sure if you need to worry, I had that for at least 35k...nothing yet but shiny tires!

 

I am gonna keep an eye on it.

 

I have the same problem....but on both sides. I did my brakes and can't understand why my 265/75R16s w/ stock teardrops are rubbing. What the truck in sitting, no rub, no rub w/ all turn either. Now I've got a weird clunk from the front end when I turn.

Ball joints are the problem??? @ 45k????

 

my 32x11.5's rub there also...

 

First of all, notice that I used a question mark after "ball joints"

If the problem wasn't there before, then something must have changed in the relationship between the tire and the control arm. Stock Ranger ball joints are not the ultimate, so that's why i asked the question.

Then again, maybe nothing has changed except the way Luke is using his truck. If the amount and/or severity of off roading has increased (Centralia, for example), he may be using different combinations of wheel travel and steering angle, increasing the rubbing. His tires are larger than anything Ford has ever installed on a Ranger from the factory so rubbing shouldn't be too surprising.

 

Well it seems that I am not the only one who has this problem with tires this size. I will just make sure to keep an eye on it. I just always suspected that it would rub on the frame or mudflaps if at all and I have no problems in those areas yet. I think a different wheel with less back spacing will help but then who knows what else will rub. Oh well, no biggie I guess.

 

I think the large backspacing of the stock wheels contribute. Probably with aftermarket wheels there isn't a problem with the larger tires.

Now that I think of it, I saw signs of that on my 31's when I had the factory wheels on. But I don't see it now, and I don't think it happened at all with the 15x8 Mickey Thompsons on.

 

I am gonna look into some 16x8 crager soft 8s I think. I want black and am gonna get 16s because my tires are brand new. I guess I will try to talk my dad into 2 or 3 of them for christmas.