Best way to rdevelop rear end rake and tire stance question

What the best way to get rake from back end? Adjustable air shocks?

Not looking for extensive work in order to do so. Would love to have it lower all around and see people flipping the springs, removing a spring etc. I don't want to sacrifice ride quality if possible. Looking for best of both worlds and nothing involving hours of labor.

In terms of staggering tires using 15", any suggestions on tire size combo that gives a subtle wider appearance in back? Not looking for a pro street look or anything close to it. I have the disk brake conversion installed up front.

I'm open to spacers, etc but still trying to wrap my head around the whole offset thing. I'm not a fan of a big difference in tire size and I would prefer to be able to rotate tires front to back while still achieving the look of more width in back. Not sure if or how that's possible?

If you want a wider look without messing with tire size, fudging with the back spacing is about all you can do. Spacers on the back would be the only thing I can think of that would let you keep front and rear wheels the same. Adding lift to the back? and keeping ride, short blocks between spring and axle would be an easy way. But if you want to keep the tires inside the wheel well lip I don't see the advantage. M2C

Digz wrote:If you want a wider look without messing with tire size, fudging with the back spacing is about all you can do. Spacers on the back would be the only thing I can think of that would let you keep front and rear wheels the same. Adding lift to the back? and keeping ride, short blocks between spring and axle would be an easy way. But if you want to keep the tires inside the wheel well lip I don't see the advantage. M2C

Joe, I don't necessarily need to keep the tires inside the lip. I figured they would stand out a touch. This is my first time messing with anything like this, so all new to me.

Not sure what you are saying regarding lift in the rear. Are you saying not good for right quality? I wasnt' thinking shorter tires up front in order to give a raked look. Wasn't really sure how most folks were accomplishing that part of the equation.

I think Bill's silver van has a great look and I think he may have told me he messed with backspacing in the rear.

The ability to rotate seems like a good thing if I actually get to drive the wheels off this like I always wanted to. Otherwise, not sure how long BFG's will last if not rotated or abused.

Lazarus, offset or backspacing (interchangeable, pretty much) is how far inside or outside the face of the wheel is in relation to the center of the "hoop" of the wheel.

For example, a +42 offset would mean the face of the wheel is +42mm to the outside. A -42 offset would be -42 to the outside.

see picture for reference.

http://cocomponents.com/dealer/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/ATV-Wheel-Offset-Explaination.jpg

Also, backspacing. Look at that picture one more time! The red numbers are backspacing. Lets say you have a wheel with 4.5" of backspacing. This means if you laid the wheel on the ground face up, the distance between the ground and the mounting center is 4.5". Its what the word is, space on the back of the wheel. Americans normally say backspace, Import crowd usually uses offset. Not sure why?

Lift Blocks.

Lift blocks (or drop blocks) go between the spring perch and spring on our leaf sprung vans. The perch is what the spring mounts to and touches on the axle. You can buy a set of blocks at your local parts store. They come in sizes 1",2", 3", etc. Maybe some in-between sizes. You disconnect the spring from the axle by taking the nuts off the U-Bolts and removing them. Let the axle drop enough to put block in, install block and use the new longer U-Bolts. A lift block lifts the back of a car when the axle is below the spring, like our vans. If the axle is above the spring, (like mine) it would push the axle up lowering the van. These are the cheapest way to raise your van. But keep it mind, using a super tall block may cause spring wrap when you go to accelerate hard. But a 1 or 2" block would be fine!

Another way to raise the van would be to Re-Arch the springs. This would entail taking the springs out, sending them to shop that can add arch to the spring, and then re-installing. From what I read, thats seems like too much work. A block would be perfect for you.

A block would also allow you to run wider wheels in the rear since the wheel will be below the fender lip.
If you have a low backspace on the rear wheel and regular on the front with same size tire all around it would look mean from the front/side, but may look odd from the rear since the wheel pokes out but is not wide. My advice, get staggered tires/wheels. You can swap wheels side to side instead of rotate, and you should be fine. With that comes you will need 2 spares, or be like me and have 1 spare and make sure it fits front and back and is only used to get to the nearest tire shop. I have a donut spare out of a newer altima, lol. Saves space inside. It is 4" shorter than my rear tires and 1" than my fronts. Yes, I have a posi and that will get messed up with different sized tires, but not in a mile or two to the nearest tire shop.

If you do want to go with the same size wheel front and back and just want different backspace on the rear, I would suggest getting regular wheels for the front. (15x6, 15x7, or 14s, whatever you prefer.) and then doing a reverse wheel in the rear. A reverse wheel is pretty much if you take a regular spaced wheel and put it on backwards so it has a big lip. Lowrider cars use these.

See picture.

http://www.calchrome.com/images/steel_wheel_reverse.jpg

VB has it covered ! Billski is actually running fairly wide tires up front also. I do not remember the stats on the rims and tires tho.

Seems like Billski also running a bigger rim now,16-18 in.??

Thanks for the info, Blaino. It's becoming clearer to me now.

Regarding adjustable air shocks, which I was considering for the rear anyhow, would they make any noticeable difference?

And, when flipping the axle to the top to acheive lowered height, does it or should it negatively affect ride quality?

I'd rather stagger the sizes of the front and rear tires to get a proper stance than to modify the van......I'm not sure you can even get a "right" look without staggering tire size.....

Call the Summit Racing guys. they will help you with the right wheel size and offset. I replaced the stock 14' wheels with 15' steel wheels from Summit.