73shark

You said your 20 inch wheels with +10 offset are rubbing but you never said what the stock wheel offset is. I suspect +10 may be too much.

JCUMV

My understanding of offset is the the higher the positive number, the further into the wheel well the tire/wheel sits. The +10 offset has the a good 2" of tire/wheel sitting outside the fender. So when you turn the steering wheel, the tire is rubbing the plastic fender well closer to the outside edge.

My contact has order a Fuel Offroad wheel that is a +20 offset which should make it sit further into the wheel well. Of course, now you risk rubbing against the inner suspension, but we'll cross that bridge this weekend when I go there for a trial fit.

As far as the stock wheels go, I don't know what their offset is.

73shark

You can easily measure it if you know the wheel width. It's the distance from the inside of the mounting surface to the center of the wheel width.

zold1

I had the same problem with mine, I got the 1/2 ton keys for the torsion bar, these keys are indexed differently. It not a bad job to change them. I went back to 17's cause the tires were still like new. I put Hummer wheels with the factory GM caps, no rubbing after the key swap. I was worried about getting the tires stolen off the truck, wanted something different with the factory look. I have seen 20"s on a 3/4 ton, with the different keys. Hope this helps!

zold1

1010TIRES.COM - Wheel Offset Calculator Try this sit it might help!

JCUMV

I'm back to fill you all in on how this project turned out. I appreciate all the help you guys gave me, and if somebody else is in this situation I'm hoping this thread and update will help them.

If you have a 3/4 ton burb and want 20" wheels, this is no small chore. Something to remember is that this is my wife's primary vehicle, so lifting it was not in the cards. So doing this under that constraint is what made things tough.

When I started on this adventure, I didn't realize that I would have to run Load Range E tires, and this became the main source of my issues (see post #7). In the end, I wound up with Good Year SR-A 265/60/20 tires. They are the ONLY 265/xx/20 E load tire on the market. The 285 nitto grapplers rubbed so bad that I'm not sure a 3" lift would have made them clear. Funny thing was that the Americas Tire computer said the Nittos would fit on stock suspension. They weren't even close. FYI, there are no 275/xx/20 tires on the market in E range.

The wheels are Fuel Offroad Maverick D536. This was also not an easy thing. I started with the +10mm offset and they sat too far out in the front wheel well causing them to still rub a lot. We had to send them back and order the +20mm offset. Turns out there are VERY few 20" 8 lug chrome +20mm (or greater) offset wheels on the market. The +10mm's are pretty common, but it's slim pickings if you go higher than that. They fit nicely (after the small lift, see below paragraph), but still required a very small amount of wheel plastic trimming on the drivers side along the bottom.

We ended up needing to lift the front to relieve the rubbing. I was disappointed by this, but it was either that or trim a lot more off the plastic wheel well, and I wanted to keep the wheel wells as stock as possible. My buddy at Americas Tire recommended an alignment shop down the street. We called the owner together and he said this could most easily be achieved by tightening down the torsion bars a bit. So I went down there; we put it on the lift. All said and done, he only needed to lift the front 1.5 inches. I'm not a fan of that 'pre-runner' look where the front is a foot higher than the rear, so I watched like a hawk while he tightened the torsion bars, and told him to stop as soon as we were high enough. Torsion bar tightening was another area where I did a lot of research here on this Forum about whether or not this was a good idea. As you'd expect, people were on both sides of the isle. Here is my observation... the burb drives and turns just great. But hit a pot hole or take a speed bump at the speed you were used to (with the stock height) and you can really feel the difference. It's not pretty. I don't believe it's hurting the vehicle at all, but I'd prefer a smoother travel. So I'll likely look into different keys, shock mounts, and bilsteins at some point early next year.

I love the look of my Suburban now! The late model 2500's are so rare, and to see them with 20" wheels is almost like trying to spot a unicorn. In the 3 weeks I've had the wheels on, I've had 2 people approach me in parking lots saying, "that's a 2500, right?! How'd you get those wheels to fit?" Pretty cool. Now to find my boat!

Before:


After:

intheburbs

Wow. That looks great. Nice job. Now you've got me thinking.....

Anyways, in regards to shocks - I wanted to upgrade because I wasn't satisfied with the ride when towing my travel trailer. Too squishy, and too much rebound on big bumps/rises. I bought the Bilstein 4600HD shocks for all four corners. Made a HUGE difference in the ride and control. I highly recommend them. Think I paid ~$75 each online.

Aha! Found it. $56.93 each. CLICK HERE

zold1

Did you change the mirrors also? The wheels look great, the extra firmness in the suspension is a result of the tightening of the torsion bars. This is where the keys and the index of the plays such an important part. It looks really good with the wheels and tire package!!

JCUMV

@ intheburbs - Hadn't looked at the 4600's. The alignment guy told me Biltein 5100's. Any thoughts on those? I like the price of 4600's better! Thanks for the link.

@zold1 - Yes, I changed out the mirrors. Again, this is my wife's primary vehicle for carting the kids around. And it's the full time driver on weekends. She didn't like the trailer mirrors... too bid, too heavy. We have to fold in the drivers side mirror to get the Burb in the garage, so changing to the stock mirrors helped that a lot.
I hear you on the keys. I have your PM and will look into the torsion keys in more detail. I can tell I have a lot of homework to do on this front end lift thing.

zold1

Yea, a lot of home work, but you got a "A". Now you are going to make me look at 20's Private message me your E-Mail address, I have a few questions. Thanks, and it looks outstanding!!