whats the biggest tire with the air ride 4bar rear suspension

[grimmey71]

I am getting close to getting ready to install the air ride rear suspension(using coil overs from reilly's) and would like to know whats the widest tire people have used with this set up. The car is still on a rotisery so if I need sheet metal work now would be the time.  I have tried to find some used 335's or 315's for mock up purposes but am still looking. And whats the largest tire people are running with with an alterkation front end

[leithal]

I too will be installing the air ride suspension when I can get started on my project cuda.  My thought is to go with a 19" or 20" X 12".  It seems that other have been able to accomplish this with the air ride.  Hopefully someone who has done this will chime in.  Just curious...why did you go with the coil overs vs. the air bags?

[grimmey71]

I went with the coil springs over the air suspension for couple reasons.  Its a whole lot cheaper, and its very simple to install. The air ride is not out of the question for a later time as I would love the ease of adjustabilty but for right now the price savings were the major reason.  I spoke to the guys at xv today and they told me they fit the 335's with a fender roll only, nothing else on their level II kit.  i was kinda of hoping for some real world guys answers. 
 
 by the way the keisler booth at mopar nationals had viper and charger srt style wheels with our bolt pattern avail in the sizes your thinking.

[MoparCar]

Several guys on the board are in the process. I think the lower control arms need to be moved against the frame rails for 335's. Also the wheelwells on Challengers may be about an inch wider than a cuda from the fender lip in?

Hopefully the members with their projects to this point will chime in. Look up conv340 and Travis72's resto threads. I think there are a couple more.

Wes

[leithal]

Moparcar,

Yeah it seems like someone shimmed the lower control arm so that it would be as close as possible to the frame rails.  It would still seem that to get the low stance with wide tire look one would have to bring the outside inner fender well closer to the quarter panel.  My car has the quarters already cut out and it just seems that the outer section of the wheel well tapers too much to allow a wide tire when lowered.

[Confederate Cuda]

I have the airbar setup on my car and I use 295 but could have gotten 315's but it is hard to find tires in that size. I left the lower bar in the stock position and have about 3/4 of an inch between it and the tire. You are correct that you will need atleast 1/2 - 3/4 of an inch on the outside lip if you want to slam the car down as it will hit the wheel housing radius. I also used a 35 series profile to get the car even lower. You can look at 340conv car. He welded the lower control bar bracket against the frame and was able to get 335's in there.
Good luck

[leithal]

Did 340conv alter his wheel housing?  I plan to do the same thing with the bracket and use original style wheel housings but just add strips of metal here and there to keep the stock look.  I was thinking of altering the outside radius to bring the wheelhouse as close as possible to the quarter panel but keep it looking stock from the trunk.

[Confederate Cuda]

I think Conv340 fabricated his own wheel housings. Anything that you can do to move it closer to the quarter will help.   

[Travis72]

Grimmey,

Do you have a Cuda or Challenger?  Like Wes said, I've heard that the Challenger has slightly larger wheelwells.  On my Cuda, the 335 was pretty tight in the stock wheelwell and this was without any suspension on the Cuda (it filled the whole wheelwell).  With the lower bars in the stock position, you *might* be able to fit 315s, but I'm not sure.  The problem is you can't "shim" the lower control arm over like XV did, because there are no spacers between the arm and the bracket on the Air Ride control arms (XV has different lower control arms).  The bushing fills out the whole bracket (see attached picture).  So that being said, you do gain around 3/4" - 1" just because it's a round bar versus a leaf spring.  If you move the front mount over to the frame then you can gain around 2" (you can see the original leaf spring mount holes in the picture).

If you're willing to pay shipping, I could send you a 335/30/18 that you could use for mockup purposes.  Send me a PM or email if you're interested.

Travis
72 Cuda

[cudacam]

I test fit a 315/40/19 tire on my cuda with the air bar.  It filled up the stock well nicely.  I do have Dr. diffs 1" relocate hangers to move the control arm in some more.  I ended up with 295/40/18 just for cost reasons.  Custom 19 x 11" wheels were cost prohibitive for me.

[grimmey71]

hey travis thanks for all the info ..i tried going over your past posts and most of the pictures are gone.  ...also cudacam is that 315 with the dr.diff kit or before you installed it.  the way things are going I will probably start cutting the inner fenders for room and go from there.  I know this sounds lazy but i wanted to do as little work as possible with the biggest meats posssible

[cudacam]

The 315 test fit was with the Dr. diff hanger.  It looked pretty good.  I'll post some pics when I get on my home pc.

[leithal]

grimmey71,

How are you going to approach the inner fenders?  I was thinking of moving the inners over about 1" and then reshaping the outers to be closer to the quarter panels.

[grimmey71]

leithal  at this point I am all over the map......I am thinking of what ever is easiest at this point.. I am considering reshaping the inners, by cutting bending the originals then filling in the rest with strips of metal,  plastic would be trick, or maybe even buying some tub kits and using them ..but right now i am on stand by until i get some mock up tires to see how much I have to do.

[gkring]

Grimmey,


If you're willing to pay shipping, I could send you a 335/30/18 that you could use for mockup purposes.  Send me a PM or email if you're interested.

Travis
72 Cuda

I'll take that tire if he doesn't. I am trying the XV stuff on my challenger vert and really want to check that headroom with the car at ride height. Right now it looks good, but you never know until you actually put a tire up in there. Plenty of side to side room. i used the XV lower arms with the dr diff relocation kit. Pics are in the suspension section.
http://www.cuda-challenger.com/cc/index.php?topic=42929.0