The 235's give the trucks a nicer look and stance.. That was what I had on
my last Dak.. even used the BFG Long Trail T/A. Nice all round tire.. Not
excellent off road.. but did very good. Mine was also a 2wd.
Aaron
----- Original Message -----
From: <raymond.irons@gm.com>
To: <dakota-truck@dakota-truck.net>
Sent: Friday, March 05, 2004 5:46 AM
Subject: DML: Spending too much money on the Dak
>
> Started last week. I bought and installed a set of driving lights. I went
> the inexpensive route and got the ones that mount on top of the bumper.
> They look pretty good and work well so I'm very pleased with how that
> project turned out. While I was in the process of that install I noticed
> the front tires are almost worn out on the outer edge of the tire. I
> figured since the truck has over 118K miles on it with the factory shocks
> still on, I might start consider changing them. I know, take me out and
> shoot me, I bought the Gabriel LT gas shocks at AZ for all 4 corners. I
did
> the fronts first. While I had the truck up on the jack stands, I checked
> the play on the ball joints. It seems like its ok to me but then again,
I'm
> just a shade tree mechanic. Anyway, I did the front shocks first. Drivers
> side shock compressed easily and rebounded very slowly. Passengers side,
> well lets just say I'm still waiting for it to rebound even a little!
since
> the passengers side tire was the worse for wear of the two, I'm guessing
> the shocks might have been the major culprit. now I know some of you out
> there are asking me "Why didn't you rotate the tires dummy?" Cause I had
> street tread (badyear wrangler rts) tires on the front and snow tread
> (firestone firehawk atx) tires on the back that's why. Back two shocks
were
> both rebounding nicely, but they compressed wayyy to easy. I figured since
> I was looking at my front tires I should probably do a close inspecting of
> the rears as well. I noticed a good bit of dryrot and cracking in the
> sidewalls of the rear tires. Got the truck off the jacks and took it out
> for a test spin. Wow, what a difference, I'm tickled with it. So my next
> step will be hopefully completed this afternoon. I ordered 4 new tires for
> it. I went with the Cooper Discoverer Radial. I got a really good price of
> $350 for all 4, mounted and balanced, new valve stems, disposal of the old
> tires, tire service agreement, and lifetime rotation, all the good jazz. I
> swear looking at the tread pattern, those are the same molds goodyear use
> to have for the wrangler radial back in the mid to late 80's. I had a set
> of those tires on an old Bronco I used to own and I really liked them. I'm
> stepping the size up to the optional size offered for my truck, from
> 215/75R15 to 235/75R15. Since this is only a 2wd truck, I didn't want to
> go overly aggressive on the tread and I wanted to be able to rotate the
> tires as well. While its in the shop for the tire install, I'm going to
ask
> the mechanic to double check the ball joints for me and see what he
thinks.
> I know I have a control arm bushing that's about due for replacement. I
> will change that out this summer and I'm hoping the ball joints will be ok
> till then. Being retired USAF, I'm getting the tires through the base
> exchange and I saved enough on the tire deal to pay for a front end
> alignment. So all together, I've spent over $500 on my truck in this past
> week and a half and I'm hoping that's all I need to spend for a month or
> so. Especially since I getting laid off from GM (again) for a month
> starting Monday. Since the beginning of the year, we've only run the
plant,
> including today, 15 days total. Oh well, guess I'm really glad I got that
> part time gig at AutoZone!
>
>
>
> Ray Irons
> Dover, DE
>
>
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