Bought my first truck, help

[ridiqls]

6000KV seems to be the peak as to where the lights put out best performance, anything over it and it starts going down in performance. 7-8000KV are ok...but anything more and its just pure blue and starts to draw cops like moths to a flame.

Ah gotcha.


Maybe you might know the answer to this as well. The current tires on it right now are Dueler H-L 400, size is P245/50R20 120V.
Can I go with 33" wheels without a body lift kit and get the body lift kit later when I have the money? Only reason being one of the tires need replacing ASAP and the other 3 need to be replaced in a few months. If not I'll probably just buy some super cheap no brand tire or a tire shop near my house has used tires with 70% tread on them for like $30 and get all 4 tires when I have the money.

Also, is there a way to know if the truck has been lowered? the owner before the guy i bought it from was into racing stuff and I dont know if it's normal height or if the truck is lowered a tad. In that case, getting a body lift kit may not be the best idea esp if i have to do something about the suspensions. Does anyone know the stock height of the body from the floor? I could just measure it and see if it's right.

 

[Darkrider]

Ah gotcha.


Maybe you might know the answer to this as well. The current tires on it right now are Dueler H-L 400, size is P245/50R20 120V.
Can I go with 33" wheels without a body lift kit and get the body lift kit later when I have the money? Only reason being one of the tires need replacing ASAP and the other 3 need to be replaced in a few months. If not I'll probably just buy some super cheap no brand tire or a tire shop near my house has used tires with 70% tread on them for like $30 and get all 4 tires when I have the money.

Also, is there a way to know if the truck has been lowered? the owner before the guy i bought it from was into racing stuff and I dont know if it's normal height or if the truck is lowered a tad. In that case, getting a body lift kit may not be the best idea esp if i have to do something about the suspensions. Does anyone know the stock height of the body from the floor? I could just measure it and see if it's right.

To answer the first question, Yes you can run 33" tires without any sort of lift. In fact a lot of members on here do so usually in 285/75R16 or 305/70R16. Stock tire size on these trucks is 245/75R16 which works out roughly to about a 30" tire. Not 100% sure i will check though...you would want a 285/50R20 i believe to have a 33" on a 20" rim. Like i said i will check to see if such a tire size exists.

 

[ridiqls]

To answer the first question, Yes you can run 33" tires without any sort of lift. In fact a lot of members on here do so usually in 285/75R16 or 305/70R16. Stock tire size on these trucks is 245/75R16 which works out roughly to about a 30" tire. Not 100% sure i will check though...you would want a 285/50R20 i believe to have a 33" on a 20" rim. Like i said i will check to see if such a tire size exists.

Thank you for the help. As I understand it, mine is p245 so if I want to go wider like the 285 or even 305, then I will have to get a whole new set of wider rims?

 

[Darkrider]

Correction you would want a 275/60R20 to get a true 33" tire on a 20" rim

as for lowering...best way to tell is to look at your front CV axle angles, take a pic and post it up here and im sure others can tell you if it has been lowered or not.

 

[Darkrider]

Thank you for the help. As I understand it, mine is p245 so if I want to go wider like the 285 or even 305, then I will have to get a whole new set of wider rims?

How wide are your rims now? the 275 size i listed works on a 7.5-9" wide rim

 

[Darkrider]

Just seen the question about a link for Hyper Leds here it is

http://hyper-leds.weebly.com/

 

[ridiqls]

How wide are your rims now? the 275 size i listed works on a 7.5-9" wide rim

It's hard to say exact but i went outside and took a tape measure. Because it still has the tire on it and it's slightly curved, I think it's about 9.5" from lip to lip. I dont know how thick the lip is but maybe 8.5" or 9" would be the actual rim width. So 275 should work and even wider might work.

What is the downside to going with something wider like 295 or 305? Will it rub and touch the fender, etc. on a stock setup? More expensive? I think I will keep the rims, just need to get new tires and a body lift kit.

How difficult is it to install a body lift kit with little mechanical experience? I got toools like for my home and I know about home renovation but I dont have too many tools for cars. But since my whole thing is saving money and this isn't my daily driver, I'm up for having it sit for a month while I figure out how to install it. I just dont want to RUIN anything.

And are body lift kits and leveling kits mostly universal? I didnt quite understand why I wouldn't want to go with a leveling kit. I was reading that a leveling kit will raise the front by 2" or so where as a body lift will be a little more at 3" but a leveling kit can be done in a few hours and really easy to do. Is there much difference between the two and how they look? If there is, i'll go body lift. If it's marginal like you can barely tell, then the leveling kit just makes more sense.

Finally, when searching for body lift or any lift kit, do I HAVE to specifically find one that is made for the 1994 GMC Sierra 2500 SL? Or are some things interchangeable? Like can I use the body lift kit for the 1994 GMC Sierra 1500? (Those are more popular). Or what years are cross compatible, etc?


Thanks for the link.

Here are some pictures I snapped, if anyone wants to chime in about anything they see that looks abnormal I'm allll ears.
http://imgur.com/a/fGOII

 

[benz88]

4300K is the Best output for Light, Anything over it is just for color and less output

 

[1low95GMC]

I wouldn't mind going to the junk yard and picking up these stuff and trying this conversion. The only thing issue is I dont want to start anything I can't finish. Do you have to be really good with cars to do this? Like fiddling with electrical and jerry rigging or welding is not something I have any experience with. The most experience I had was removing the bumpers and installing a cold air intake in a Celica like 8 years ago. But hell, if i could find all those parts why not? It would be a fun project.

Is the red truck pictured your conversion or just a different truck?

it is a direct swap. make sure you get the plastic bases for the top headlights (4 10mm bolts on each light base) they will bolt directly in place of your old square glass beam lights. be prepared to splice in new pigtails for the new lights. you can just cut the pigtails from a parts truck or can buy them new at a autoparts store. if you do get the pigtails from a parts truck make sure you cut the wires as long as possible, just to make it easier for you

 

[96k1500]

33s will fit stock height and will fit on your rims, the more blue that the headlights are cause more fatigue on your eyes, thats why its not suggested to use over 6000k