I wheel with many friends running 35s on there 3s, I wanted to keep my final drive ratio so I chose to stay with 33s. One of the guys has almost 150K hard miles on his 06, no front suspension or steering issues, and is still running the whimpy 14MM tie bars.

You stated a 3" truxx leveling kit? Leads me to believe your problem was created by raising the front too high. Virtually every 3 I have seen with CV joint and steering rack trouble was caused by over-lifting the front. I haven't seen your truck so this is only a guess and not meant as a criticsm. I do have to ask, what was the measurement from the center of your hub to the fender well up front?

Many of those "leveling kits" had instructions stating 24.5" was the max, and at that level, you're asking for trouble.

 

Doc, this might be a stupid question, but you said the 305's are 33" but the 285's are too, right? I figured if the 285's were 33" and the 315's were 35", the 305's would be somewhere in between?

 

I must say the Mickeys look stunning on the 3. They look like a perfect fit.

 

In the MTZ, 285s are 33.1" and so are the 305s. The 285 has a tread width of 8.9",
and the 305 has a tread width of 9.8", this is the same width as the 315, but the 315s are 34.5" (almost every brand of 315s are actually 34.5 or 34.6").

The MTZs do look good!

 

I wanted to let Doc reply first, since it was addressed to him. Just to add to what he said, the ratio is the key in determining the height. I assume Doc has 305-70/16's. The 70 is the ratio of the tread width to the sidewall height. In this case, the sidewall is 70% of thread width. A "70" would yield a theoretical 32.8" diameter which is exactly the same as a 285-75/16. A 305-75/16 would in fact be slightly larger at 34.0". Here's a good link to play with and see what I mean. --> http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

 

Thanks for the responses. I missed that Doc's were 305 - "70" - 16 first of all so that was my first problem. Secondly, I always knew about the ratio from a guy that worked on my first car, but for some reason I kept thinking 305 was the mil of the sidewall which makes no sense since that would mean the width was thinner than the height was tall. What was that I said about a stupid question???

 

I just look at the tire MFG's specification tables.

08H3 is correct on the #s.

 

Dont know if you like their tires, but interco makes a 34" Mud terrain tire. A happy medium between 33's and 35's

 

For what it's worth I have 315-75/16 Goodyear MTR's with Kevlar and I love them. I went on a trip from NY to Sedona to Moab to Breckenridge and back. No problems at all, they are quiet and tough as nails. I ran all the trails in Sedona, Elephant hill in Moab, and I ran Wheeler Lake and a few other trails in Colorado. If you don't want the larger size get them in the 285 size. They are really good tires and seem to be quite an improvement over the old MTR design, which I had on my Grand Cherokee. The big problem with the steering is so many people insist on turning the wheels without moving the car. Just a little forward or backward movement tremendously reduces the effort on the steering linkage and rack. If you're good to your truck it will be good to you! I put about 6500 miles on these tires (they are on spare wheels) and have since switched back to the factory wheels to save a little on gas and get better acceleration. Next wheeleing trip the MTR's will be back on.

Here is a link to some pics if it helps:

http://picasaweb.google.com/rhoffroader/OFFROAD2009#