fleetside vs stepside question

[moggey01]

Which bed option will accept the biggest tire?? I want to run up to a 15 or 16 wide tire , and found a deal on a stepside bed. I dont know how big of a tire will fit with this bed.

[70c10stepside]

Idk about fleet side, but my 70 has 295s. Its really close. Maybe, another itch, 2 would be pushing it. Not sure on offset of wheels
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[CC69Rat]

I have both trucks. One fleetside, one stepside. No question about it, with stock unmodified wheel tubs the fleetside gives you more room for tires.

The key here is knowing which rear end housing your truck has in it. The earlier rear housings were 55.5" long if you measure from the inside edge of one brake backing plate to the other. The later ones were 57" respectively. I guess you can see where it might be a deal breaker if someone has the early rear end and tells you "x backspacing" will work .. then on yours if you have the longer one it's now off .75" on each side.

But, for the most part.

Fleetside bed:

Early rear end housing. 20x10 with 5" Backspacing
Late rear end housing. 20x10 with 5.5" Backspacing.

If your truck is really low, you might want to go a little deeper (more BS) but most guys running about 6" drop in the rear run this size wheel with a 295/40/20 in the back. I personally went with a 295/45/20 for a little more sidewall.

Example - my fleetside = late rear housing and a 20x10 with 6" BS. I did this because of the added tire size, plus my rear discs.

On my stepside I had 20x8.5 with 4.75" BS and an early rear housing. It was really tight with a 255/45/20.

If you want Big meats .. go fleetside.

[moggey01]

my housing is going to be cut to fit the wheels , it has no ends now. The ride height should be about 5.5 inches at the frame maybe a little higher on the rear. I am using big aluminum tubs no matter what I do , I want to use a 14'' wide wheel or atleast a 12''. Thanks for the info I did not know the width of the early housing and was trying to figure that out. I have a chromoly fabbed housing that is 60'' with no ends. I need to find out how close the frame is to the inside of the fender on the step side.