New Tire\Rim Combo. The rims were made by a company called 1Tech and are marketed under the name RockCrawlers. Because the ZR2 OEM rims have 6" of backspacing, I needed to get as close to that as possible in order to keep stress on the front end components to a minimum. I ended ordering from 1Tech because they were willing to make a limited number of rims with custom backspacing up to 5-3\8". So, my rims are 15x8 with the 5-3\8" BS.

The center caps were chrome but I painted that over with some spray-on bedliner. It was the Duplicolor bedliner in a can and it's staying on pretty well except on one cap that I remember not scuffing up as much as the other 3. So, if you use bedliner spray on chrome caps, scuff the heck out of them before spraying them. Also use a dark primer, so that you don't have to use so much expensive bedliner spray to cover the chrome. If I thought the bedliner would withstand an impact wrench, I'd put it on the lugnuts too but that obviously won't work. So, I'm sticking with the OEM lugs. At least they're not chrome!

The tires are 31"x10.5"x15" Wild Country Radial RVT Mud. They have a very agressive tread and are fairly noisy on the road. They don't ride badly but they are not something I'd take on a multi-hundred mile trip if I could help it. I have "street" tires for that. As you can see, the tires are ready for studs if I need 'em in the winter time. Off road, they seem to do best in mud and dirt, go figure. Sand is OK, but they'll dig in pretty easily. I was told when I bought them that the sidewall are triple-ply or somthing like that.

 Have you ever noticed that some truck manufacturers build their trucks with a front axle  width that’s wider than the rear wheel-axle width? Chevy has been doing if for years and years if not forever. Their reasoning is that, (on a 4 wheel drive) when you’re driving down a rutted road with ruts that your tires want to fall into, it’s better to have the staggered widths in an attempt to keep one set of wheel out of the ruts.

Though I don’t have an enormous amount of wheelin’ experience, I have spend many hours on muddy tracks and I can’t say that I’ve ever noticed that the differing widths had a noticeable effect.

However, being the kind of guy that looks at cool 4x4’s I see driving around, the fact that the axle widths are different often catches my eye because it looks, well “funny”. Or offset, or something. Visually, I like the appearance of trucks where the rear axle width is as wide or a little wider than the front.

Enter the rear wheel spacers.

I’ve installed 1.3” wheel spacers on each side of the rear axle. Install is easy, just bolt 'em up to  your wheel hubs and put your wheel back on.

The spacers cost me $99 thru a group purchase at ZR2.com. They are easy to install and this type of device well tested over the years so we know it’s safe. They are a solid piece of aluminum and simply bolt to  your wheel hub and then the wheel mounts to the studs on the spacer. The difference isn't great, but in the pic below you can see that the edge of the tread isn't covered by the ding-flap anymore (yes, I see the flap seems a bit crooked there). I guess I know what I'm doing tomorrow, getting those flaps lined back up. Heck, they might end up so far out that I'll take them off, not sure yet. I'll update this page when I decide and do it.

UPDATE:
One more thing - I got some Chevy lug caps. The GMC's don't come with these because the lugnuts aren't exposed with the OEM wheels. Well, I guess I wanted the wheels all black and I think I've done it~