So today I checked the steering with the new wheels. I was able to remove all 4 washers I had in place for the other wheels and now have full stock steering angle back with a 1/2” of space between the control arms still.
With the backspacing of the last wheel I had to use the riser/extender on the rear tire. This gave the tire a lot more leverage on the gate and blocked some rearward visibility. With the new tire I was able to remove that. Now the tire sits about 2” lower and the center is in the same spot as stock and the rubber snubber on the bottom lines up much better to support the tire.
However in this new configuration the tire was about 1/8” from sitting on the hitch receiver of the Nextventure rear bumper, and since it wasn’t fabricated perfectly flat It has a slight upwards angle with the tire that low I was unable to slide in a ball hitch. Unless I wanted to grind a bit on the ball hitch. I might be able to find a different ball hitch that would work I still need to check that.
So that made the hitch in its current configuration at least combined with the tire in the new spot unusable for now. So I through the savvy bumper on for now just to check it out.
I have a few choices I am balancing around to try and solve this as I would like a hitch for towing my trailer, or occasionally using a heat basket.
1) I could raise the tire back up. Re-drill the stock tire mount instead of using a adapter to make the lug pattern match that should move it up a couple inches and keep it closer to the body. Just have to see how hard to modify the OEM bracket for the JK lug pattern.
2) I am thinking I can cut/weld and modify a regular hitch to work to just go under the Savvy bumper. This would come with some ground clearance issues. Not sure it would be that big of issue since it would still be above the gas tank but would defiantly hurt departure angle. Not sure this will work with the savvy frame tie ins though.
3) Maybe find a new bumper that the hitch is about 3/4” lower than the next venture to give me the space I need.
4) Do a semi custom setup on possible a blank next venture. To try to have my cake and eat it too.
Here is a side shot the shows how close the tire sits to the bumper right now. This is with the savvy bumper, but the Nextventure receiver follows the same path as the top of that bumper which made it just a bit close to be able to slide a ball hitch in.
Not a huge problem, and not urgent. Not even hard to solve I just have to decide which compromise I am going to make for it to work out.
