I was trying to roll the front frame of my parts truck to my metal recycling pile, and I noticed the upper ball joint rubs the tire a touch. Then when I got under Red to fiddle with the transmission more, I noticed a slight groove in the rubber where the upper ball joint has rubbed. Now my goals are not to scrape the pavement (very expensive in frost heave season), or put it too close to the ground (encourages rust) but to keep the center of gravity reasonably low for good control.

I've been glancing at the ball joint flip thread but that doesn't seem to change the tire/ball joint interaction much. I've got something like four sets of rims for two trucks, and they're all 14". With that much on hand is seems redundant to get more rims.

What's my best (cheap, effective, safe) fix? Wheel spacers? 195R14 tires?

 

Do you think the wheels sit more "inset" than stock? (Do you think they are placed towards the frame than stockers?)

205/75/R14 and they didn't rub for stock, obviously.
94 XCab 22RE 2WD

 

I should probably pull one off and check the backspace. I know the ones on the remains of the parts truck frame came off my '00 Tacoma.