Front Rubbing - Tires, Suspension or Wheels?

This is why talking about offset and backspacing can get confusing...

Just think about it. You are at 5" backspacing now. If you go more that moves the tire closer to the frame. You are rubbing on the inner fender now. We want to move the other direction. By running a 9.5" wheel you do that without moving the center of the wheel by taking a 1/4" off each side. So your backspacing goes from 5" to 4.75" and the center of the wheel does not move. By going from a 295 to a 275 tire you are reducing the total width by 20mm (about 0.8"). Since the center is the same we effectively take 0.4" tire off each side and gain about that much in clearance.

I hope this clears it up for you.