My truck came with 33x12.5's on some old 16.5 aftermarket rims. I'm not sure of the actual offset of the rims, but the tires do stick out about 2" beyond the wheel wells. Will running tires sizes like have negitive consequences, such as front end parts and axle seals wearing out faster, or leagal issues with tires being wider than the vehicle? Just curious because it does feel nice and stable on the road with these wide wheels that the truck came with.

Mark in NJ USA

 

It will be harder on ball joints, coil springs, etc. Whether it will be noticeable over stock wheels that tuck under rather than sticking out I don't know, but it adds lots of unsprung weight out there on the end of the axles. Narrower tires also are better on fuel mileage, but you didn't say whether that was a concern or not. I know when I was running some 31X10.50's on mine it did make a big difference in the way it felt versus the 235/85/16's I'm running now.

 

you got to look at your scrub radius first and formost, center line of the wheel compared to the actual mounting flange of the wheel, lets say its a 10 inch wheel, and you got 3 3/4 offset wheels, you got a scrub radius of 1 1/4 inches, anything less than 3 inches is acceptable usually, you've seen the low riders that look like skateboards, that is BAD, anything over that and your looking at eating wheel bearings and ball joints, i trashed 2 hubs and 2 ball joints on my 95 2500 V10 truck, the big tires wont hurt the coil springs, they are unsprung weight, a heavy motor and front bumper is what wears coils out, u-joints wont be hurt either unless you are offroading it and jambing it into logs and rocks and other things and putting alot of stress on the axles, the steering box and tracbar will wear faster pushing those big tires around, another thing is you will get alot more rock chips cause of the wider tires. i beat that truck hard and payed the price, i ran 33's on my truck and i got the nose high enough sky wheeling it that i mashed the exhaust tip flat on the ground, ill give it to her though, that motor never failed me, just everything around the motor. 235/85/16 tires measure 31.7 tall and 9.5 wide.

 

I was thinking about getting these from tirerack.com.


Size: 17x8
$129 (each"
Offset: 25mm
Bolt Pattern: 8-165
Rec. Tire Size:265/70-17 (10.4" wide, 31.5" high)
considering also 255/75-17

I believe this would give me a backspacing of 5 inches, since 25mm is about an inch, and would put the centerline about an inch out to the side of the vehicle from stock since I read somewhere that the stock offset is around 45mm.

Either this or finds some stock wheels, because I agree that the 33x12.5s I have are not right for just riding around on the pavement.

Mark

 

DC voids warranty if you run oversized tires.
Guess that means there must be a reason not to...

 

Naturally its hard on everything.

Your gearing changes, the extra weight to turn puts more stress on the powertrain, suspension travel changes, rolling/turning resistance increases to cause steering components to go out faster. Your brake system will wear faster.

Acceleration will decrease. Braking time will increase. Fuel economy will drecrease.

Just the nature of the game.

Some places are picky on the legal issues with the tires, some are not. Fender flares are usually required when the tire sticks out X ammount past the body.

 

It's all about leverage.

It's like trying to loosen a rusted bolt with a 6" wrench vs. a 24" breaker bar.

The terrain is now using the 24" breaker bar on your ball joints, tie rods etc rather than the 6" wrench.