kicking the idea of buying those rickson wheels. i know they look sharp. when you get into the larger wheels does it dramatically alter the ride quality. BETTER OR WORSE?

one of the things i'm trying to achieve is lower my rev's at highway speeds. six speed w/4:10s. i know this will change that but by how much? 200 rpm?...

will the road feel be tighter or harsher.

tire size: 245 or 285 ...would the 285's be too high ...like driving a lifted 4x4 monster truck? or is the 245 approach more practical?

thanks for all who read and reply.

 

I just bought a set of GM step van wheels, 4-hand hole, 8 lug, 19.5x6.00. I plan to run 8R19.5's or 225/70R19.5's on them. I just this morning compared the pilot holes. I had been told I would need to widen the pilots to the Dodge size, but it looks like the GM's are actually a hair wider than my stockers now!? I wil have to bolt some on and see how they work.

 

Try an all forum search here using the word "Rickson"; you'll find lots to read - about 39 topics.

If all you want to do is lower the revs (and have some change left over to buy some other toys), think about some 315's on the wheels you currently have.

I did see a lifted Chevy Duramax 4x4 dooley yesterday running some polished aluminum 22.5's - it looked great, but I have to wonder how much that cool look cost him.

 

Yeah, some trucks look really good with the 22.5's. Expensive, though! Of course, I have found 22.5's at better prices than 19.5's, depending on brand...

Read an old TDR thread that had some news at the end -- 16.5's had different pilot holes than Dodge, but 19.5's should bolt up. I checked several other rims this afternoon against my 16" stocker, and they seem pretty much identical, with a couple of the GM rims slightly larger. They should bolt right up! My plan now is to put some 19.5 Hankook's on - DH01 Super Traction drive tires. Cost less per tire than the stock size Bridgestone Revo's I was looking at, and all feedback so far is that they wear like iron and are good on/off/snow tires, too.

 

jj3500 -- I went to several different sites for Commercial Truck Tires and looked at the specs on all tires that had the type of tread I was looking for. I also looked at the Revs per Mile, tread width, and overall diameters. I then went to the Light Truck tires sites and compared to the stock wheels and tires on the truck. What I found is that the 235/85R16's I have are ~32" tall. Several 19.5" tires were right at the 32" mark also, so really don't change things much.

I also looked here: http://www.4lo.com/4LoCalc.htm

Go to the calculator for gear ratio, which will tell you the difference based on tire diameters. NOTE: This calculation is to show you what gear ratio you need to change to to get the same performance! I was confused when I inpout the larger tire diameter under "new" and wound up changing the gear ratio from 4.10:1 to 4.33:1. I reversed the values between "old" and "new," essentially faking out the calculator into thinking I was downsizing and want to rplace with a higher ratio.

At any rate, this is a fun way to run calculations to see what the effects are.

Another site is here: http://www.1010tires.com/TireSizeCalculator.asp
But they do not have the 19.5 sizes. You can pick a 19 or 20 inch tire with the same diameter and plug it in, though, and then get a calculated mph difference for the speedometer. I used this one to see the difference between the stock 235/85's that are supposed to be on my truck and the 225/75's the previous owner put on as replacements. I am running about 5-6 mph slower than the speedo shows, and that means I am reving like I am going 65, but only going 60! I guess that is why they complained about fuel distance.

 

I am selling my Ricksons. The ride is pretty much the same as stock. Maybe a little worse. Remember these are big, heavy, stiff tires. 265's is an option as well. You can get some very big 245's or 265's too.

http://xj.cdevco.net/ricksonforsale.txt

You need to take into consideration that when you see a tires "DIAMETER" it is not necessarily the true size.. it is often the unmounted tire size. When you mount it, it will change.

For a real time calculation, you need to take the revolutions per mile and also take into consideration the width of the rim used (skinnier rim will force a tire taller, wider rim will force a tire shorter).

this page is not exactly complete but helps you out.
http://xj.cdevco.net/rpmchart.php

You can test it out by using a wheel height of 30.697282209513560468711822469522 for 265/70/17's

Im not too sure how good my math is...