I am putting Rickson 19.5 Wheels on my '04 350 CC short bed, SRW 6.0. I don't know whether to go with the 225 R70 19.5 (G)or the 245's. The 245's are about 2" larger than stock 265 r70 16 (e). I was wondering what the difference in performance would be with the larger tires. Any other issues? I carry a truck camper that maxes out the rear axel and stock (e) tires (6800 lbs). I an looking for a better margin of safety over the stock tires by going with the 19.5"s. Thank you.

 

norwhaler,

Basically for every inch you increase tire diameter without chaning gearing you lose about 6-8% of your efficiency and torque at the rear wheels. So you would give up about 12-16% of your performance/towing capacity you have now.

Here is a link to a thread that discusses how to determine what new ring gears you would need to maintain your same performance levels.
http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/sh...hreadid=203050

Also do a search for 19.5'" rims and tires on this site as there have been past discussions on these. For the increased safety you want a higher load weight rating per tire would give it to you.

Hope this helps

 

Thank you for your reply and forum thread refferal. I hope that I like the 225's as the are only about 1/2 larger in diameter than stock tires.