I will eventually be going to a bigger wheel/tire combo. I currently have the stock 16" wheels. Is there a benefit to staying with 16" wheels and tires? I know this for sure....it will be significantly more expensive to stay with the 16" setup, especially the tires. I could save a good amount of money by going to a 15" wheel tire combo instead. Any opinions on this? Thanks.

Chris

 

Looking at your other posts it looks like you have a 1997 F150?
If that's right 15" wheel wont fit. They wont clear the brakes.

 

as far as finding tires, if you want 33" (305/70r16) or 35" tires (315/75r16) there are plenty of them available to go on 16" rims. but anything bigger than that you need 15" or 17" rims, but i dont think the 15" will fit on your truck so you will need to go with 17". but that all depends on how big you are actually going on your truck

 

Your stock rims will only fit up to 11.50s so if you want wider than that you will have to swap. If you want to run 11.50+ you will have to get a wheel that has less back spacing because with the stock backspacing the tire will rub the A-arm. The advantage to the smaller rims is more sidewall flex. Super swamper LTBs are about the same price for the 15" or 16" but the biggest size is 34x10.5.

 

If you want to run big mud tires and 15" won't fit on your truck, you can always run 16.5's, which do have a few choices for big mud tires.

 

yeah if anything get 17's. you have a lot more choices than 16's. i wish mine would have had 17's put on it but thats okay. i'm not going bigger than 35. i don't have stock but tire choice is a lot harder for 16's rather than 17's. Looks like your stuck with the 16's or you can go 17's. I shouldn't really say Stuck but you get the idea.

 

More choices with 17s? Usually I only see them get as wide as 9", I'd be looking for 8 lug too. What have you found?

 

for a 16 inch rim you can get just about any size tire. I have 16s with 35s now. Im getting 38s this summer and I have also seen 39s for a 16 incher. Having the 16 inch rim in no way limits your tire sizes unless you want 42s or 44s.