i have a 97 ranger. 2wd the factory tires are P195 70 R 14 What is the biggest tire I can put on this thing w/o changing the rim? I have absolutley no idea how tires work. I want taller/wider tires. Something to fill up the wheel well and something good for snow/mud. I am well aware of the consiquences of putting on a larger tire and everything. but what is the biggest tire i can put on this dude that is safe?

Thanks,

Steve

 

Go to www.discounttire.com and enter in your truck data. It will tell you what sizes will fit. You can run a much larger tire. I have a 90 Ranger that had 14" rims and am now running 15" off of a 98 Ranger Edge and everything fits with no clearance problems. I even tried a factory ford rim off of a 2001 Ranger with 225 tires and they also cleared everything...just looked too big for my taste.

 

You can probably fit a P235/70R-14 on there, if you can find one. A P225/70-R14 would fit.

 

I have 235/75/15's on my 93 2wd and have no rubbing and plenty of room and no rubbing. You should be able to go up to 31's even with minor rubbing.

 

225-70-14 were optional in '97

 

My '99 2x4 Ranger Sport came stock with 225 70 R15. Just bought all new Uniroyal Tiger Paws. They weren't that expensive and that got me to thinking, are they a good tire?

 

Dunno about the Uniroyals, but cheap doesn't mean they're bad. Digging through the receipts I have for my truck, I found that the rear tires I have cost $60 a piece, have about 55k on them now, and (since I run snow tires in the winter) I figure I should be able to run them to at least 60-65k. Only reason the fronts aren't the same is I wrecked them by not correcting a bad alignment fast enough. "Aurora" is the brand, I think.

 

There's not alot of selection anymore in a 14, you would be better off getting some 15" rims and go from there.

 

John112Deere, my Uniroyals came to $86.00 after taxes and spin balance. And like you, my rear tires seem to last twice as long as the front when I don't rotate. I don't run snows in w. pennsylvania but put lots of sandbags in the bed and add or remove as needed. Already have 15" wheels but my question is what does it do to the speedometer when you jump from 14" to 15"?

 

The Discount Tire website has a tire calculator which will tell you the speedo difference for different sizes of tires. On my 1990 Ranger I replaced the factory 14" wheels with 98 Ranger Edge 15" wheels and went from a 215/70-14 to a 215/70-15 tire. It throws the speedo off by 2.5 MPH making it register slower. Not hardly worth trying to correct.

 

I have a 95 2wd extended cab with 30-9.5r15 All Terrain T/A's on stock chrome rims. No rubbing issues, just a little slow on take off! Runs well in the snow too. The Discount Tire website also shows an All Terrain in a 14" size if you wanted to keep your current rims. You would need to make sure the rim width is acceptable for the oversize tire, as well.

 

I have a 2000 B3000 2wd.. I put 235/75R15's on it (stock on mine was 225/70R15).. no problems... I've seen people go up to 31X10.5R15 with no problems... but unfortunately you have 14" wheels.

This really limits what you can do. I think the largest you'll find readily available is the 225/70R14, which was stock on some rangers as well, but measure the rim width and make sure it's safe to do so first.

Also might want to check into getting the PCM reprogrammed to your new tire size, so you're speedo will stay accurate and all that. Doesn't take too long to do, as long as you find someone with the proper equipment.

Good luck.

 

You rim size is 14X5.5 most likely. Therefore, I think the largest you can fit on there is a P225/70-R14. People running larger than that have 15in wheels at least 6 inches wide, usually 7.