Good evening all, my son just bought his first vehicle a 2000 Ford Explorer. The Explorer was my brothers who is a Ford tech, so if it breaks I know who to call. It has been well taken care of and maintained properly. I would like to know what are everyones favorite tires for the trucks? Also I seen the threads about Rancho shocks but never really had much success with Rancho, so does anyone have Bilsteins or some other brand. Thanks in advance.

 

Tires: Michelin, LTs if you want. Go bigger if you can. OEM is 235 75 x 15 or 255 70 x 16. The 255s feel a lot more secure.

I had some 245 75 x 16 Dunlop Grandtreks from my Toyota on ours--a hated tire on the Toyota, but it felt fine on the Exploder. Best thing is people hate these so much you can often get a near new take-off set very cheap from some kid who wants to put zoomy tires and wheels on his Tacoma. But I digress.....

Shocks:

Low use, low miles per year: Buy Monroes on sale, Reflexs worked "ok" for us and were much better than the 94500 mile oem jobs.

Rancho or KYB or Bilestein would be better choices for long term use.

 

Ok thanks, we will keep the stock size tires for now. I forgot about KYB shocks, I will have to check them out.

 

im rollin on 235/70r16 cooper AT3's and rancho 5000 series shocks. couldn't be happier with either.

i'd shy away from monroe shocks. the cheaper ones don't last very long, and the more expensive ones don't outlast the cheap ones and don't ride as good as the rancho's.

wasn't happy at all with the monroe reflex. now all you can get is the sensatrac anyway, which i like on my plow truck, but haven't tried them on the exploder.

i've had KYB's on my old T-bird, and they were OK. never tried them on a truck though.

good luck!

 

Good call on the Coopers, I had them on my '08 F350 and really liked them.

 

I am not sure what your driving conditions would be typically, as well as where you are from, so weather and what not is something that would help, but lately the tires I have been running are General Grabber AT2's, and they have been fantastic. Close to 30 patches per tire on mine due to picking up every bit of oil field debris, lasted a lot longer then I expected (60k miles) and still going (keeping them rotated), and ride nicely. Drawback, a little hum down the highway but I live with it just fine! They are a wonderful traction tire to say the least! Up here in Wyoming, snow can be fun, along with iced up roads and highways, and commuting 40 miles each way daily, they have kept me stuck to the road nicely! The cost wasn't bad either!

Shocks: I am curious as to why and what it was about the Rancho's you didnt have such good luck with! Once I put them on mine, I can't see going any other route! I have pounded the tar out of my RS5000's on some rough road, and they are saving my rig from shaking to pieces! I like the whole LLW deal with them, not because I expect to get them exchanged, but usually parts listed as such tend to last longer and take a little more punishment. The ride down the highway has been nice too! Our DOT is awesome when it comes to making smooth surfaced highways! They believe the roads need to resemble some sort of disney world ride, so having something to handle the extra bounce over these wonderfully flat and smooth surfaces has been a trick, and these Ranchos have done it for me!

 

My experience with Ranchos is just with F350's. They just dont hold up as good as Bilsteins do. It could be different with a much lighter vehicle. I'll take a look at Shockwarehouse and see what the prices are.
My brother has General Grabber HT's now and he said they lasted him 5 years and he highly recommends them and would buy them again.

 

Ordered General Grabber HTS today. These are the same tires on my dually and they ride well and at $111 each including shipping I think it was a good buy. As far as shocks, Bilsteins are quite expensive on Shockwarehouse, Ranchos are $20 per shock cheaper. Easy choice! What about that rear horizontal shock, any recommendations? The Bilstein was $99 and the Monroe was $32, does it really do anything?