Hi all, I just picked up an 83 F350 with a snow plow, lift-gate and bed side toolboxes, I bought it for the snow plow feature I'm tired of plowing 1.75 miles of private/county road with my quad.

I'm going to put new tires on because the existing tires are 9 years old and I don't want to take a chance on that old of tire under heavy load. I need to haul a Lathe I just bought home and it weighs in at 2500 Lbs. I'm thinking of going to the 265X75-16 for the extra 300 Lbs each over the other sizes. These need a 7-8" wide wheel and the stock wheels look to be 6". I need a second set for snow tires anyway and I'm not interested in alloys unless they are as inexpensive as oem steels.

I have looked at white spoke wheels but if they have a weight rating at all it's to low for the tires.

Did any of the trucks come with a 7" or 8"X16" steel wheel from the factory in the 8 on 6.5 bolt pattern.

Thanks
Brian

 

I looked up a 83 f250 on car part and they only list a 16x6 wheel being available.

I checked 89-same

91, the same.

I then changed that to a 1996 and behold they list all the wheels available as 16x7.
1995 shows 16x7 also. They show both a aluminum version and steel both being 16x7.

 

I plow with my '85 F-250. In the winter I use factory 8 lug 16x6 wheels on 235x85 tires. 265x75's are approximately the same size and come to about 9" wide so you will be golden. You won't need to change rims for this to work at all, so you'll save some money.

As far as hauling a lathe, you should be fine. I used to haul several tons of dirt, crush stone, ledge stone, and top soil and a bunch of other stuff that weighed almost 2 tons. You'll probably get close to bottoming out and it will be tough to turn. Take is slow and you'll be ok.

 

I do know that 30x9.5x15 on 6 inch rims did pull the sidewalls in a little bit, and had a tendency to wear the middle of the tire out before the edges on my old f150. If you are careful with your tire pressure, you should be able to help this some.

But I will tell you, skinny aggressive tires seem to do better in snow than the wider tires, so you might want to juggle your weight rating concerns versus performance in the snow.

 

Franklin2
I found the same thing on car-part.com, but I haven't been able to find out what year the bolt pattern changed to the metric version. If the 94+ wheels have the 8 on 6.5 pattern those are available for $35.00 each from a few salvage yards around here. I also called Les Schwab and they stock new OEM wheels for $76.00 each. a lot of the salvage yards wanted more than that for the used ones.

slashfan7964
I will be running the 235's on the stock wheels for the snow tires, I need another set of wheels anyway so I would like to go wider for the 265's if they are available. I know the trucks can handle the weight, I just want to get the highest load rating possible as we have a weight cop in this area that likes to pick on private rigs. And I won't put that much weight on an old tire so they are getting replaced no matter what.

I once had 3 CY of crushed rock on my 76 F250 flatbed. It got it home.

So when did Ford switch to the 6 on 170 pattern?

Thanks
Brian

I think I just found it. F series changed to 6 on 170 in MY99.

 

I think you are correct. The f150 changed completely in 1996, but the f250/350 waited until 99 to change completely to a different truck, metric rims and all.

 

This. My 235's portrude from the rim slightly on the sidewall but not enough to deter me from installing them. They are a hell of a lot better in the snow than the 33x12.5s I have.

Ah ok that makes sense. The 235x85's are the same things as 265s but I can see what you're getting at now.

 

I guess I should have been a little more descriptive...

235X85-16 General Altimax Artic LT studded for snows on 16 X 6" wheels.

265X75-16 Yokohama Geolander A/T-S for summer tires on 16 X 7" wheels.

Unfortunately they don't make these snow tires in our size.Four Star Motorsports: Snow Rally Tire Technical Info

 

Here's a chart for this particular brand tire that tells you the recommended rim width versus tire size. Just an example.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....=yes&tab=Specs

 

For winter I used a combination of Cooper Discoverer A/T's and ATR's. Not sure if you can get them anymore but they were great in snow and normal summer driving and came in both sizes.