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Hello All!!
Looking at doing a lift on my 95 f150 with the 5.0 and a 5speed. Im deciding if i want to go with 35x12.5 tires or 33x12.5 tires. what size lift will i need to do for the 35s or the 33s. any advice will be great!
I personally would do no more than a leveling kit and 32 11.50 with a truck with the 5.0. The performance suffers greatly after that point. The 5.0 is a great engine but doesn't make the low end power needed for really large tires.
If you have to lift it, then go with a 4 inch and 33s, then regear to 4.56.
A friend of mine had a 95 5.0 5 speed 4wd with a 6 inch lift and 35s. It looked awesome, but driveability was horrible.
A 302 will perform just fine with larger tires as long as you gear it properly. Assuming you have factory 3.55s, don't run anything larger then 33s unless you're planning a regear.
I second Texas Guys opinion on the 4.56s for 33s (or 5.13s for 35s) if you are regearing. I'm currently running 4.10s and 33s behind a bone stock 302 and find myself wishing for deeper gears more often then not.
The D44 TTB front end is NOT going to like 35" tires, neither will your 302 for that matter.
You're going to need 4.56 gears minimum for the truck to retain any amount of power, or consider a swap for a 351w, as the power band is in a more suitable place for a truck, especially one with larger tires. Remember that, assuming 4x4 still, you need the gears front and rear to match, or you will destroy your truck in short order.
You will also be very unhappy running 12.5" tires on stock rims. You need to get 10" wide rims with a backspacing of 4.5" or lower.
All that said, you should have plenty of clearance for 33" tires with a 4" lift.
Thankw guys! I think I'm only going to 33x12.5s at the most. Just want it to have a little stance to it But don't total wanna kill my mpg but I do understand if you want something to look good or go fast mpgs go down.
I have a 93 extended cab with a 4in lift and 33x12.5x15 tires. I like the stance has decent ground clearance. But yes mpg does go down. I havent tested it much (work 4 miles from home, fuel sender unit is on its way out as well)
I had a 90 F150 with the 302 with a rough country 6" lift with 35x12.50x15 bf MTs on 15x10 rims. I didn't regear the truck and the lift and tires were the worst idea. It was dog slow and loved gas. Worst thing I ever did to that ride. Invest the money and get it regeared as well as adding a steering stabilizer to the front end. With the ttb44 when you would go over a hill the front end would wobble and feel like the truck was out of control.
I had a 90 F150 with the 302 with a rough country 6" lift with 35x12.50x15 bf MTs on 15x10 rims. I didn't regear the truck and the lift and tires were the worst idea. It was dog slow and loved gas. Worst thing I ever did to that ride. Invest the money and get it regeared as well as adding a steering stabilizer to the front end. With the ttb44 when you would go over a hill the front end would wobble and feel like the truck was out of control.
You had some other issue with your truck that showed itself once the lift was installed. I've owned about half a dozen lifted trucks with TTB and none of them had steering stabilizers and drove down the road just fine. Steering stabilizers are just band aid fixes that cover up existing issues instead of fixing them.
Also, the TTB will handle 35s as well as a solid D44 as long as it's set up properly. After all, it's the same axle.
I have 33x10.5r15 bfg tires on my 96 f150 with 351, 3.55 gearsets, E4OD. Stock wheels, front is "leveled" and it only rubs slightly at full lock to the right. It drives nice, winter mileage has been 13-14 empty highway, previously that was 16ish in winter. But it does hunt for gears more than it used to with little tires and could use 4.10:1. Don't think I'd consider 33x12.5 with 3.55 gears in a 302, but you can always try it out with stock gears (no cost there) and regear if you're not happy.