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I didn't see an official wheel and tire thread, so I though I'd post my findings for all transit Connect owners who want a bit more out of their wheels & tires.
Here's my findings:
I’ve been researching tire sizes for the last 4 months and this morning, because I’m still unsure as to what tire will fit on the 775′ and still have clearance in the TransCon’s wheel well. I’ve been using sites like TireRack, Discount Tire, CariD and many others just to see what they list as acceptable allowances for wheel and tire sizes.
I’ve concluded that all of these wheel and tire sites are not on the same page.. each one list their own version of what they feel will fit the Transit Connect. But one thing I’ve learn, is that each site has their own allowance which I use in conjunction with other sites.. meaning once site list X as being allowed.. while another site doesn’t. No wonder we all have trouble finding out what size tire and wheels we can have on our vehicles.. Because each site is tell us something different.
Tip: Even though tire sites list the tires measurement, often when tires are molded they can loose their size and shape based on that molds run. If a site list a tire as 26′’ height.. the tire could be more or less than what is listed. because the rubber/compound can expand and contract during the molding process.
But I’ve narrowed down our selections.. Using the 17x8 775′s Rockstar as the wheels.. Discount tire has a short list of allowable tires that fit this wheel.. and this helped us find our tires. It appears that the maximum allowable height of 26′’ inches on any wheel, but is very close, even too close for our comfort. The maximum wheel width is 8′’ again this is based on measurement gain from all those sites.
The wheel-size.com site has the most data and clearly states that the 225/50r17 tire on 17x8 wheel is within spec for our TransCon.. but I'm not mathematician and the tires would stick out approx 15mm further than stock.. which is acceptable.. Moments before I readjusted these specs.. I tried the 235/45r17 but that size could cause rubbing and stick out 20mm further than stock. Anything larger or wider than my stat list below, one would have to chop, adjust the camber, caster, remove parts etc.
For the record: 2014-Current Ford Transit Connect
5-108 (5x4.25) bolt pattern
32mm to 42mm offset is acceptable
16′’ - 20′’ wheels are acceptable
24′’ - 26′’ tires heights are acceptable.
6.5′’ - 8.5′’ wheel widths are acceptable.
7′’ - 9′’ tire width sizes are acceptable.
95 - 98+ load ratings are acceptable.
Take note of the “Revs Per Mile” on the chart above, because of this change up.. The tire will last longer because there is less revolutions per mile as compared to stock tires.. which is another plus. Because of all my hard work in finding the right combination that works for us, Finding your Transit Connect wheels & tires has just gotten easier.
We'll be purchasing the 17x8 775 RockStar wheels (without the disk center cap) from 4wheelonline.com custom milled to our specs from wheelpros.com w/ Maxxis 225/50ZR17 98W XL tires (25.8 x 9.1 on 8.0 rim) and we look forward to showing off these wheels & tires very soon.
It looks as though you are increasing wheel offset 15 mm to the outside. This may be hard on your wheel bearings and will change the steering geometry. I would try to match the offset of the stock wheels a bit closer especially if you want to keep your van for many miles.
Also, I am not a fan of rubber band tires on large diameter rims if you drive where there are chuckholes (and in Detroit we have a LOT). I would feel way better with 16's but that's just me because I have destroyed wheels... (The Raptor uses 17" diameter wheels with 35" tires...) And check wheel weight as well. A lot of the Chinese cast alloy wheels are quite heavy in the larger sizes. You don't want to increase unsprung weight.
I have really grown fond of factory alloy wheels for their durability and the correct offset.
Couple of things, Glad your lovin the Ford Spec wheels.. we're not, though we could have selected other wheels as suggested by RoadKillCustoms.com like the Focus, Jaguar, Volvo, Land Rover and more all have the same bolt pattern.
We can't thank enough Wheelpros and 4wheelonline for all the hard work they've have done for us. As for the barings.. According to our sources, (6 of them) we are within an allowable range on the offset.. (check my above stat sheet)
As for the pot holes.. these can't be avoid unless one has a hover car.
The tires themselves as listed via the Tacoma site are slightly wider and slight taller. But the sidewall is thinner. I feel confidant about this setup.
Well good luck with it. People have done much worse than 15mm of extra offset. I'm a fan of larger tire diameters (within a few percent) and like more rubber between the road and the aluminum wheel only because I've lost a couple tires and bent a wheel on chuckholes in my million miles or so of driving...
I'll be watching the TC forum as my E150 is probably gonna go away and get replaced with a smaller van to better suit our current needs. I've got Excel spreadsheets (originally Lotus 123 spreadsheets) set up to calculate theoretical tire height and width from the sizes, and compare to the stock size but I'm a math guy.
Hah where were you when I needed you.. I'm defiantly not a math guy.. We had to figure in allot of factors.. Load rating, wheel size tire size inflation etc.. but as far as I can tell the numbers above seem to point in the right direction. The tires aren't that much off from stock.. Granted I'm with you.. I would prefer more rubber on the wheels.. But I do like the wider stance 9.1 give or take.
Not sure what you're wanting to haul.. it's just us and the camping gear and if I had to to it all over.. I prob would have gotten the larger Transit with 4WD and the diesel option. That's more your style. GL with that and if you change your mind and want to go TransCon I hope my research can help you and others. We're going to order those wheels soon, test fit the drive them to PA for powder coating..
Large Transit is not available in 4WD in the US...unless they are gonna surprise me and come out with one for 2016.
The van I REALLY want is the European Transit Custom (which is the FWD medium size Transit--about the size of a big minivan like the Grand Caravan). I might have to get a (last year) Chrysler minivan or an Odyssey/Sienna although I really want to buy American.
I've had big vans since 1986 and they have taken us thru my son's Boy Scout years and his bicycle race years. He's out of the house now but my wife and I still bicycle and play music so I will always want a van.
Again, good luck with your project. I tend not to like fake hardware on wheels (like the Transformer screws) because I'm an old guy and my esthetic comes from old 5-spoke American mag wheels from the 60's. And I don't like the rubber band around a huge wheel thing especially on trucks. Real life is not concept car drawings. Like I said, the only serious off road truck Ford makes, the Raptor, has 17" wheels (minimum to clear the brakes) with 35" of tire. Now THAT is some sidewall height. Ghetto guys with 26" wheels and rubber band tires on Hummers and big 4WD SUV's make me laugh. Like putting high heel shoes on with your work clothes.
Right there with you.. trust me when I say this isn't going to be ghetto. nor transformers.. I'm having the crappy star center cap removed.. I just like the wheels and 17 is the max we're going even if we went with OEM 17 would have been the max. Though we could have went with the Focus wheels.. but once I found an image of the RockStar wheels without the center cap.. I knew those were the ones.
Here in Baltimore.. the rage (not my thing) is to old cop cars ragged out with 22+ shinny chrome wheels.. and that's way too ghetto for sure.
I don't see our van as ghetto or transformer crap.. I see it as cross over which started as an overlander and ended up getting semi slammed.. and we're not going to increase/decrease the camber etc to official go "stance" as they call it.. matter of fact StanceNation told me my "stance" wasn't good enough to fit within their community.. so they booted me. It's our thing.. and I'm liking how it's evolving.
Just got a great quote from a powder coating company.. Their looking into getting our Magnesium Blue color for us. Found someone to wrap the front of the van.. and we're (wife and I) are looking at doing the fuax carbon fiber painting ourselves.
After months of searching and not finding what I needed (what the offset of the stock steel wheels are for the 015 Transit Connect) The we dropped the spare tire and took some measurements.
At first we got the numbers wrong and started feeling depressed until we watch a video about how to figure out ones offset. Before then, we had taken 3 sets of offset number the 2 of them (the worst) were not acceptable.. the last one 48mm was close enough for Government work.
With that number I was able to zero in more with the wheel calculation system on wheel-size.com Even though I found several errors and I'm looking for those changes to be implemented by wheel-size experts, these changes do not effect our finding today.
So for the record and to all those who want to know what the 2014-2015 Ford Transit Connect's 16x6.5 stock steel wheels offset is.. 48mm. The thing that really surprised me and I never knew this, was that int he video a woman had the wheel flat on the floor and measured the wheel's width.. it came to 11''.. but the wheel is listed at 10''.. and that's what threw us.
225/50R17 Maxxis Tires (which measure 25.8 / 9.1 on 7'' wheel) These number will vary slightly based on the tires being mounted on the 8'' wheel instead.
So, No we aren't going as slammed as some have said and actually this is a larger and wider tire than OEM, but has a shorter sidewall. But will stick out 18mm beyond the fender and I can live with that.
Wheel width has always meant the distance between the bead areas where the tire contacts them. Otherwise a steel wheel would be narrower than an alloy wheel, and extra material on the outside of the wheel would make a wheel measure wider. The offset would be based on the absolutes of wheel/hub mounting surface and how much it is "off center" from the tire center (which would be the center of the wheel bead areas).
In the past, some aftermarket wheel mfrs used "backspacing" as a measurement instead of offset. A 7" wide wheel with 3.5" backspacing would theoretically have zero offset. Wheels offset toward the center of the car (like the TC wheels) have a negative offset where the old RWD cars usually had positive offsets.
A lot has happen since I was last here.. Let's start where I left off, with those 775 Rockstar wheels..
So back then, I sent a work order to 4wheelonline which is as follows:
Size: 17x8
Bolt Pattern: 5-108 (5x4.25)
What we got was a big mess and a mistake.. I was suppose to have taken 4-8 weeks for these wheels to be milled.. it took only 5 days.. We get the wheel (1 wheel) delivered to our shop.. open the box and discovered.. not 5 lug holes, but 10. Holes that where not spaced evenly, too deep and too wide.
Next, just looking at the wheel I could tell this wasn't going to work.. the center bore was too large.. the wheel was too heavy, 3 times heavier than the stock steel wheels with the tire installed. lastly, the wheels was too wide.. The site lists these wheels at 17x8.. but after measuring.. 18x9 and there was no way a 9'' wheel was going on out van.
Miss information and double talk was the norm.. However we attempted to mount the wheel on the van just to see if it would fit.. Nada.. there wasn't any clear path to travel, extremely reduced turning clearance etc.. and if we had use a 200 lb. Air tool to mount this wheel on the van.. The lugs would have broken out the center.. clearly this was a rushed mess and we wanted our money back.
A few weeks past and we finally got our money back.. but this left us without any upgraded wheels.. so the search continued. I found a Europe site which offers Ford Galaxy wheels.. but the issue was the off set was 55mm and this would be too much.. then locating Volvo S60 wheels.. this time the issue was the center bore measuring 65.1 mm.. Our van required a 63.3 mm Offset.
Then I realized how so many of these sites can offer a guaranty fit.. because they don't tell you upfront about hub-centric wheel rings.. which will need to be replaced after 30K miles or so.. I wanted to avoid all this.. the right wheel, with the correct specs.. and this was getting harder to find. My options and choice were limited.. mainly 3 ford wheels meant for the miniCargo van.
But wait, what's this.. I get an email from a Spanish rally racing team who had been following my blogs.. They informed me to contact BraidUSA and look into the Flowcast A version wheel.
Right off, I wasn't impressed. After all it wasn't what I had hoped to find.. But after speaking with the companies spokesman, I've changed my mind.. this wheel manufacture has been racing their wheels since the late 70's. 37+ years of racing. and because of association with the SCCA in the past, we had a connection. But when I noticed they're team van (sprinter) had their wheels on the van.. I knew I found the right people.
At this point.. We're all awaiting the final word of if these wheels are going to fit.. I've again submitted a request for:
Size: 17x7 Bolt Pattern: 5-108 (5x4.25) (5 lug holes not 10) Center Bore: 63.3 mm Offset: 45 mm Lug Hole Size: M12 -1.5
This time my specs are the closest I've been able to figure and find out from all those other wheel sites. Mind you another forum, the TransCon owner just installed 16x7 wheels and said there isn't any rubbing.
Paul via BraidUSA has taken this into his own hands.. Sure everything looks good on paper and there are many options for sizes and widths of these wheels. We look forward to finding out more about these wheels and very soon.
3 failures in the last 6 months.. Clearly the 17x8 (measures 18x9) will not fit under the van.. So I turned to Spain and their rally wheels.. we were almost ready to purchase them when.. another forum said the rally wheels are not DOT Approved.. Bam.. This leaves out any wheels from Europe.. and I found more than my share from FordPartsUK.com.. 6 Ford focus wheels which we like would have fit the TransCon.. but because UK etc has different rules when it comes to approving wheels for their highways.
Right now, my only hope of having something different on the van without any sort of wheel ring or spacer.. is Ford's very close cousin, Volvo.. the S80, V70 and a couple more.. Wheel size range from 16x6.5 - 17x7. But what concerns me on this is that the Volvo wheels have a slightly larger center bore, their offset is extremely close and the lug size required is M14-1.5 where as the TransCon required M12-1.5. I have had several suggest that we can use these wheels because at another forum.. A Ford focus driver installed the same Volvo wheels.. but never documented if he used spacers/wheel rings/budge acorn lugs.
The search continues.. but could be drawing to an end sooner than we had hoped.
Edited the list above because we've tried a few of these size and some just didn't work. The trick is to find the right wheel size that works in cooperation with the correct tire size.
Also, for a few weeks, stockwheels.com has been very excited that I was going to use their service for finding wheels for the van.. But I sent them word saying that I wanted to see if the Volvo S80 9 or 11 spoke design would fit on the TransCon.. they response was that we would have to pay for the shipping, but there wouldn't be a restocking fee if the wheel doesn't work.. they continued to say that they will not guaranty this Volvo wheel on the transit Connect if issues occur in the future/down the road. One min they're all exited, now their showing their true colors.. I think what is best is that we explore the junk yards in our area for any Volvo wheel that's within specs and just try it.. Slowly I feel our wheel options closing in on us and no one is willing to support our findings.
