I am looking for new tires for my 1980 f250 that I bought a while back for a whopping $450. It has some 30s on it and they look ridiculously tiny on it and was wondering what size would look good. Also any suggestions for cheap but good tires would be great, as I'm a broke high schooler.

 

So, you're looking for rims and tires???

I'm not a high schooler and don't know what you think would not look ridiculously thin but you can expect gas mileage to take a hit and turning to suffer.

The rim size is printed on the door jamb sticker.
​​​​​​​Tire Width for a Wheel/Rim Size Chart

 

The rims currently on the truck leak so they need to be replaced. Door jamb sticker is long gone but some googling shows that 15-16 inch rims are what people usually go with. Assuming I get some 16 inch rims, what tire size would be appropriate if the truck sits like this with 30s

 

Would a front end leveling kit be recommended? The amount of rake is pretty crazy, especially since the only thing it'll probably ever tow is a small duck boat.

 

I've never heard of 15" 8 lug rims. Don't even think 15's will clear the calipers.
You have to be careful of back spacing because even stock width tires tend to rub the springs on a 250.

There was a thread last week about leveling a 250.
It's not cheap or simple.
​​​​​​​https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-f250-4x4.html

 

You must have more money than I do. No way could I drop $1500 in wheels and tires on my truck. Have you priced this stuff? It's expensive.

Looks like you already have aftermarket rims on it. It's hard to tell, everyone paints their rims black now. Another fad that I hope goes away. Leveling the front is another fad.

 

As already noted, F-250s never had 15" rims, not enough clearance for the brakes. 16" or 16.5" were stock (and 16.5" is an orphan now, so I certainly wouldn't suggest going there).

The most common stock size tire was 235/85-16. That's about 32" tall and would look a lot better on that truck than the short tires on it. They still aren't TALL, and they're still pretty skinny, so they might not be what you want, but they won't kill your mileage.

As far as what tire, that depends entirely on what you are looking for. Coopers have been recommended here a lot as an all-around tire, but I don't have any experience. Personally I like BFG All-Terrains, but they're not that cheap.

edit: I also meant to add that rims almost never leak, so if yours are rusty enough to have pinholes through them you better replace then soon. On the other hand it's very common to have a leaky bead, between the tire and rim. This is often caused by rust on the rim in that area. But it can usually be cleaned up and repainted (with the tire off obviously). So you may not need new rims if that's the case.

The front ride height looks pretty close to stock to my untrained eye. On the other hand, the rear looks too high, like maybe someone added overload springs or something. Or maybe it's the short tires giving that look and the front springs have sagged. Anyway, they didn't have that much rake to begin with. Here's a pic of my '85 F-250HD (with 255/85-16 tires). The truck is less than a year old in this pic, and it's not loaded, so this was the stock stance.