Well today on the way home from work the Areostar developed quite a vibration.

It seemed to change with the speed so I figured it had to be a tire problem.

When I got to where I pick up my wife from work I got out and walked around the van to check the tires and the left rear had thrown off a chunk about 4 inches long and about 2 inches wide.

When we bought the van I didn't like the look of the tires, they are the original Michelins.
they looked to have about 25% of the tread left but they were kind of cracking on the sidewalls.

After reading here that Jeep wheels fit I have been looking for a set of the 15 inch gold Lacey mags that come on a Cherokee Limited and then I was going to get some lower profile 15 inch tires.

(I think the gold will look good with the red)

Anyways since one of the tires gave up the ghost I figured I couldn't wait, so I got a new set of tiires put on the stock wheels.

The van came with 215/70 14's and I replaced them with 225/70 14's

They seem to fit fine and boy do they look good,
and they handle fantastic

I was just wondering what tire size are all you other guys running.

 

I've got the 215/75 14 which is a very tall tire. I think the tall sidewall height of this tire detracts a lot from the handling and stability of our 95 2WD Aerostar. A lower profile tire should help handling. I'd like to hear if lower profile tires have helped the handling of others. In your case cactusdoug, it appears you went to a taller tire than you had? Do you think the handling improvement came about by just having a fresh set of tires or did the change in size help in some way?

 

Size Diameter
215/70-14 25.85

225/75-14 27.29

difference 1.44

which would raise the van about 3/4 of an inch.

I think the handling improvement was most likely due to the new rubber, I don't think the 10 mm in width would make that much difference, but I like having just a little more height as we live in the desert and do drive on dirt roads a lot, plus we do use our van like a truck and I like the extra weight carrying ability of a slighty bigger tire and they really look good as they fill out the wheel well nicely.
The 215's always looked too small to me.
If I ever find a set of the Jeep wheels I want I will put on a lower profile 15 inch performance type tire.

 

Thanks for the tip about the Jeep rims...I really want to change from the steel wheels to a taller and wider rim. Though with the covers now they look pretty snazzy I want a lower profile and wider tire.

 

Wow, that's funny.

If I had posted a tire size question on one of the Mustang forums I frequent it would have been a hot topic, as everyone has their own ideas as to what is the best tire size to use.

I guess all the Aero guys just run the stock size tires.

Which kind of answers another question I had,
on the road you see a lot of Astrovans with custom wheels and tires as well as custom paint and other modifacations, but I never see any Aerostars "fixed up". I guess Aero guys just drive 'em stock and don't fix them up.

 

My 96 had 215 75-14 tires, and I've found that dimension hard to find, so went to 225-70-14 Michelin Light Truck tires. If I did the math right, tire diameter remained about the same, so odomoter/speedometer remained accurate, and the wider tread width is helpful in handling.

 

Mo51, just wondering if you noticed a harsher, harder ride with the LT 225 70R14 tires on your Aerostar? I have a new set of Mohave R/S tires, P215 75R14 on my shorty Aerostar. WW. These tires are manufactured by Kelly Tires, and purchased @ America's Tire Company. I replaced the P215 70R14's, which I always thought, too, looked small on the van. These tall tires (215 75R14) have a nice ride, and run great at 65-70mph on the freeway. I would like a nice P225 70R14 RWL, however. Oh, the other day I saw a clean '89 Aerostar with a set of classic Cragar S/S rims, 14X7 rear, 14X6 front. Standard, stock offset wheels (not the "deep dish" rims) with P225 70R14 BF Goodrich T/A tires. I parked my Aerostar next to this one at Home Depot. The owner of this black Aerostar, clean, with front bumper and hood bra said he had the Cragars on a Ford Gran Torino that he sold, but wanted to keep the Cragars. I can assure you, the Cragars looked perfect on an Aerostar. Anyway, we talked about the vans for about 15 minutes, until the bored look on his wife or girlfriend told him he had to go. I grew up in the 70s, and love, still, the look of Cragar S/S rims and similar styles from that era. Older cars with 18" -22" rims, with 1/4" of tire sidewall do absolutely nothing for me. Maybe I am "out of touch" but a '55 Chevy with 20" wheels look awkward and stupid to me! Just my opinion...ED

PS I saw a extended length Aerostar van, with P 205 70R14 tires. Talk about rubber that looked horribly too small!!!....

 

I'm the guy with the 225 70 14 Michelin LT 4 "light truck" tires. No, the ride is just fine, maybe better (than my old bald tires) haven't noticed any harder ride at all. This tire size does look better than the 215 75 14 stocksize I wore out (80Kmiles) In looking up the specs on tires, I noted that my new ones have 13/32" tread depth. Many car tires have 9-10/32" tread when new. So, you kind of have extra tread (when new) that's cushioning the ride, and maybe helping out in the monsoons. I paid about $400 out the door at Sears. This "upsize" will still keep your stock speedometer reading fine, same diameter as the stock 215-75-14.

 

This thread mentioned that 15" wheels of a Jeep Cherokee ltd would fit the Aerostar. Which year works? All of the jeeps I checked show a -6->-19 mm offset, where the aerostart
requires a +20->+30mm offset for a 15x7 rim.

I'd like to get some take off rims instead of buying new. The best price I've seen for new rim's is a 5-spoke style for ~$82 each.

 

I have a 97 extended which replaced my 93 (liked that one better). My son went to a junkyard and bought some Ford Ranger rims for my snow tires. They've worked great for both vehicles.
Love these vans just frustrated with a "Check engine" message that we're working on now. This forum sure helps with troubleshooting this. Thanks!

 

I'm running 225/70/14 Dunlop GT Qualifiers on 14" Weld wheels.

 

The first set of tires I bought were Michelins to replace the factory Michelins. We could have gotten 80,000 miles out of them but were going to tow a boat to Florida, and didn't want to take the chance. When I went to replace them at 137,000miles due to cuts in the sidewalls I couldn't get the Michelins in a P215-17-R14 (what the van had as OEM) I E-mail Michelin and they recommended Uniroyal Tiger Paws, we have almost 10,000 miles on them and they are a better tire than the Michelins, in road noise levels, ride and handling in all situations. They were $293.57 for four, out the door at BJs with life time rotation. The m/n is 593634. Michelin and Uniroyal are owned by the same group.

 

I just started a post on finding 15 in. rims for my 95 AWD Aero. Not knowing about the various offsets I opted for some 225/75/14's. I was after more weight carring capacity. I gained about 250 lbs. per tire. I've only driven 10 mi. or so, but I think I noticed a small amount of rear end sway that wasn't present in the 215/70/14's that were on it before. The difference in height appears to be about 1 in. when viewing them side by side.
The new tires don't look half flat like the other ones did.
Ross

 

w w
I own a 1991 Aerostar 3.0L, I am having a hard time finding the original tires that came on it. Either they are out of stock or hard to find. The size that came on it is 205/70/R14 Michelin X One. I would like to change the size of the tires to see if it will handle better. I would like to know if anyone knows if 235/75/R15's will fit my 91 Aerostar? I have found this post very helpful with all the other small problems that needs to be fixed on my Ride !! Please let me know ASAP! I need to buy new rubber for it before it blows! LOL



( Just because I'm a Girl that doesn't make me Dumb, LOL That's what Forums are for.. LOL )

 

I think you will have serious fitment problems with 235/75/15 tires. They will be way too tall (almost 4" taller than stock), and will most likely rub against inner fenders and suspension parts on bumps and turns. Also, tires that tall will not handle very well.

For better handling, you should go for wider, but lower profile tires. But for a van that will see a lot of load, you probably don't want to go too low profile. You can probably go with a 235/60/14 tire if you get 7" wide wheels. Or you can go to a + wheel size (15" diameter) and get away with a 225/60/15 tire.

PS: You don't have to be a girl to be dumb.