These two tires sizes are almost identical except for width.
It seems to me that Ford put the wider tire (BFG's) on the 4wd models, and the narrower tire (Continentals) on the 2wd models, at least in 2003.
I am looking at buying a set of stock tires and wheels from a guy, but they came off a 4wd and are the 265/75/16. My truck is 2wd and has the 235/85/16 on it.
So my question is, why does Ford put a wider tire on the 4wd trucks? Probably because a wider tire is better off road, but I wanna know what differences I will see making the switch. I am not looking for a difference/better tire. I would prefer to put 235/85/16s back on it, but this could turn out to be much cheaper.
The truck is mainly used as my daily driver in the winter, and for towing.
Also are the wheels wider to accomodate the wider tire, or could I put the wider tires on the wheels I have now? And if there a difference in offset between the two different wheels?

 

The wider tires look better on our trucks. That said, for winter driving the narrow, tall tires work far better for on-road use.

For towing we want a tire that is firm and has a stiff sidewall so that there are less scary moments when hauling a heavy trailer. My experience is that the narrower load range E tires work the best.

My last truck came stock with the 235/18/16 tires and I swapped them out for 12.5-33's and new rims. The truck worked sorta-OK in the winter and sorta-OK for towing, but it looked great.

The current truck is running stock sized 275/75/18 tires and they work very well for towing, plow duty and winter use. Sometimes I wish they were wider for looks though.....

Lou Braun

 

I don't care about the difference in appearance at all. I want to know the functional differences between the tires.
Winter driving where I live is no different than summer driving, other than the fact that it is WAY too cold in the mornings to take the bike to work.