another explorer-to-ranger rim swap thread. 225-70-15, 2000 2.5l 2wd

[sgtsandman]

i do offroad a decent amount (ive been driving through a lot of patches of sugar sand lately) so i am kinda wearing of going towards thinner tires, but from what i understand they significantly help improve mpg.
will skinny tires ride decently well offroad as long as i deflate down to 25 or 20psi?

thnx for the suggestions yall. my mechanic buddy who knows my cheapness and driving habits and vehicle goals has been begging to switch to alum rims.
...hes also been begging me to wash my truck, lol

Airing down tires makes the tread contact patch mostly longer than wider. So, having a skinny tire over a wider tire in that regard won't make much of a difference. I'm drawing a blank on when skinny tires are advantageous over wider tires. I'm leaning toward where wider tires are better on sand because they will sink into the sand less. Either Ronny Dahl or 4XOverland on youtube (maybe both) covered the subject fairly recently on youtube. I would defer to their expertise on the matter since both do drive on sand, Ronny Dahl being the one who does it more.

 

[youngbuckwithapickuptruck]

skinny tires improve mpg and seem to have a negative affect on everything else

 

[Josh B]

Skinny tires were why model T's, with their skinny tires, went around pulling the stuck Buicks, with their much wider tires out of the sand back in the 1920's and 30's

 

[Josh B]

The deeper tread just means a taller tire and farther around so every revolution carries you a bit farther down the road

 

[Danno1985]

If the steelies are bent, that's one thing, but otherwise I can't imagine it'd be worthwhile to replace them.

I'd just stick with the stock size. I measure my mpgs every tank and routinely get around 27 in mixed driving without really thinking too hard about it. I could get more if I used more aggressive hypermiling techniques and drove 55 on the freeway, but driving that way will get you shot at around here. There are a lot of gimmicky ideas on how to get better mpgs than the sticker, but the handful of things that've actually worked for me are:
1. Keep the wheel/tire size factory, use a highway tread and passenger load rating (if applicable), and keep the tires inflated. I usually go to 35psi, 38 in the back if I'm hauling stuff, you could safely inflate to the max sidewall pressure but all you're doing is eliminating the damping effect of the tires and transmitting all the vibrations to everything else, including your back.
2. Keep the truck tuned up and properly aligned.
3. Don't drive like a d*ck. When I was a teen my Dad always told me to drive as if the car had no brakes. Took me until my 30s to actually take the advice to heart, but it's a whole mentality - you learn to see and think ahead and leave more space to coast into and out of lights. Not only do you save a lot of fuel not riding the gas until the last second and then slamming on the brakes when the light turns red like every other phone zombie around, brakes, tires, and all the other wear items last a lot longer.

Replacing the rims would not make my list, needless to say.

All that said, if you want different rims for the look and feel you need to justify it, just go for the new rims man.