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Lightweight, thin, economical wheel and tire recommendations.


bhgl

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You need to re-think your sizing. The aluminum wheel is much lighter than the rubber tire. So more wheel, less tire would make the assembly lighter.
I've heard the opposite in this regard, it seems more often than not the sidewall is in fact lighter than the wheel.

I think it depends on tire construction, and for most passenger car tires and typical wheels, I'm pretty sure the sidewall area combined is in fact lighter than a comparably bigger wheel.

Certainly less stiff with more squish however.
 
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bhgl

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195/75R16 = 27.5x7.7R16 and there are a few choices in that size.

Moonies for fuel economy - which usually suggests steel rims
I was considering getting some tires in that size, but it seems most of them are cargo van tires with otherwise high-rolling resistance/"luggy" treads, also they won't fit on a 7 Inch rim, so I'd most likely have to find a different set of wheels vs. the tri-spokes.
 

gaz

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@bhgl ,
I would use those tri-spokes. I looked at the wheels in your link, they look and from the description are chrome steel wheels; I would hard pass in those, especially with your "bird in the hand".

Unless you need something more aggressive, for a decent lifespan garunteed tire I like the Cooper Discoverer in the Road & Trail AT design. They are around $120/each in near stock 15" sizes, better on sale!!
 

bhgl

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@bhgl ,
I would use those tri-spokes. I looked at the wheels in your link, they look and from the description are chrome steel wheels; I would hard pass in those, especially with your "bird in the hand".

Unless you need something more aggressive, for a decent lifespan garunteed tire I like the Cooper Discoverer in the Road & Trail AT design. They are around $120/each in near stock 15" sizes, better on sale!!
Much appreciated! I think you're definitely right about passing on them, considering with taxes and everything they were about the same price as I bought the tri-spokes for.

I'm am looking for a more highway/touring oriented tire, as I basically never see true rough roads in my driving, and in the winter months I have a wonderful set of Blizzaks that've been more than solid.
 

gaz

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Ranger 5sp, BII A4LD
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Ranger 32"/4:10LS, BII 33"/3:73LS
My credo
Deengineer until it is how Blue Oval should have sold it!!
@bhgl

These are almost the size that came stock on both my rigs. Screaming deal @$79 EACH!! Though I would not consider them with other than a 3.42 or lower gear ratio.
 

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bhgl

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@bhgl

These are almost the size that came stock on both my rigs. Screaming deal @$79 EACH!! Though I would not consider them with other than a 3.42 or lower gear ratio.
Regrettably in this situation, I'm Canadian! So by the time they reach my side of the border I'll be up shit creek in duties and shipping.

Also the Tri spokes are 16 inch, so those in particular wouldn't fit.

I appreciate your recommendations though! If you find anything available through a Canadian retailer please let me know!
 

gaz

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Ranger 5sp, BII A4LD
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Ranger 32"/4:10LS, BII 33"/3:73LS
My credo
Deengineer until it is how Blue Oval should have sold it!!
@bhgl ,
Ah I missed the 16"...dought!! Either way, they sell Cooper in Canada, don't they?

The Cooper Endeavor is also a great passenger tire even with water on the road.
 

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I do know, the more aggressive tread has more rolling resistance. You want a very mild highway tire with very little contact patch inflated to the max sidewall pressure for the least rolling resistance.
 

bhgl

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@bhgl ,
Ah I missed the 16"...dought!! Either way, they sell Cooper in Canada, don't they?

The Cooper Endeavor is also a great passenger tire even with water on the road.
They do! But not at such wonderful pricing!
 

Lefty

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New wheels and tines sure look nice. Maybe they are the greatest single upgrade we can make.

I'm going out on a limb here, but I tend to think that good tires with plenty of tread are a very good thing, that we all get in a pinch from time-to-time, and when we do, we need all of the stopping power and traction that we can get. A year ago someone ran a red light right in front of me. Not only did I have to stop fast, but I also had to swerve hard. Some dumb thing like this may be just a fluke, but these kind of flukes seem to happen every year or two. I would rather be prepared for those eventualities, even be able to stop faster.

If I remember correctly you have a camper/topper of some sort. Maybe it helps with mileage. I dunno. One thing for sure, It adds a lot of weight and raises your center of gravity. If so, you might want to give this some serious thought.

I have also noticed that the 3.0 liter engine tends to chug along and perform pretty much the same no matter what. I put bigger tires on mine, fully expecting my mileage would go down but it never changed. I still get the same. You might just discover the same if you go with narrower tires.

Another factor is safety. I have spent thousands of dollars and plenty of time restoring and modifying. The best way for me to protect that investment is to have bigger tires. Mileage is one thing. Safety is quite another.

Perhaps a better investment would be some sort of ground effects package. It really helps with both traction and mileage and sucks your truck down to the road. And, if you can't buy one, you can always make one. Done right it just might even look really cool.

A good exhaust system might help your mileage too.
 
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sgtsandman

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The camper shell/topper has been shown to be fuel usage neutral if it's a fiberglass one. You lose the air bubble generated by the air catching the tailgate but the general air flow over the truck is better. The catch is that the added weight cancels any benefit from the better airflow. So, neutral.
 

bhgl

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New wheels and tines sure look nice. Maybe they are the greatest single upgrade we can make.

I'm going out on a limb here, but I tend to think that good tires with plenty of tread are a very good thing, that we all get in a pinch from time-to-time, and when we do, we need all of the stopping power and traction that we can get. A year ago someone ran a red light right in front of me. Not only did I have to stop fast, but I also had to swerve hard. Some dumb thing like this may be just a fluke, but these kind of flukes seem to happen every year or two. I would rather be prepared for those eventualities, even be able to stop faster.

If I remember correctly you have a camper/topper of some sort. Maybe it helps with mileage. I dunno. One thing for sure, It adds a lot of weight and raises your center of gravity. If so, you might want to give this some serious thought.

I have also noticed that the 3.0 liter engine tends to chug along and perform pretty much the same no matter what. I put bigger tires on mine, fully expecting my mileage would go down but it never changed. I still get the same. You might just discover the same if you go with narrower tires.

Another factor is safety. I have spent thousands of dollars and plenty of time restoring and modifying. The best way for me to protect that investment is to have bigger tires. Mileage is one thing. Safety is quite another.

Perhaps a better investment would be some sort of ground effects package. It really helps with both traction and mileage and sucks your truck down to the road. And, if you can't buy one, you can always make one. Done right it just might even look really cool.

A good exhaust system might help your mileage too.
I actually really appreciate this response because it talks about safety in a way that it should be talked about. With importance.

I'm definitely with you that in real life the roads aren't perfect, and neither are other drivers.

I am taking the safety aspect of my overall build pretty seriously, by first reinstalling/repairing the trucks standard safety equipment like airbags, and restraint systems which have been either damaged, or removed after it's accident from before I had it.

I think a reduction of width down to 205 is pretty reasonable, and in some low traction situations even be beneficial by concentrating pressure, it's something I've done with winter tires in every vehicle I've owned here in Northern Ontario. It should also be noted, my winter tire season is from October, to around the beginning of April, so half of my year is spent with very competent Blizzaks as a tradeoff for safety.

After the advice from folks on here, I'll most likely be sticking with the OEM Tri aluminum tri spokes, even fi they're not the perfect wheel. With standard oem tire size being 225/70r15, and my "thinnest" realistic option with the trispoke alloys being 205 width, at most I'm looking at a 0.8 inch reduction in width. Pretty reasonable in my opinion.

With the bed cap, I've added around 220 lbs to the rear according to the dump's scale, which overall has really helped with traction given an empty rear bed (especially in the winter). It's also made the car maintain stability a lot better compared to the open bed at high speed as well.

Compound is one of the reasons I'm avoiding EV tires, but also because basically no EV made today comes with 15-16 inch wheels, and so the choices for tires at 205-70 are non-existent. Compound is important too, luckily Hankook Kinergy, Toyo Extensa, and now Kumho TA51, and most economical touring tires still perform well, and have very good treadwear ratings.

I really wouldn't want to move a performance or a sports tire compound/tread that will overly compromise handling in lower but not freezing temperatures(15-5 Celsius), and rain. Being initial expense, tread life and drag will hit on the economy goals.

I've made sure when looking at tires that the load ratings are adequate for the vehicle's weight on all four corners, and in particular with maximum payload in the rear, a 97 with adequate inflation is going to be plenty. Same goes for speed ratings, and short of some really strange tires rated Q or N, which seems to be only some off-road and winter tires, I'm good there too.

You're right about the 3.0, overall not much can be done to make it more fuel efficient, that's why a lot of the efficiency mods are going to be focused outside of the engine bay.

Some additional aero will be come soon for sure! A lower grill block and a front air dam are almost ready to go on, and I'll be covering the area between the bed and truck topper with a plyable plastic (probably held down with speed/aircraft tape lol).
 

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I actually really appreciate this response because it talks about safety in a way that it should be talked about. With importance.

I'm definitely with you that in real life the roads aren't perfect, and neither are other drivers.

I am taking the safety aspect of my overall build pretty seriously, by first reinstalling/repairing the trucks standard safety equipment like airbags, and restraint systems which have been either damaged, or removed after it's accident from before I had it.

I think a reduction of width down to 205 is pretty reasonable, and in some low traction situations even be beneficial by concentrating pressure, it's something I've done with winter tires in every vehicle I've owned here in Northern Ontario. It should also be noted, my winter tire season is from October, to around the beginning of April, so half of my year is spent with very competent Blizzaks as a tradeoff for safety.

After the advice from folks on here, I'll most likely be sticking with the OEM Tri aluminum tri spokes, even fi they're not the perfect wheel. With standard oem tire size being 225/70r15, and my "thinnest" realistic option with the trispoke alloys being 205 width, at most I'm looking at a 0.8 inch reduction in width. Pretty reasonable in my opinion.

With the bed cap, I've added around 220 lbs to the rear according to the dump's scale, which overall has really helped with traction given an empty rear bed (especially in the winter). It's also made the car maintain stability a lot better compared to the open bed at high speed as well.

Compound is one of the reasons I'm avoiding EV tires, but also because basically no EV made today comes with 15-16 inch wheels, and so the choices for tires at 205-70 are non-existent. Compound is important too, luckily Hankook Kinergy, Toyo Extensa, and now Kumho TA51, and most economical touring tires still perform well, and have very good treadwear ratings.

I really wouldn't want to move a performance or a sports tire compound/tread that will overly compromise handling in lower but not freezing temperatures(15-5 Celsius), and rain. Being initial expense, tread life and drag will hit on the economy goals.

I've made sure when looking at tires that the load ratings are adequate for the vehicle's weight on all four corners, and in particular with maximum payload in the rear, a 97 with adequate inflation is going to be plenty. Same goes for speed ratings, and short of some really strange tires rated Q or N, which seems to be only some off-road and winter tires, I'm good there too.

You're right about the 3.0, overall not much can be done to make it more fuel efficient, that's why a lot of the efficiency mods are going to be focused outside of the engine bay.

Some additional aero will be come soon for sure! A lower grill block and a front air dam are almost ready to go on, and I'll be covering the area between the bed and truck topper with a plyable plastic (probably held down with speed/aircraft tape lol).
Very good. Keep us posted. It looks like a very nice truck
 

bhgl

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The camper shell/topper has been shown to be fuel usage neutral if it's a fiberglass one. You lose the air bubble generated by the air catching the tailgate but the general air flow over the truck is better. The catch is that the added weight cancels any benefit from the better airflow. So, neutral.
I wish I still had the piece of paper from when I did my first not super scientific test on the round trip I made to 350 KM round trip to pick up the cover and finally answer for myself the bed cap question, I was able to get remarkably improved fuel economy. I went from a mid 11L/100km down to just over 10L/100km, which is genuinely a substantial gain.

If I was in more typical city/urban traffic I think I would be close to neutral on returns, but given how/where I live a trip to costco and the movies is a total of 4 hours of highway driving with 20 minutes of urban stop and go driving. The aerodynamic advantages at higher speeds, where weight (outside of steep grades) is much less of an overall factor make it more economical for me. For some folks I can see a bed cap hurting overall mileage for sure, depending on its design and weight, some bed caps extend above the cabs roofline, adding more drag.

Plus, I love the utility. When running a standard cab, it's nice to have lockable storage for things like your purchases, or dog.
 

sgtsandman

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I wish I still had the piece of paper from when I did my first not super scientific test on the round trip I made to 350 KM round trip to pick up the cover and finally answer for myself the bed cap question, I was able to get remarkably improved fuel economy. I went from a mid 11L/100km down to just over 10L/100km, which is genuinely a substantial gain.

If I was in more typical city/urban traffic I think I would be close to neutral on returns, but given how/where I live a trip to costco and the movies is a total of 4 hours of highway driving with 20 minutes of urban stop and go driving. The aerodynamic advantages at higher speeds, where weight (outside of steep grades) is much less of an overall factor make it more economical for me. For some folks I can see a bed cap hurting overall mileage for sure, depending on its design and weight, some bed caps extend above the cabs roofline, adding more drag.

Plus, I love the utility. When running a standard cab, it's nice to have lockable storage for things like your purchases, or dog.
The ones that follow the body lines are certainly the most efficient.

Once pieces of the cap poke out into the wind, then you start to get a drag penalty. So, the highboy and aluminum caps are going the have a penalty. The mid caps are a mixed bag, depending on how they are designed.
 

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