15" tires on 14" truck?

[moretsky99]

My 96 2 WD extended cab calls for 14" tires. I believe the original specs were for 195/70; 215/70; 225/70 R14's.


How would the truck ride on 15" tires? Why did some 96 Ranger come with 15" tires and others with 14" tires?

How to specify the bolt pattern to look for rims?

 

[superj]

It will look fine.

Probably just common tire sizes and trim levels decided what yours came with

 

[Curious Hound]

14" is just the outer diameter of the rim. The tire is bigger than that- about 26.4".

Going to a 15" wheel only changes the sidewall height by 1/2". You won't notice a difference in ride quality. Just pick a tire that is around 26.5 - 27" in diameter for a 15" rim.

Standard lug pattern for that truck is 5x4.5 with around 3.5" backspacing.

Lots more info Here

 

[JoshT]

A 15" wheel will fit fine on your truck. So would a 16, 17 or 18 inch wheel, that's all about the style and useage you like for your truck. The key is selecting proper wheel specs (width, lug patterm, and offset/backspace) to match your truck, then the proper tire size (width and diameter) to match your wheel and truck.

If those the lug pattern, 5x4.5 (aka 5x114.3), is going to be the same for all 1983-2011 Rangers. If what you are considering is another stock 5 lug Ranger wheel, you'll pretty much be safe with anything you choose. The diameters and offset/backspace might be slightly different, but it is likely close enough to work just fine.

Honsetly your inexperience here shows. Unless you have another set of stock 5 lug Ford Ranger wheels you want to install, I'd recommend talking to who ever is going to be doing the tire mounting and install about what you want. They should be able to get you steered correct in getting the right wheel and tire selection for your truck. Plus if you buy their recommendation from them and it doesn't fit, it's on them to make it right.

Just my 2 cent.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Not sure what gear ratio yours ended up with since Ford used everything... My '97 has 4.10's in the rear and I tried several sizes of tire before I found a happy medium with 225 75 15, it's a 2.3L 5 speed extended cab... 205 is a more stock size but I wanted just a touch taller...

14" wheels USED to be the standard, now they're rare, not as rare as 12" but getting there... even 15" wheels are hard to find tires for anymore... I searched and found some wheels from a '09 Ranger to put tires on, obviously a simple bolt on affair, they were corroded to heck so it took effort but still...

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Moved this to where it belongs.

14” rims are becoming rare, but they were once almost as common as 15” rims. With most new vehicles moving to 17-23” rims though, the tire supply for smaller rims is drying up unfortunately. I may get forced into switching things to 16” or larger rims.

Bigger rims were needed to clear bigger brakes, low optioned trucks, especially 4 cyl 2wds had the smallest brakes typically and the smaller rims.

 

[19Walt93]

Unless you have a set of 15" wheels already I'd find some 16's to make it easier and cheaper to buy tires. In the 60's and early 70's 14's were common and cheap, now they're getting harder to find and more expensive, 15's are following them. To keep the outside diameter close to what you have you'll need a lower profile tire- maybe 60 series instead of 70. I bought new Rangers in 2004 and 2011, both had 16" tires so used wheels shouldn't be hard to find.

 

[mikkelstuff]

The one issue is in the variety of tire sizes. A great deal are offered in 15" tires. Not so much in 16" tires. So trying to match the 14" tire diameter (keeps the speedometer working correctly) with 16" tires may not be possible.

I went through this with my 1975 Ford Ranchero which came with 14" tires. I could easily do 15" but not 16".