How well will it run with bigger tires?

[Helgaiden]

How well does this little engine deal with bigger tires? My brother is looking at getting all terrains but is unsure how big he wants to go cuz of the 2.3. He would like 31" tires but will settle for 30s, or even 28s. He wants an aggressive look to his 06 ranger. Personally, 28s wont give it enough of an aggressive look but what do you guys think?

 

[frankserrano]

i ran 31s with my old '97 2.3L. and those aren't as ballsy as the new duratecs. he'll be gravy with 31s, if he can clear them.

 

[Helgaiden]

Ah cool. Lookin at some used all terrains, 31/10.50/15. Would they fit on the 06 base model stock 15 inch rim? What about on stock EDGE rims?

Maybe wrong forum for that question lol.

 

[Nater]

Been running 31x10.5s for a while now on my 94 with no problems either...

 

[dirttrackracer]

my friends truck has 33's but he can fit 35's he had 35in pit bulls on but he burnt 2 clutches up. with the 33's they are bfg mud terrain and he bought a heavy duity clutch, 6thousand and no problems yet. you wont have any problems except if you have the stock clutch, but if its auto you are good because that 2.9 will do aright with bigger tires

 

[BlackBII]

It wont have any problems......

But it WILL be slower.

 

[Helgaiden]

yeah but how much slower? Its a 5spd.

Will it be a significant amount of slowdown to where the truck can barely get out of its own way? (like on left turns, u-turns, or from a dead stop)

 

[AgPete139]

With the tire upgrade, your speedo & odometer will be incorrect. To put everything back to stock performance, you will need new gears. The acceleration and torque will show significant performance improvement after you switch to larger rubber.

Pete

 

[Hesstopher]

I purchased my truck with larger than stock tires; still road tires but it raise the truck a good 3-4 inches-- big ole things.

This is a 2.3L Duratec 2006 5-Speed

My 5th gear is useless unless I'm going 70 on flat ground; then it's basically a cruise control as I can't accelerate. These aren't 31" tires, not sure the exact measurement but I can check later if you want. I am using a harbor bridge as my measuring stick, in 5th I lose speed even if I am going 80 up it, I'll spill probably 15-20 just climbing in 5th. In 4th I can accelerate up, albeit slowly but still it is a gain and not a loss. I've got some mods planned (see below) that hopefully will have me acceleration uphill in 5th.

The low end gears aren't bad but:

- fuel eco is crap (21 avg hwy or city, I get the same for both and this is if I am gentle on throttle)
- much higher center of gravity so turning at speed (what I consider a normal turning speed) becomes tricky
- top safe speed (achieved in 4th gear as 5th is useless) is 80; at 85 you can feel the truck becoming VERY unstable; 90 is the limiter at that was just plain heart stopping the way it danced around.
- acceleration is very much limited to the power band (4500-5800rpm) when pushing it I've hit the rev limit on a few occasions which destroys acceleration as it is VERY rough rev limit (you'll lurch forward in your seat)

After a few months of this I'm doing the following:

- Modified intake (get a junk-yard box and cut it up, keep the bottom but attach cone just past MAF and run the box topless so the engine can pull more air in when needed and it protected form bottom heat/splash-up
- Performance headers to get exhaust gases moving
- Cat-back 2.5" exhaust w/ high flow (NOT STRAIGHT THROUGH RICE-BURNER) muffler and ditch the exhaust out the passenger side before axle.
- Once my tires wear down (they were basically new when I got the truck) I'm going back to more of a stock size since I don't need that much clearance or that large of a tire.

I'd suggest if your brother wants to make this a mud/off-road truck to consider a highflow intake and exhaust setup, especially new manifolds. The truck can handle the larger wheels but remember the bigger the tires the more you handicap the smaller engine.

If he wants a serious mud-beast I'd suggest doing a V8 swap with an engine more geared for torque... it'd be a project but one well worth it. If you do that be sure to add some bracing to the frame as the over dose of torque will warp the frame in a short amount of time.

Picture this as a off-road truck and you'll get my drift.

btw-- smaller tire means faster acceleration; larger means higher speed. This is why eco-boxes use tiny tires, it helps compensate for the lack of hp.

To fully break the inertia that holds the vehicle in place the tires must make a single full rotation-- shorter tires means shorter rotation hence faster acceleration. Larger tires eat up hp as there is more mass to turn (lighter rims will help offset this difference but they can't cancel it) and throws off the oem gearing vision from crank to pavement (it does matter). To keep the stock feel w/ larger tires you'd have to change your rear-axle ratios to compensate. A small increase doesn't change that much, but going from stock to 31" will throw it way off.

Hope this helps.