Skinny tire question

[85_Ranger4x4]

Tires and rims are not the place to go seeking fuel economy.......

Aside from making your truck look gay and blowing money on new tires your not going to see much gains.

Why has no-one mentioned this yet?
Don't push the skinny pedal as hard while you drive and just keep the tires and wheels you have.

Frank

If it is the truck in his avatar, it is setting up pretty tall as it is. Downsizing tires would make a difference.

I lost 5mpg on my F-150 going from 255/70-16's to 255/75-17's on my F-150, I didn't have the original 235/70-16's on long enough to get much of an average but I imagine they would have made a difference compared to the 255's.

 

[Musick17]

Well holy smokes, didnt think this would become such a debate.

Now lets see if I can fill in some of the blanks for you guys.

My avatar picture was my old truck. The new one is a 2002 2.3L manual 2wd.
The college thing makes me drive about 300 miles a week just to get to school and back. Not including everyday driving.
My current tires definitely need replaced.
I knew skinnier tires wouldnt make a big difference, and Im not an expert. Just looking for some insight.

Ive decided to get some 235's. So now instead of fighting about who is right, how about some recommendations on tires you've been thoroughly impressed with?

Thank all

 

[--weezl--]

Anything smaller than a 15 inch rim is going to be a passenger car tire. OP says he has 15x7 rims.

Maybe there was an accidental term mix-up? I've typed/said the wrong word a few times.



I agree with you, but you need to change some of your 14's to 15's while you're explaining the math.

We all agreed with you that a 235/75R15 is very similar to a 30x9.50R15.

Frank, thank you. +rep

If you goal is mileage, hop on tire rack and see the skinniest tires thay have for the stock tire dimaeter (I.E., the diameter you have now). and that's only if you need new tires, otherwise, don't bother.

i used 15 in some instances and 14 in others, at the beginning, went through, changed the rim size to 15 for the sake of the post, then went through and re-changed it all back to 14, to differentiate between the rim size and the sidewall size, which was 7.5 each (15 for both) but yes, we are on the same page



as far as this whole skinnier tire debate... honestly, it's not worth the money for a cheap set of used tires! my truck stock comes with 31x10.5x15" tires, i believe on 15x8" aluminum rims, they weigh somewhere in the neighborhood of... the tire it's self weighs 42lbs a piece not sure the weight of the aluminum rim, i'm told 19lbs... now when i bought my new tires, they are 33x12.5x15 bfg km2's which weigh a whopping 58lbs a piece, plus the steel rims, which by the best research i can find are like 34lbs! and in addition to that, there is a difference of power required to turn them...

all of that taken into consideration, i'm looking at maybe a 2mpg difference... i would say the total weight of the 31's are probably 60 lbs, where as the 33's are 92lbs!

and trust me, lifting those to change them every second week or so, there is DEFINITELY a difference of around 30+lbs a piece... so unless you're going to shave 30% of the weight off your rims, you aren't going to see nearly as much difference in the mpg...

though i used to do more than 130km/h (don't feel like converting that to miles) down the highway every day to work, and was getting 12-14mpg... after slowing down to a MAX speed of 130km/h (only here and there also) i jumped up to 14-16mpg, and even seen a few times at around 18... which just goes to show that it IS your driving patterns... not your tires...

(the numbers i used weren't quite accurate to calculate between metric and imperial, so the 12mpg number may not be accurate, but % of difference before and after will be the same, as the same factors were used)


also, i drive the same regardless of the tires that are on the truck

 

[JohnnyO]

Ive decided to get some 235's. So now instead of fighting about who is right, how about some recommendations on tires you've been thoroughly impressed with?

Since you're putting on a lot of miles you would spend less in the end if you ante up for some Michelin LTX's since they wear like iron. BFG Long Trails are good too and cost less.