R Walter

I recently bought another 96 5 speed. It has 16.5 inch American Racing wheels with BFG All-terrain 35x12.50x16.5 tires that are down to only 4/32 of tread left. I need new tires.

This truck has a 3.54 rear end. The original owner went with 16.5 inch wheels and a 35 inch tire, to keep the engine RPMs from winding out so much. Back when he probably changed to the 16.5 inch wheels, it was his only option to get as tall a tire as he did.

Now there are lots of decent, bigger, higher load-range tires available for a 16 inch wheel. It's hard to find tires for 16.5 inch wheels, although BFG, Cooper and Dunlop have them, the smallest generally being a 33x12.50x16.5.

I want to go with a less tall tire than the 35 inch on the truck now, probably something around 33 inches, which is about how tall a 285x75xR16 would stand.

With the 35 inch tires now(worn down considerably)in 5th gear at 2,000 RPM, my speedo shows 69-70 MPH. At 1,750 RPM my speedo shows, 61-62 MPH. Of course, my speedo is probably off, or slow, almost 15%, since I'm sure the speedo has never been recalibrated for the 35 inch tires. [15% is the difference between the stock tires for that truck of 245x75xR16 and 35 inch tires.]

My intention is to set this truck up for hauling loads, goose neck and bumper pull trailers, and I'm interested in opinions on:

1. Whether to bite the bullet, and buy 16 inch wheels,
2. How tall a tire is optimum in your experience to achieve a good compromise between pulling and good highway manners in maintaining optimum RPM levels.

Suggestions, opinions and shared experiences are welcome.

Crimedog

There are just a handful of tire companies out there still producing tires for the 16.5" rims. You could easily get a 33x12.50 on there and it would be much better final ratio for towing. I don't like towing with a 35" tire and the 3.54 ratio. It does it fine, but it gets a little smokey at times. If you can afford about $300 for a set of 16x8 rims (lots on ebay for cheap), I would do it and sell your old ones to recoup the cost. Otherwise there should always be a few different choices for 16.5 tires available so it would be cheaper to just throw some 33's on. I also like the look of the 33x12.50s I used to run. It basically comes down to if you like what's available for 16.5 tires.

From my experience, a 33" tire is about perfect for towing and daily use on a 3.54. You still have plenty of throttle response, it looks good, and will bring your revs down a bit on the highway.

Scramblinman

16.5" wheels are dying out. And for good reason, in my opinion, as they do not have a safety bead.

Don't kid yourself about there being that many higher load range 35" tires available for a 16" wheel. There only 3 Load Range E/10 PR tires 35" for a 16" wheel that I can think of off the top of my head: Toyo Open Country M/T, Hankook Dynapro RT03, and a Super Swamper model I can't recall at the moment.

I think it's a smart move to drop down a tire size with the 3.54 gears. A 285/75R16 is about 33" tall and is just about perfect with those gears. And they are not as wide as a 33x12.5x15, so they will have less rolling resistance, aiding fuel economy. I would just bite the bullet and either move back to 16" wheels or up to 17" ones.

Cummins Freak

heck if you want i'll trade you my 16x10 M/T classic II's for the 16.5's ya got a pix email it to me

I've also got a set of stockers from my 97 if you would want those for trade

1stGen545

I have had 3 sets of BFG MT 33x12.50x16.5 on my 2 trucks and love them thay handle a load well, last around 42-45,000 on all of them, and are cheaper than the 16 inch of the same make. If BFG stops making them I will by new rims but till then that is the only tire I will run. Except for the crapy wrangler RT II s that I got for free but there about to go. You can get then for about $50 but there hot worth that If you plan to run them on the road. Then I will go with 17 inch Toyo Open Country MT's on my driver I have a friend tha has them and I like what I see.

gorms

Right now I'm running Kumho Road Venture AT 33x12.5x16.5 on my american racing rims and for the price they are holding up very well, $130-something each at tirerack I believe. They are only D range, but at 50 psi (max rated) they don't really squash much, not noticeable in turns. I had a ton of sand in the bed on Sunday and they handled fine, sidewalls were flaring a little bit in the rear, not too bad though. I got them because I got the wheels for free, and figured it'd be nice to have something with a little more bite in the snow/mud, which they are top notch in the snow. I rarely need 4wd, unless I'm driving on 4+ inches up a hill, etc.

My ONLY complaint with my set up is the tires are so friggen wide they stick out about 2 inches in the front and splash salt/mud all over the windows...and it looks a little bit funny with no lift on a long truck. As far as fuel consumption, I haven't really noticed much loss, maybe 1-2 mpg.

R Walter

I decided to go with the 16 inch wheel and tire setup. Just bought 4 x American Racing 16 x 8 wheels and 4 x BFG 285-75R-16 AT tires from Discount Tires. They've gotten a lot of business from me over the years.

They're about 1 inch shorter than the worn out BFG 35-12.50-16.5 ATs that were on the truck (No 2 in signature line) and ride much nicer. Plus that inch or so has helped to get the truck back down in its powerband for my towing and pulling.