Biggest tire size with Rancho Quick Lift

[fordlover453]

Hey guys I just bought an 02 ford explorer limited v8 and I am abou to install the quick lift rancho kit and was wondering what is the biggest tire size I can put on the car? what size rims should I get, tires, etc? I would be driving on sand a lot so any advice would be appreicated

 

[Ronin8002]

Hey guys I just bought an 02 ford explorer limited v8 and I am abou to install the quick lift rancho kit and was wondering what is the biggest tire size I can put on the car? what size rims should I get, tires, etc? I would be driving on sand a lot so any advice would be appreicated

265/75/16 or 265/70/17. You can use your stock wheels with those depending on what yours came with (16" wheels = 265/75/16, 17" wheels 265/70/17). If you want aftermarket wheels just get an 8" wide wheel in either 16 or 17" size with a 5 on 4.5" bolt pattern. If you go that route, look for a 4-4.5" backspacing to give a wider stance to your truck.

For a general All Terrain type tire in that size for sand or whatever, you could get BFG AT TA/KO, General Grabber AT, or Treadwright Wardens, all of them are very similar and good quality. Treadwrights are probably cheapest.

 

[fordlover453]

could I Fit 9 inch wide tires on it? Or is that too much

 

[Ronin8002]

Di you mean 9 inch tread width? If so, that would be a 285/75. You'll need wheels with sufficient backspacing to clear the spindles, prob 4" at minimum. You still would prob have rubbing in the fenderwells sometimes unless you do a body lift also.

 

[fordlover453]

so i bought some nice 8 inch wide wheels with 4.5 inch backspacing. Went with the 265/75/16 size tires mounted. but now when i drive my steering wheel shakes a little bit. I went and got them rebalanced but the guy said the tires were so big that it was a pain in the ass to do but he got it done. It is still shaking lightly and I replaced all the ball joints, new rancho quicklift, and alignment. any thoughts?

 

[Ronin8002]

so i bought some nice 8 inch wide wheels with 4.5 inch backspacing. Went with the 265/75/16 size tires mounted. but now when i drive my steering wheel shakes a little bit. I went and got them rebalanced but the guy said the tires were so big that it was a pain in the ass to do but he got it done. It is still shaking lightly and I replaced all the ball joints, new rancho quicklift, and alignment. any thoughts?

What brand/model of tire?

How much weight did they take to balance?

Were they road force balanced?

Sometimes a tire is defective and takes a ton of weight and still isn't balanced right. The manufacturer may have a warranty that allows you to exchange them if it takes more than a certain amount of weight to try and balance them.

 

[fordlover453]

16x8 5-4.5 back spacking 4 offset -12 Dick Cepek DC2 Rims

General Grabber AT tires 265-75-16

what is road forced balanced mean? Never heard of that

 

[Ronin8002]

Road Force balancing:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=40

It's not the typical spin type balancer that a lot of shops have. Some shops don't like to spend a lot of shop time trying to get it perfect, they just get pissed off and do only enough to give you the 80% solution which may not be enough to smooth out the imbalance.

Sometimes if you get a tire that's out of round or has a really heavy spot on one side, then even with a ton of balancing weight on it it won't balance well and you'll still have the shakes.

I went through the same thing with a set of Mickey Thompson Baja ATZ tires where one of them took 16 OUNCES to balance even on a roadforce machine. After that it was OK but I would still get a shake from time to time because the shop just couldn't put enough weight on the wheel on the precise spot that would balance it perfectly. Part of the problem was that it was a lateral imbalance. so there just wasn't enough space on the lip of the wheel to put sufficent weight there.

You might try calling up general tire and seeing what their return policy is on tires that have excessive balance weight. If your shop receipt shows how much weight was needed then that can back up your claim.