265/75 16 or 265/70 16?

Hey all,

In lieu of all the Firestone horror stories, I now have the reasoning to go get myself some new meats. I hated the firestones anyway! On a '99 Sport with the 16" wheels, I was thinking of upgrading the tire size. I am leaving the ride height as stock, and I do not want to feel any power loss as a result of the upgrade. I believe the 265/75's are a larger diameter tire than stock, and would probably show some power loss. I was thinking of going for the 265/70's. If my reasoning is correct, the 265/70's are the same diameter as stock, but, just a little wider. Does this sound right? My whole idea is to go wide, but, not neccesarily tall..on a stock setup. What's the largest tire size you can go on that wheel, without increasing diameter?
Any help is appreciated..thanks

Aris

 

[mountaineerman]

Check out this link to compare tire sizes. http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

 

[ExplorerEB96]

Well all I can say is this... I went from my stock 255/70R16 to a 15" rim and got BF GoodRich 31 10.5 A/T KOs now for width for those specific tires unfortunately the 32's don't come in anything but 32 11.5 which is wider but may rub if you don't put some kind of lift on it... the 31's don't come in any wider than 10.5 which is about a 1/2 inch wider than my stock rims.. they didnt rub but I also have a torsion lift and leafs in the rear... you can (but many dont recommend this) put spacers to fit the wider tire but that may even require you to make some cut ours on your flairs... but also watch for the inside housing...they may rub there.. What i did was go to NTB and asked for them to put a set of 32 11.5 on and see if they rub... they did so I had them put on the 31's and they are working out just fine.

Karol
explorereb96@ford-trucks.net

 

[CBoug76]

Check out this post, Dead Link Removed
this has some information about going to the 265/75 16, Some of us have made this change and love the way it looks. there is a photo to show what it looks like.

 

[Robert]

Originally posted by I8ACHEVY
Hey all,

In lieu of all the Firestone horror stories, I now have the reasoning to go get myself some new meats. I hated the firestones anyway! On a '99 Sport with the 16" wheels, I was thinking of upgrading the tire size. I am leaving the ride height as stock, and I do not want to feel any power loss as a result of the upgrade. I believe the 265/75's are a larger diameter tire than stock, and would probably show some power loss. I was thinking of going for the 265/70's. If my reasoning is correct, the 265/70's are the same diameter as stock, but, just a little wider. Does this sound right? My whole idea is to go wide, but, not neccesarily tall..on a stock setup. What's the largest tire size you can go on that wheel, without increasing diameter?
Any help is appreciated..thanks

Aris

I put 265 75R16 LTX ATs on my '97 4x4 Sport. I can feel a slight bit of power loss, mostly when taking off. The mods I have done has more than made up for the power loss. Cat-back exhaust is next. The RPM difference is about 200 RPM lower with the larger tires. I had to cut about 2 square inches of plastic from the inside of the front fender molding. I don't know how similar your '99s plastic is to my '97s. Even the 265 70R16 tires are larger than your stock 255s. You would need to go to a 265 65R16 to maintain the same diameter. Either 265 will be 1 cm wider than stock.

 

[Tom Wilk]

The stock 'stones are about 30" in diameter (255/70-R16),
The 265/70-R16's are about 31" in diameter, and the 265/75-R16's are about 32". I have the 265/75's and like them. I lost a little bit of my low end acceleration due to the increased tire diameter, but the difference wasn't much. And, once you get up into the power band, the truck pulls very well.

If you are really concerned about acceleration and handling, I would recommend the 265/70's, only because they are a bit smaller in diameter (which will preserve some of your acceleration), and are 70 series which will help in the handling department. Also, I'm almost certain that you will be able to fit them without any trimming.

That being said, if you take it off road quite a bit, you will never be satisfied with the size of your tires. Get the biggest you can fit.

 

[RobWilson]

Hi Everyone, I'm new to this board (was referred by a friend in my Camaro-Firebird Club) and am interested in the same thing as I8ACHEVY. We have a '98 Wedgewood Blue Metallic Eddie Bauer Explorer with 28,000 miles on it. My wife is the primary driver. Neither of us like the Firestone Wilderness AT tires and we're planning on using this opportunity by Firestone/Bridgestone to replace them with a better tire. We don't offroad at all, so we are looking for the best possible highway tire. I talked to a friend that works at Firestone and he said that our 255/70/16 tires are NOT part of the recall, but for our "piece of mind" Firestone is willing to give us a prorated refund on the tires. He said the tires in the recall must have a DOT # beginning with "VD".
Any recommendations for the best highway tire? Something that has good hydro resistance and wet traction and is quiet? Anyone had any experiences with the Toyo Transpath s/u tires or any other Toyo tires? I'm thinking of
going with 265/70/16 or the 255/70/16 (stock size). I checked out TireRack's website and saw that the Michelin LTX M/S got good reviews. Any feedback anyone can provide is appreciated.

Rob Wilson

 

[RobWilson]

Hi Everyone, I'm new to this board (was referred by a friend in my Camaro-Firebird Club) and am interested in the same thing as I8ACHEVY. We have a '98 Wedgewood Blue Metallic Eddie Bauer Explorer with 28,000 miles on it. My wife is the primary driver. Neither of us like the Firestone Wilderness AT tires and we're planning on using this opportunity by Firestone/Bridgestone to replace them with a better tire. We don't offroad at all, so we are looking for the best possible highway tire. I talked to a friend that works at Firestone and he said that our 255/70/16 tires are NOT part of the recall, but for our "piece of mind" Firestone is willing to give us a prorated refund on the tires. He said the tires in the recall must have a DOT # beginning with "VD".
Any recommendations for the best highway tire? Something that has good hydro resistance and wet traction and is quiet? Anyone had any experiences with the Toyo Transpath s/u tires or any other Toyo tires? I'm thinking of
going with 265/70/16 or the 255/70/16 (stock size). I checked out TireRack's website and saw that the Michelin LTX M/S got good reviews. Any feedback anyone can provide is appreciated.

Rob Wilson

 

[I8ACHEVY]

I think it's pretty much confirmed that the 16" Firestones are not involved in the recall. However, I'll say again that I'm not a fan of Firestone. I too am going to try and get something back from firestone, and go with another tire. Rob, I heard that Michelins are pretty solid, and that they get long lasting tread wear. I personally like Goodyears, and will probably pick up a set of those. The more I think about it, the more I think I'll just stick with the 265/70 size.

Thanks to everyone for their feedback!!!!!

Aris