ok, here's what i've got.
it's a 2004 regular cab v8 (special ordered) flareside BARE BASIC truck. stock tires are 235/75/16's and i use this offroad a lot and they won't hack it.

what's the biggest tires i can put on the stock rims without them rubbing when i turn the wheel all the way??
someone told me 305/70/16's... is this true? hwo tall is that in inches? 35"??

thanks!
you can e mail answers at daniel.majkowski@goodfellow.af.mil is you want

 

305/70/16 is a 33x12.50 and on a 2 wheel drive I beleive it would be out of the question, unless you did like a body lift and spacers in the front coils and an add-a-spring in the back. to be sure of this though you probably want to ask wandell. he is the magician of this website.

 

woops, i fergot to mention it's 4x4. what do you think ??

 

Bonefish is right. A 305/70-16 is a 33x12.50-16. You could run those or a 285/75-16, which is a 33x11.50-16. If you are gonna keep the stock 16x7 wheels on the truck, the 285's may be a better choice. The 305's are slightly too wide for a 7 inch wheel so the center portion of the tread may wear slightly faster than normal. Similar to what you would get from running the air pressure too high.

 

WOW. I can't beleive that ford would sell a 4x4 with 235's as a stock tire. It must look like it is riding on donuts.

 

oh yeah...l it looks rediculous...

also, someone told me that there's a way to raise the front end an inch or 2 without buying anything... something about the bars that run from the frame to the swingarms. ignore my ignorance, i don't know what they're called!

he said you can twist them or something and it raises the front end a bit.... is that true??

 

yep, they're called torsion bars.

 

Yeah, you can crank up the preload on the torsion bars to lift the front of the truck 1 to 2 inches. After you do it be sure to have the alignment checked. Here's a pic. The torsion bar is the long bar. The adjustment cam is the piece covered in surface rust. The adjustment bolt is on the bottom of the adjustment cam.

 

so i just crank on that adjustment bolt or what?

 

Yep..... Notice in wandell's pic that the adjusting bolt is as far as it will go..... Yours will probably be about half way or about another inch or so of adjustment.

 

i have 33x12.50's and mine still rub and i've cut part of a lip off the cab and the front valance and i have no inner fenders.my torsion bars are also cranked all the way,thought you might like to know that before gettin that size tire.i still have some trimmin to do and it only rubs when turning alot and hitting a bump or backin up fast

 

You are having fitment problems because of the 15x10 inch wheels which only have 2 1/2 inches of backspacing (I believe). If you had a 33x12.50 on a 10 inch wide wheel with 4 1/2 inches of backspacing, like the OEM wheels, you wouldn't have so much rubbing. Of course, the 15 inch wheels have to have such a shallow backspacing to fit over the brakes. Backspacing plays as important a part in fitment as tire size and rim width.

 

so on my stock 16" basic rims, a 285 70 16 would be the best so i have some clearance correct?
i'm buying them within the next week so someone let me know!

daniel

 

If you are not planning on buying wider aftermarket wheels in the future, I'd suggest the 285/75-16's. I ran those on my OEM 16x7 wheels when I purchased my truck and they were not even close to rubbing.

 

even with 2 more inches of backspacing they'd still rub i have no inner fenders which takes out quite a bit of room and still had to cut about 2" off the lip on the cab and fender.and some people can't just go out and buy whatever they need,so i just get what i can and make it work.and even if i could've bought 16's i probably woulda just got 15's anyway cause i like 15's.