I am looking at getting some different wheels for my King Ranch. This whole offset/backspacing thing has me confused. I understand what it is, but what is the stock Ford wheel? And if I change the wheels, what does the different offset/backspacing do to the whole set up? I have a fairly new set (10k miles) of BFG 285/70/17 AT TA KO's on my truck and want to keep those, so what wheels/offset would work best for that tire? I am looking at Discount Tire and the MB Motoring options that they have, but the different offsets have me confused. Like I said, what would the different offsets do to the look of my truck and wheels? I also use my truck to pull a 5000lb travel trailer and want to make sure the wheels are strong enough to not have to worry about them failing. Any help would be appreciated.

 

The stock backspacing is 4 1/2 inches. The OEM 17 inch wheels are 7 1/2 inches wide. I would go with a 8 or 9 inch wide wheel with the same backspacing as stock. For instance, a 17x9 wheel with 4 1/2 inches of backspacing will stick out 1 1/2 inches farther than your OEM wheels.

 

OK, so what you are saying is that the stock wheel is 7 1/2 inches wide, with 4 1/2 inch backsapcing. And that would then equate out to a +3/4 inch offset? So when I read a wheel spec at Discount Tire and it says this

17X8 5-135 25MM ,

the MM stands for the mirror machined finish, what the heck does the 25 stand for? 25mm of positive offset? This is why I am confused. Wandell you are the king here, hopefully you can help me out? The whole thing here is I don't want my wheels and tires sticking way out the side of my truck. I'm not fond of that look, reminds me of the stupid *** wheels the kids put on all these POS cars these days, and also is extremely hard on suspension parts with the weight being out that far from the hub. Greater moment arm and all on the parts. I can live with a wider wheel sticking out farther because of the width, just not all that negative offset I guess is what I'm saying.

Thanks for the help here Wandell, appreciate your time.

 

I believe the 25 does indicate the offset. Offset is confusing to me. I usually wind up going to a site like www.americaneaglewheel.com that list their wheels backspacing and offset. This helps me visualize what the wheel will look like if all I can find is the offset. I don't know why everyone doesn't just use backspacing.