Okay sooo i just got a 1998 f-150 4x4, it has the 5.4 triton in it, and it is currently sittin on 285's. everything on it is either white or black other than the tool box which i am thinking about getting a black one. but i was thinking about getting all black rims, mostly leaning towards the xd monsters in a 18x9 wheel. im goin to level my truck and put 33's on them or would i be able to go 35's? please help, and thanks everyone this forum really helps!

 

the 33's would be a lot easier, i'd wait for a lift before i went with the 35's.

 

Before you think about any bigger and more aggressive tires, are you willing to sacrifice gas mileage and performance? You are gonna lose both.

 

yall are both right, im gonna stick with the 33's, im thinking about 18's on a 33-12.50-18 general grabber, i will post pics of my truck hopefully tomorrow if i have time

 

also, you may want to get an edge programmer, so you can recaliberate your speedo for the bigger tires and get some hp and torque back.

 

to adjust the speedo on the 97-98 you have to swap a physical gear in the trans

 

thanks for clarifying jake, i didn't know.

 

yea it was a bitch to get info on from any where but its an easy simple swap

 

Where do you get the speedo's for the 97-98 jake?

 

There's a site online that knows all about them and which on you need. I'll find it when I get to a comp and edit this post with it.

 

You are going to want to look for the "VSS" gear. It's bolted to the tail shaft of the trans with a single nut. It does have a "O" ring on it, so be careful when you pull it out.

You need to pull the stock one and count how many teeth it has. Then, depending on the overall reduction in gearing due to the taller tires, you will need to REDUCE the number of teeth on the new one if your speedo/odo is running SLOWER then before.

I'm sure there is a math formula out there to determine it, but for me, I pulled my stock gear and it had 19 teeth (3.55 gears and OEM tire size was 245/70/16, which were only around 29" tall).

I got LT 265/75/16 tires (just a tad over 31"), so they did change the speedo and the way the trans shifted gears... (It sucked!)

I ended up with an 18 tooth gear that I picked up from the Ford Parts Counter and it brought everything back into sync. It's not 'exact', but a lot closer then what it was and going another tooth smaller, would have been too much...

Simple 5 minute swap and it's a done deal... (Keep your old gear in the glove box, just in case you decide to re-rear the R&P's in the future!)

For a 33" tall tire, I'd say you will need to go 2 teeth smaller and then see where you are at.

Mitch