My 05 has factory 18" rims but I know many older f150 have 15 and 16" factory rims. People say thier older f150s are so much faster than the new one. Does rim size have something to do with this? Has anyone put 15" or 16" on a 2004 or 2005 5.4 f150 and noticed a difference at least for low end not high?

 

They won't fit. Calipers are too big. Wheels size isn't going to affect how fast the truck would be anyways. Tires will.

 

I cant put anything smaller than a 17" rim on my fx4 due to the size of the callipers

 

Well I thought the smaller the rim the smaller the tires.

 

Okay smaller than 17" wont fit...thanks for the replys. But since many of the older f150 have smaller rims and tires couldnt that make thier trucks seem much quicker than the newer larger rim and tire models. I had a friend that would put smaller rims and tires on his car and be able to spin them way down the road but when he put the bigger rims on the car would not spin em.

 

I got 14"s on mine.

 

Yes, the rim/tire size will have an impact. It's talked about all the time on the Lightning forums. When guys switch from the factory 18's to 20's or 22's, they note how their trucks won't spin the tires like they used to. This also gets brought up in regard to the Dodge SRT-10 trucks being hampered by the factory 22's when drag racing. You can help compensate for this with the gearing. Alot of the guys that go with the bigger wheels for looks also add 4.10's to compensate for the taller tires.

Just my worthless .02

 

Rim diameter has very little to do with tire diameter. I took 30 inch 17's off, replaced them with 30.4 inch 18's. I have considered putting 29 inch 18's on my truck.
Fatherford has done that.
If you have 3.55 gears and 30 inch tires the swap to 29 is almost as much as moving up to the 3.73 gears.
3.67 equivalents.

Putting narrower tires will make them spin better. And handle worse.

Want a cheap way to spin the tires?
Get a set of worn out tires. When the tread is down to the wear bars they are almost an inch shorter, plus the baldness will help them spin...

Or if you want to do it right, get a set of 255/55/18 tires off e-bay for about 175 plus shipping. Used tire with plenty of tread left.

Overall, you probably won't notice the difference enough to be worth the work, unless you have the 32 inch tires now. That would be noticeable swap.

3.55 gears with 32 inch tires swapped to 29 inch would be like putting 3.92 gears under it.

 

Ok....the bigger the rim the harder it is for the transmision to spin the tires making it 'slower'. you cant go small than 17's do 2 caliper size, but even if u do go smaller its not gonna make your truck faster....unless you paint flames on the wheels duh

 

Size can make a difference. If you have a 2005+ you are stuck with 18's or bigger. I believe you could go with a Ford factory 17 (from a 04-05) but it wouldn't help you any if you still wanted to run a stock height size tire.

A 18X7.5 wheel will weight less than a 20X10 wheel if they are made from the same material.

 

Kidding aside, going 1-3 inches smaller will make the truck quicker.
No one ever cares about faster, as these trucks stock will go WAY faster than the handling, brakes etc. will allow.

Is going to shorter tires worth it?
Maybe.
If you have a truck with the common 31.6 inch tires and you swap to 29 inch tires you will have changed 3.73 gears to 4.06 gears. Might shave a half second off a zero to 60, or most of a second off your quarter time.

Cost could be as little as 250 bucks for used Michelins, or 400 bucks for new imports. So compared to 500-600 per axle it is a cheap way to get a little more oomph.
Chris