I would like to know if I can possably buy new wheels and Snow tires for the lightning, and adding some weight to the back 500-700lbs and be able to get around in town quality roads, I live in Pepperell massaschusetts. I'd like to be able tto do this for the winter instead of buying another auto and insurance, (MA sucks).

Please let me know.

 

Yes....you will be fine.

 

We don't get much snow, but what we do get in September is still there in early May. I don't have snow tires, but I do put a few hundred pounds of sandbags in the back. And keep it easy on the accelerator, and you should be fine.

 

get a set of wheels and alpine II tires. Throw a rubbermaid container in the back and strap it in and fill it with about 6 50lb bags of sand. Stay out of the boost and your fine. Did it last year.

 

Wheels - any of the late model 01-02 (and some of the 99-00) 16" and 17" wheels for the F150s, Navigators, and Expeditions will fit perfectly on the L. Since Ford makes a bazillion of these things every year, there is an ample supply of inexpensive take-offs steels and alloys available for less than half the price of anything new. DO NOT buy the wheels at the dealership - they will rake you over the coals! I bought a set of excellent condition take-off FX4 17" alloy wheels from a very reputable source on eBay for about $125 each. You can get 16" alloys for about half this, and steels for about half that. I went with 17" and performance winter tires because in my area the roads are clear and dry 80% of the time.

To clear the rear brake rotors you must use at least 16" wheels.

In New England I would very definitely NOT run the stock F1s in the winter. Weight in the bed helps, but ultimately it boils down to those four contact patches and the softness of the rubber. The F1s become quite hard below 35F. At the very least get some all-season truck tires like Michelin LTX-MS, Michelin Cross-Terrain SUV, Contitrac SUV, Wrangler HT, etc.

You will have a much better selection of winter and/or snow tires in the 16" size, but the handling on dry pavement won't be quite as good as 17". The 16s are also quite a bit cheaper than 17s. Go with somewhat narrower tires than the monster 295s that are stock. Most 16"/17" wheels are less than 8" wide, so you'll probably go with something in the 235-265 width range. Stock tires are 28.4" diameter, so in order not to throw the speedo/tranny/etc off too much you'll probably want to stay under 30" diameter on your winter tires.

Here are some of the sizes that will work:

225/75-16
235/70-16
235/75-16
245/70-16
255/65-16
255/60-17

With 200-600lb of weight in the center of the bed and some better tires you should have no problems.

 

Thanks for all your help. I'm running 295/45 toyo proxes on the stock wheels righ now, the F1's died a couple months ago

I don't want to buy another car beater or not I already own 3 and another isn't worth it.

Sounds like I'll go with the 16" wheels and snow tires all the way around then, hopefully I can drive the beauty in the winter now.
I was thinking of buying about 8-10 50lbs bags of cement mix and stacking over the wheels.

If anyone else has some advice please let me know, its a ways off until next winter!

 

when you are parking your truck in the winter, watch out for those damn snow banks!!!! They'll creap up on ya and not make for a good match with your front bumper valance. And have a garden hose readily availible. Wash down and up under your truck like 3 times a week. Special attention to up inside the groud effects mouldings. Sand and salt will pile up in there. Keep it clean. Throw on a good coat of wax around late october to earley november. Also, if you can, but a good cover and cover it whenever possible if it's gonna snow. When ice forms on the truck and melts and slides off, it can and will scratch the clearcoat. I didn't have one last year but have one now for this year. Plus, that's less snow you will have to clean.

 

Good info guys, I'm saving all these posts in a notepad document and will look at it in the fall. I don't want to think about winter at this time.