Thanks eveyrone.... I am now very curious about the towing differences. I live 25 miles from work and drive an old beater to work so this truck will be pulling my bass boat most of the time it is going to be used. I would think the 20's would be better for pulling..... not sure why just my thought.

I love the looks of the 20's but if they will drop the MPG that much maybe they won't be worth it.

My wife has a Lincoln MKX with the chrome clad wheels and I refuse to get them no matter what.... all it is from what I can tell is a hub cap. They seem to be very hard to take care of and keep clean for some reason also.

 

Ford would not offer the 20's with the towing package if it made that much of a difference in the towing abilities of these trucks. The 20's will not effect your towing rating, it is the gears that will make you notice more of a difference. If you order a truck with the 20's they come with 3.55's unless you upgrade to the 3.73's ($50 option). I ended up ordering the 3.73's with mine as I knew I would be going to larger tires down the road.

I averaged 16-16.5 MPG combined with my stock 20's and now I average 15 with my aftermarket 20's and 35" M/T's.

The difference between the stock 18's and 20's will be next to nothing, especially as the stock 18's have a more aggressive tire than the stock 20" Pirellis.

Let's just put it into these simple terms, If you like the 20's, get them. ...And if you are that worried about saving every tenth of a MPG, then don't buy a full-size truck.


....A note on the Chrome-Clad Wheels - My wife has a set of the 18" Ford Edge Chrome-Clad Wheels on her Mountaineer and they are a peice of cake to keep clean. Just use Windex when cleaning them and they will look great.

 

Um, yes Frod would. Do you think it costs Ford $1000 more for the 20" wheel/tire combo than the 18" combo? The market will pay it because that what they want. It is a high profit option for them, that is why it is offered.

That's what it comes donw to. The difference in weight/performance/FE between any OEM wheel/tire combo will be lss than 10%. Get the ones you like the best, especially if it will more more a limited use vehicle than DD.

oh, and get the shortest gears you can.

 

The size of the wheel does affect your towing. In the brochure for the 05's, the 18" wheels dropped the GCWR/max trailer weight by 500 LBS.

 

According to Ford, the 20s do affect your towing rating. It's right in your owners manual. I agree it is not that much of a difference though. You lose 500lbs in rated towing capacity.

If I average 16 with my stock 20s I'll be happy. I never got 16 with the 17s on my 01.

The towing capacity on the stock 18s is rated the same as the 20s. You lose 500lbs going from stock 17s to stock 18s. The resulting diameter of the stock 18s is very close to the diameter of the stock 20s. If you purchased the stock 20s, then your spare tire was 275/65/18, which is only two tenths of an inch larger than the stock 20s.

Why would you say that? You don't have to love 20s to drive a truck, and you don't have to ignore mpg to drive a truck?

 

So you or do you not do not lose the towing capacity going from the 18's to the 20's as he is asking about (he asked about an FX4 which is 18's or the optional 20's - no 17's available).


I never said you had to love 20's to drive a truck, I said if you like them, get them.

Never was ignoring the MPG mentioned either, just that over the course of a 12,000 mile year, you will use aprx. an extra 5.3 gallons for each tenth of a mile that you decrease your MPG*. If $20 in extra fuel over the cost of a year is worth all this worrying then you should re-think buying something that gets the mileage of a full-size truck.

*12,000 miles at 15.1 MPG = 794.7 gallons used vs. 12,000 miles at 15 MPG = 800 gallons used


On a side note: The media has people so worked up about the cost of gasoline now. We are paying $3.549 a gallon here now vs. $3.229 last year = an extra $256 per year.

 

You do not lose towing capacity going from the stock 18's to the stock 20s because they are almost the same size in diameter. Though 17's are not an available as an option for the FX4, they are abundant on eBay. I think it may be a good choice if you want the FX4 or Lariat and do some serious towing.

I do have something that gets better mileage, we drive it daily. It's my wife's SUV, which has a cute girly look with very fancy wheels. I myself would rather drive the truck with any wheels. It doesn't matter to me what wheels are on it as long as I'm driven the truck. It really is that simple.