I have a 98 f150 4x4 flairside. I like the stock tires but would like to get a little more height without lifting. A friend told me I might be able to get 33's on my truck but he wasnt sure of rubbing. I know nothing about tires, is this possible and if so what kind would you recommend? I was told BFG are the best. Any and all opinions are welcome.

 

BFG are some of the best tires you can get, but they are also pretty expensive. I'm assuming that you don't have the offroad package on your truck. If you have it you will have the 17" rims. As for fitting 33s if you keep the stock rims the biggest you can go is a 285/75/16 tire which is just shy of a 33" tire. If I remember right its a 32.8"/11.2" tire. Right now I'm running those on my truck. You could run a 305/75/16 tire too. There are a couple of people on the boards that are running them with no lift. But if you get those tires you will need to get new rims if you don't have the offroad package (the ORP rims are slightly wider rims). The stock rims are 16x7 and you need to have a 16x8 rim for them to fit right. You might still have to crank torsion bars up just a little bit to get it to fit and you might have to do a little bit of trimming on the front valence too, but it depends on which rims you get.

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1997 F-150 Lariat
Ext Cab Short Box
4x4 Off Road Package
3.55 Gears
285/75 R16 Kelly Springfield Trailcutter RTs



My 2 cents worth

If you're gonna stroke it, POWERSTROKE IT!!!

http://www.powerstroke73.homestead.com/

 

I do have the offraod package. But i was thinking of getting some custom chrome rims. What do you mean when you you say crank the torsion bars? I have heard of it but im still a novice in truck land so I dont actually know what that is. How big a rim would be too big or too small to get a 33 or the 32.8 you spoke of? What tires would you recommend?

 

For rims I would get some 16x8 rims with a 5 on 135mm bolt pattern. One person on here that I know is running the 305/75/16 tires has American Racing Baja rims. If you decide to go with the 285/75/16 tires I would still get the 16x8 rims so that way if you decide you want to upgrade to the larger tires you don't have to buy new rims again. But if you go with the 305s be prepared possibly for a little bit of rubbing when turning.

Well when it comes to which tires to get it depends on what you want to do and how much you want to pay. If you want some good All terrain tires the BFGs are about the best you can get, but be prepared to shell out about $180 a tire and you can't get the 305/75/16 in the BFG A/T (for some reason they jump from a 285/75/16 to a 315/75/16). If you want a really aggressive mud terrain you can't beat Swampers, but some only last 20,000 miles. Also they are fairly expensive. On my truck I'm running some 285/75/16 Kelly Springfield Trailcutter R/T's they are pretty aggressive and do great offroad. They also ride decent on the highway and have a 40,000 mile warranty on them. They are also about $140 a tire for them.

What I meant about cranking the torsion bars is about 1/3 of the way back from the front of the vehicle you will see a crossmember on the frame. This will have a bar on either side going from the front suspension to the crossmember. It will also have a bolt on either side that you can tighten. When you tighten it it rotates the torsion bars and that increases the angle of the front A arms on the suspension lifting your front end a little bit. If you do a search in the forums on this you can find out everything you need to do to raise them. Be careful if you do that though, if you raise them too high you can have problems.

 

kkirt1 has 305/70R16s on american racing pythons or atlas' I forget but it loks sharp... Talk to him.

Jimmar

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2001.5 SuperCrew XLT 4X4 (Gen III)
Silver Clearcoat Metallic
Deep Wedgewood Blue (accent)
5.4L V8
Chrome Tubular Step Bars (Ford)
Captains Chairs
Power Moonroof
3.55 LS
6750 GVWR
Class III Towing Pkg

Mods:
Harley Davidson Exhaust
'01 Lightning Head/Tail Lamps
Pioneer DEH-9200r
Boston Acoustic Components & 5X7s
Box Liner (Ford)
Splashguards (Ford)
Bug Defector Doubles as Rock and Sand/Salt Deflector in these snowy Canadian winters
K&N Air Filter

To Come:
17" Rims/Tires w/ BFG A/T or ProComps
WMS Velocity Tube
Radio Delay Mod
Eurolights

 

I just put 33x12.5R16.5 BFG All-Terrain T/A KOs on my Expedition without lifting it, but I did have to do a little trimming because they rubbed when turning the wheel. This was due to the width of the tire/wheel combo, not the height.

See my other post that describes it in more detail:

https://www.f150online.com/f150board...ML/001075.html

I'll be posting some pictures soon.


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2000 Ford Expedition Eddie Bauer 4x4
- 5.4L Triton V-8 (stock 260HP version)
- K&N FIPK Generation II
- Flowmaster 70 Series Muffler with Custom Dual-Exhaust
- Coil-Spring Suspension (No 4-Corner Load Level)
- 33x12.5R16.5 BFG A/T TA KO Tires on Centerline Python Wheels

 

Why only run a 8" rim with 305 tires? For a performance car, you'd want at least a 10" rim for that wide a tire. It it different with trucks?

 

2000 F150 4x4
Are you talking about a 305/ 70 series car tire or a 305/ 50 or 40 series car tire? I thought most of the time you used a P rated tire and the sidewall on them is usually thinner in height and usually has less plys to the sidewall. It all makes a difference in the aspect ratio of the tire.