I just bought a 99' 150 Super Cab with the 5.4. I love the truck but do have a question.

THe truck came with 16" wheels. The tires are fairly new and I am thinking that when they wear out I might go to a different wheel style and up the size to 17".

Will this affect the speedodometer?

Also, any thoughts on where the best place is to get aluminum wheels for the F150?

THanks

Jim!

 

pequea,
If your truck is a 2WD with 16's, it probably has 255/70R16's, right? That tire is basically a 30" diameter tire. A perfect swap using a 17" wheel is a 275/60R17 tire. It's also a 30" diameter. However, it is considerably fatter and I think looks better under our big fender wells. You have a lot of tire choices on brands, styles, performance ratings, etc. I did this very swap on my '98 Lariat 2WD years ago and have always been happy about it. I personally like a wide tire on a 2WD. If I could pick a stock 17" F150 wheel to replace a 16", I'd go with the FX4 wheels that came out in '02, I believe. Three or four years ago when I did the swap the only option I had was the 'directional/saw blade' style 17" like used to come on the 4x4 Offroad models. That's still a cool-looking wheel, but now you do have choices if you want to stay Ford-stock. If you're talking aftermarket, there's no end of choices. Hope this helped. Later.

 

Thanks fordman3.

Mine is a 4x4. If the tire size ezceeds 30", then is there recalibrating that needs to be done on the speedodometer?

 

No......well kinda.



What size tires do you have on there now. If you change overall tire size then yes you do have to get the speedo corrected. If you keep the same overall diameter then no you don't have to change anything. As an example a 265/75/16 is the same diameter as a 265/70/17. The only difference is the 2nd has a shorter sidewall to make up for the added wheel diameter, but both are still 31" tall tires. If you have 255/70/16 tires on your truck and you go to 265/70/16 (stock tire size on 17" wheels) then you will have to correct the speedo.