I'm getting real close to needing new tires. I've been looking around and it looks like there is a lot more options are far as sizes and styles for 16" tires than 17". If I went to 16" tires, then I would need new rims. As far as rims, I've been kind of leaning toward black rims because they're cheaper than chrome and less maintenance than polished. Since I would be running the wheels year round with snow and salt in winter, I figured black powder coated wheels would hold up better also. Just looking for some opinions and suggestions on the following wheels and tires i'm looking at.



Wheels

Pro Comp Xtreme Alloy 8089 16"


American Racing Black Crush 16"


Ultra Wheel Baja Champ 1858 16"

 

Helo Maxx 6 16"


Here are my tire choices

General Grabber AT LT285/75/16 or LT295/75/16


Wild Country TXR LT285/75/16 Tires look much better in person and have awesome tread depth


Mastercraft Courser AT LT285/75/16

 

Mastercraft Courser C/T LT285/75/16



Forgot one more wheel
American Eagle 1378 16"





The look I'm trying to go for is the beefy off-road look.

 

I like the Helo's best. As for tires, I think you would be much better off with a high quality all terrian tire like the BFG AT KO, Nitto Terra Grappler, Toyo Open Country AT or Bridgestone Dueler.

 

285/75R16 is equivalent to 285/70R17. If you really want new rims, great. But there are plenty of excellent tire choices for your OEM 17" rims.

What kind of tire budget are you looking at? You listed all lesser known and cheaper brands. While I rarely see comparisons of those tires to the larger name brands, I feel they are inferior quality/performance. Regardless, there are several Cooper tires availbile in 285/70R17, the Hankook Dynopro MT, and some of the ones you mentioned as well. But I'd stick to the Toyo Open Country AT, BFG AT, Bridgestone Dueler Revo, and Nitto Terra Grappler.

 

Yes I am kind of on a lower budget. I know I can get BFG 285/70/17 for $203 mounted and balanced. That seemed like a good price to me. Their 16" tires are not a whole lot cheaper. But I also am really looking at the General Grabber AT2 as it is getting excellent reviews on Tire Rack. Their 16" tires are about $150 mounted and balanced. I figured I would save money on both tires and wheels by going to 16" versus spending more money on 17" tires and not have enough money to buy wheels. Don't know if that logic makes sense to anybody else?

 

I just had the Bridgestone Dueler Revo's put on and so far am loving them! The Firestone dealer by my house quoted me $660 mount, valve stems, balance, install, road hazard, tax, out the door. That's for the 17's.

 

i like those pro comp extremes or the baja's good looking rims

 

I was thinking about polished wheels also like the Eagle 058 but don't know how they would hold up in salty winters. I plan on running the rims year yound but don't want them to be ruined after 1 winter. Will regular maintenance or extra maintenance during the winter keep them from being ruined?

 

they make a ton of alloy rim polishes and protecting coats for them your not gonna have any probs with them jsut polish them up every once and while and ur still gonna have that shine its not even close toas bad as those steel rims that are chrome plated

 

Will you be selling them?

 

A month ago I bought some Cooper Discoverer AT's for my
'03 4.6L f150 4x4 ext cab...
C(6 ply) LT245/75/R16's
(A 50K mile rating)
Got 'em new from Evil Ebay for ----$377 delivered----.
(not sure how old they were, but were never used)
After all was said / done, $460, including remount/balance the spare (don't ask).
A good 16 millimeter depth tread, pretty good.
I'll find out how they are this winter...if snow ever hits the ground (NH).
Not sure if this is connected or coincidental, but have lost an incredible amount of mileage since the new tires.
Sam's Club wanted over $700 installed for the BFG's AT KO's.
Can't justify that. I saved over $250 bucks.
The truck floats a bit on the highway, suppose that's normal?
But, so far I'm happy with these COOPER DISCOVERER AT's,
---especially for the price I payed---.
Mastercraft is made by Cooper, right?
I think they are a less expensive / cheaper tire?

 

You can check out Discount Tire. They have package deals on rims/tires. 16" wheels/tires (like mine) for $700. 17" wheels (like mine) and Pirelli Scorpion tires for $820 (at least here out west)

Mike

 

Go Goodyear!

I'm a Goodyear guy, had cheap courser mastercraft tires old my Explorer, had a flat, put goodyear wranglers on it, took me to the day I sold them, and I wasextramly delighted when my truck had Goodyear Wrangler AT/S tires on it brand new when I bought the truck in Aug '05, 26,000 miles & going!

 

it looks like it's down to BFG ATs or the General Grabber ATs for tires. Mastercraft and Cooper tires weren't that much cheaper than BFGs and if I'm going to spend that much I might as well get BFGs. Still having trouble deciding on what type of rim to get: black or polished. I like the look of polished but I dont' know how they'll hold up every winter. Black is dull but is low maintenance and is a different look that you hardly ever see. Decisions, decisions.