Best advice on buying 19.5 rims and tires

S Davis wrote:

I went with Toyo m608Z in size 245/70R19.5, they are noisy and had tread squirm for the first couple thousand miles. I have about 35,000 miles on them so far, with how they look I should get over 70,000 miles out of them. They do great in ice and snow and good on wet roads. If it was a truck that was a DD with part time hauling I probably would not go with 19.5s, I should note I run 3500lb Helwig helper springs and Firestone air bags and the truck is loaded to 10,800lbs.

Ditto
Plus I'm running a Hellwig Big Wig sway bar.

ppine wrote:
With a car it is easy to change the profile of the tires to accomodate larger wheels, ie different F series. On a truck I don't want 50 or 60 series tires.
Maybe someone can explain the attraction of larger wheels. I don't get it.

I went to 19.5s for the load capacity, my original tires were 3200lb and the new 19.5s are just under 5000lbs per tire. The vision wheels are good to 4500lbs so I am good for 9000lbs on the rear axle. The truck rides rough unloaded but I haul a 3600lb commercial cap so the truck is always loaded.

I went with Toyo m608Z in size 245/70R19.5, they are noisy and had tread squirm for the first couple thousand miles. I have about 35,000 miles on them so far, with how they look I should get over 70,000 miles out of them. They do great in ice and snow and good on wet roads. If it was a truck that was a DD with part time hauling I probably would not go with 19.5s, I should note I run 3500lb Helwig helper springs and Firestone air bags and the truck is loaded to 10,800lbs.

It's not about larger wheels, it's about larger carry capacity. Stock wheels and their tires are limited to the load they can safely carry. When heavy loads, like a camper, are placed on them, they tend to fail. So a wheel with a larger carry capacity is used so a tire with a larger carry capacity can be installed on it.

With a car it is easy to change the profile of the tires to accomodate larger wheels, ie different F series. On a truck I don't want 50 or 60 series tires.
Maybe someone can explain the attraction of larger wheels. I don't get it.

I had 19.5 Visions on my 2006 ram 2500 CTD 4x4 and although wheels were very stout and looked great I had front end woes from wandering which needed a steering box brace and steering stabilizer. Also broken lug studs, and wheel hubs having to be replaced twice on passenger front side. Had a hard time keeping them balanced in the front too.

Just wanted to say (belated) welcome to the forum neighbor!

Scott

My install went much easier since I could still carry a spare and didn't have to raise the suspension. I did replace the OEM shocks with Rancho RS9000XL to handle the additional unsprung weight better - Each tire/rim combination was 125 lbs while my previous set was somewhere around 75-100 lbs each.

I bought Rickson 19.5's used on craigslist and mounted Nitto M608Z in 245/70R-19.5 tires from Les Schwab. I have a 2006 Dodge Ram 4x4 crew cab, short bed and needed a 2" lift in the front for these tires to clear and not rub on lock-to-lock turns. They are about 34" tall.

I put 90 psi rear and 70psi front. They ride rough unloaded but nice loaded. No room for a spare that size under the truck with a sway bar installed. I don't bother with a spare, figuring if one of these massive tires fails, I'll have a lot of other problems to deal with.

ppine wrote:
I like Les Schwab, but I have never understood the desire to increase the wheel and tire size larger than stock. It just changes the rear axle ratio to a lower number and reduces power. I have an F-350 with 16 inch wheels. The truck runs like it is supposed to but I guess that makes me a geezer.

Overall tire diameter doesn't have to change. My 245/70R19.5 were the same height as my previous 275/70R18 tires but thinner.

Hi Freeborn - look at Nitto Dura Grappler 17" rim size:

LT285/75R17 E 128R 205370 16.9 33.86 11.61 7.5-(8.0)-9.5 3970 @ 80 67.23

3970lbs single load rating.

I ran Rickson 19.5's on my 3500 Dodge. Excellent when the truck was fully loaded. 1st set were Goodyear RSD? tires. Then switched to Michelin XZE 5 rib with the molded teeth in the 2 grooves because they worked much better on snow and ice than the "grip" tires.

The 19.5's were really nice on gravel roads.

The tires and steel wheels are too much unsprung weight for the carefully tuned and engineered suspension of a light truck :). Bilsteins helped a lot.