Pros and cons on replacing 17" wheels and tires with 19.5"

burningman wrote:
19.5s kinda suck in the snow.
They’re stiff, high pressure tires made for heavyweight freeway use on medium-size trucks.
They’re often difficult or impossible to balance.
I wouldn’t run them on a pickup.
They do look cool on a dually but if that’s the idea then do it right and get 22.5s.

My 19.5's do great in snow and mud and on ice. Where they fail is if you need flotation on the driving surface - They do not flatten enough when aired down and dig rather than float.

The stiff sidewalls give additional stability to your truck when carrying top heavy loads like a camper. My PR16 tires on my SRW gave me the stiffness you would find in a DRW with PR10 tires. These tire also wear well - I expect mine to age out before they wear out with my 10K mile/year use.

These tires are heavy and require different balancing tools and methods than light truck or passenger tires. I feel most of the problems stem from lack of qualified tire shops rather than a problem with the tires.

People are upgrading to 19.5's for the load capacity of the rims and tires - I don't know anyone doing this for appearance. Once you get to 22.5's, you have tire height issues and a change in gear ratios that you must deal with.

There are some aftermarket 18" rims now available with 4000 lb ratings which can be mated with 4000 lb rated LT tires. This option will be as expensive as going with 19.5's but give you better flotation for deep sand, mud or snow but with less sidewall strength and puncture resistance than the 19.5's.