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

old guy wrote:
gear ratio will change a lot

Gear ratio stays the same... until you change the "gears"

What DOES change when tires are swapped for different sizes is "final drive ratio"

Tcintin, as 17s are now pretty much c rap for finding good tires for, if you don’t go 19.5s, consider buying a used set of 18 or 20” ram takeoff wheels. You can get a virtually new set of tires and wheels for $1000 or less.

old guy wrote:
gear ratio will change a lot

Dependent on tire diameter. Not a function of rim size

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.

Interesting topic. I was debating this but found Toyo's for my 18" wheels that are rated at 4080lbs per tire. Gives me 8160lbs and with just shy of 3000lbs on my rear axle I think the remaining 5200lbs of tire capacity is more than enough.

We'll side what ride is like but for $1700 vs nearly twce that for 19.5's I decided to go that route.

My 19.5s have been awesome in the snow. All depends on the tread pattern. By awesome, much better than any oem tread either in 2 wheel drive or 4 wheel drive.

They aren't made only for highway use. That's silly. They wouldn't make extremely aggressive tires if that was the case.

19.5s arent difficult to balance if you take them to a shop that knows what they are doing. They are difficult to mount or impossible if you don't have the right equipment.

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.

TCINTN wrote:
...It is time to get new tires for my 2006 3500 Dodge Mega cab...

Is your 3500 a SRW or DRW?

My response above was in relation to my SRW and was assuming the same. If your Mega is DRW I think if it were me I would stick with stock 17".

Negatives:
Cost
Very limited market at resale time when you sell the truck and try to sell the tires and wheels after taking them off truck before trading the truck in.

That's why I would never upgrade to 19.5s.
I'm money ahead by replacing the truck.

Only con I can think of.... PRICE. Mine cost me over $50,000. But they had a special, buy 6 get a truck free.