Tire choice?

hublocker · Sep 9th, 2005, 07:51 PM

I've been using 235 R15/75 LT tires on my 4x4 Nissan pickups since 1990.

What I have to admit is I don't know anything about any other sizes.

I've never felt the need for a bigger tire and my BFGs or others have always got me up steep, loose, rocky mtn. roads through streams, small bogs, some snow and whatever else I wanted to traverse while going off-road, mostly for hunting.

I still have to drive the truck in the city for day to day stuff occasionally and on the highway to get to my mountain roads too.

So I see folks using 31-inch, and 33-inch tires on their trucks and wonder for one thing, if I bought some of those, would they fit on my regular rims or would I need new ones?

And what is the advantage of bigger tires?

I'm not into diving into deep bog holes just to see if I can get stuck, or climbing huge boulders or anythinglike that, just the ocasional washed ut mountain logging road. And some of them can get pretty hairy!

jamf · Sep 10th, 2005, 09:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hublocker

I've been using 235 R15/75 LT tires on my 4x4 Nissan pickups since 1990.

What I have to admit is I don't know anything about any other sizes.

I've never felt the need for a bigger tire and my BFGs or others have always got me up steep, loose, rocky mtn. roads through streams, small bogs, some snow and whatever else I wanted to traverse while going off-road, mostly for hunting.

I still have to drive the truck in the city for day to day stuff occasionally and on the highway to get to my mountain roads too.

So I see folks using 31-inch, and 33-inch tires on their trucks and wonder for one thing, if I bought some of those, would they fit on my regular rims or would I need new ones?

And what is the advantage of bigger tires?

I'm not into diving into deep bog holes just to see if I can get stuck, or climbing huge boulders or anythinglike that, just the ocasional washed ut mountain logging road. And some of them can get pretty hairy!

you could look into a 255/75r15 or it might be a 265/70r15 can't recall which one is correct but i know that you can get a 30x9.50r15 if you didn't want to go up to the 31's. with the 30x9.50's and the other sizes you can definately use your stock wheels but with 31's i believe the rec. wheel width is 8inches. i'm pretty sure the factory steel wheels are 15x7's maybe 15x7.5. my pathfinder has 235's on it as well but when these wear out i'll probably go to the 30x9.50's and i'm certain bfg makes them which are my favorite tires as well.

mainerunr · Sep 10th, 2005, 11:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jamf

you could look into a 255/75r15 or it might be a 265/70r15 can't recall which one is correct but i know that you can get a 30x9.50r15 if you didn't want to go up to the 31's. with the 30x9.50's and the other sizes you can definately use your stock wheels but with 31's i believe the rec. wheel width is 8inches. i'm pretty sure the factory steel wheels are 15x7's maybe 15x7.5. my pathfinder has 235's on it as well but when these wear out i'll probably go to the 30x9.50's and i'm certain bfg makes them which are my favorite tires as well.

Factory alloys on my 97 were 15x7's, I believe the steelies that year were 15x6 (but I could be wrong). MY truck had 235/75r15's from the factory but I ran 31x10.50's on them from 68k miles until I traded it this year at 130k miles. I actually got better gas milage with the bigger tires because the truck was geared so low (4.56's or something, I dont really need to remember anymore).

Funny thing is my trade to an '05 got me even better milage.

Other than that, bigger tires are harder to turn if you dont have the gearing you will notice a difference in apparent power. They also make it easier to get over things (even small obstacles) since they have a bigger radius they will come up against things at a lower point in the arc (I'm not sure really how to explain this...if I could draw a picture it would be easier).