I got a stock hieght 1500 short wheel base regular cab. i want to fill up the fender wells but dont know how big is to big. i am NOT lifting the truck i pull a trailer way to much to lift it. but i also do search and rescue for a atv riding facility . it has the clearance i need maybe just a scoshe higher would be ok. so i need some help any advice??????

 

Is it 4X4? I have 285/75 16's (33") on mine, up from the stock 245 size. They give it a nicer 'truck' look without being too big. Mine rub a tiny bit on the control arms at full turn, but it's not an issue. A lift wouldn't help it either, I really need different rims with more backspacing... Everyone here will tell you not to go any bigger than that without re-gearing as bigger tires can be hell on these transmissions.

 

285 75 16 is about as big as you can go without scrubbing.
If you have the 3 arm/swirly rims then there's a good chance you'll rub the control arms a little bit in a full lock turn. That's easy to overcome though, just don't turn the wheel until you hit the stops.

Here's a ram with 285 75 16 tires and the swirly rims I was talking about. This one has no lift and is all stock aside from the tire size increase.

 

Sheriff do yours rub at all with those rims? I'd love to have a set of those instead of these swirly rims lol

 

Not a bit and mine are actually 33", not 32.8".

 

well that's good to know then. I assumed that pretty much all the factory wheels would be the same and rub a bit like mine do..... I'm gonna keep an eye out for a set of those ones now

 

well i can tell you this, if you are going to haul a trailer, and have 285's....i think it will be sluggish IMO........i have 10ply 265/75/16 with 4.10 gears, and when i towed a car (with a tow strap through town)...i had to go up a pretty good incline hill, and it was sluggish.......

if you get 285's and are going to tow, id upgrade to 3.92 or 4.10 gears.....

if you dont want to re-gear, id just go with 265's......just my .02 cents

FYI, your truck has 3.55 gears

 

If you're towing much more than a ton, you'd be better off sticking with the stock tire height unless you want to spend on differential gears.

 

I just hauled 2600lbs worth of my old roof to the landfill* last week, and I could tell it was there for sure.... and I've hauled my father in laws double horse trailer full of junk a couple times and that definitely made er feel a bit sluggish... I hate hauling heavy stuff like that, I'm always paranoid about the transmission blowin up lol (knock on wood, it works great so far!). I never even considered the rear end!






*'sanitary landfill' is an oxymoron. There was nothing sanitary about that place last week, there was a smell there that was unlike ANYTHING I've ever smelled in my life! And I've been there a few times and to several of the old dumps they used to have back in the day

 

Go no bigger than 265/75/R16's as they rub near full lock. 285's will rub HARD way before full lock. Both my sets of 285's rub near full lock with a 2" lift.

I would just stick with 245/75/R16's if towing. I had a very noticeable power loss going to 285's but more noticeable was going back to 225's. It was like I had a whole other truck power wise (looked funny though).