I am looking at buying some new tires for my 05 Dakota 4x4 quad cab. Tirerack suggest two 'factory' tire sizes. p245's and p265's. I am wondering which any of the veteran board members would suggest. Thanks for you help.

Matt

 

depends on what you are looking for. the 265's were only found on the TRX offroad trucks. I have 265/75's on my SXT and love the extra size but coming from 245's the fuel mileage is bullocks.

 

Are you saying the mileage is better on the 245's?

My driving is mostly highway, but I do live in Iowa and have winter roads etc. I do occasionally haul a boat that I have to put in and out of the water. Don't do much off-roading unless you count driving on gravel roads occasionally. Thanks for any help you can offer.

 

I just put on the LT 265/75-16s Definity Dakota A/Ts from Pepboys...and it fits just fine and as my wife says "it looks more trucky"... =)

mdk23, anytime you go to a larger tire size you are adding weight and rolling resistance which usually means economy is impacted. I really haven't gone on any long drives, but the OEM on my truck were P265/70-16...not a huge difference IMHO...

 

I probably need to be more clear. I am just wondering if I am going to see any difference between the 245's and the 265's in terms of performance, handling, etc. I currently have 265's on my truck, but obviously the 245's are bit cheaper. Just wondering if teverything is essenitally the same and they get a bit better gas mileage why not go with the 245's? Thanks for the help.

 

stay with 265s if thats waht you have....

 

I agree with Frenchy. If you have the 265's on now going to the 245's will be a let-down. They will get better mileage and probably improve your truck's acceleration but will likely be smaller overall in diameter and need a speedometer recalibration.

 

they probably won't even get a difference in mpg... since he's going to need to get everything recalibrated, it's probably going to end up having the same mpgs after recalibrating.

 

What size rim do you have? I think 245/70 R16's look too small (even though they are almost 30" tall). I'm running 265/70 R16's and they good. I wouldn't go much bigger, since my truck with 3.21's is a poky off the line anyway.

I calculated my milage last tank, corrected for the bigger tires, and got 20.5 MPG. Not really much change.

 

go w/ the 265's. those 245's will look tiny on your truck.