I recently bought an 07 4x4 hemi rcsb with the aluminum 17s and the 3.55 gears and love it. I was looking at getting new rims and reading about for bigger tires you should have at least 3.92s. I asked local shops and changing the gears on a 4x4 is outrageous. Can anyone suggest a chrome 17" wheel that will look cool with 245/70/17s. Has anybody went this direction? Or is 17" just too small to look decent on these trucks?

Thanks much guys.

 

i think 17s look good with a wide tire with the truck lowerd a lil bit on reg cabs anyway oc ilike them to sit up a bit

 

I'm a firm believer that 20's are way too much wheel (not leaving enough meat on the tire) for any 4x4, or at least any that will go off the pavement. I'd have 15s on mine if they would have cleared the calipers. You'll get better performance with the 17's, especially off-road, where you need all the floatation and flex a tire can give you. They just may not look as "cool".

It's a sin that they'll not automatically upgrade ANY QC and/or 4x4 to the better 3.92 gears. 3.55's probably are not even suited for a reg. cab 4x2 let alone anything with more weight. The cheazy gearing is an emissions and mpg thing (although you don't get any better mpgs with that gearing unless it's interstate driving and very flat).
Start putting away some cash every month and when you can do it, look into getting gears. They'll make a night and day performance difference. 4.10's are ideal for any tire to 33", 4.56's for 33" to 35" and 4.88's for anything over 35". Unfortunately, gears are not an install you can do, to date, it's the only mod that I've not done myself. You need to have special tools and a lot of experience setting gears. I had the front & rears done with 4.56's, a master install kit, an Auburn LSD installed in the rear and it cost me just under $1500 with tax and labor about two and a half years ago. That price also included a return trip after 500 miles to inspect the gears and change the lubes...

 

Here are some pics of my DC-1s with 265/70s. I agree with Hammer, you need some meat on the wheels. Oversized wheels with little rubber bands look kinda dumb, IMO. 4x4s, especially need a tall sidewall, but I like the fact I can "step" over curbs without worrying about damaging the wheel. Some of these folks who put 22" wheels and tiny sidewalls must go through a lot of wheels and pinched tires.

[IMG]local://upfiles/69696/656DCE0A063A4A5E879F195DC71EF9EA.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/69696/9FE5A12526294A1EA7D0497898916A82.jpg[/IMG]

 

Yea, Pappy_FB's got a pretty dented up stock 20" wheel from a mishap with one of those six or eight foot long concrete "curbs" you see in so many parking lots. I'm actually shocked his tire keeps a bead it's dented in so bad...

For off-roading, I didn't even like my old 33s on 17" wheels. To me, 35's on 17s look about right...




[IMG]local://upfiles/67238/F9AB5E7C03DE417293E2813278985A33.jpg[/IMG]

 

Hammer, MikeH....have it correct. Allot of it is still personal opinion, but in my opinion if you are going to do anything offroad the 20's will just end up beat up (have seen several guys come off the trail upset that their new wheels got chewed up). 17's with some nice bigger tires (i.e. 33 - 35's) are the ticket - again personal opinion.

In terms of gears, well if you do a quick search I think you'll quickly see that 4.56's seem to be by far the most popular option on this forum, and for good reason. Save up, find a good shop that does gears as a primary function, have a good name brand installed (several to choose from), and never look back !

 

oh yea if your goin off roading i would get the smallest rim that would fit our trucks i like a 15 or 16 inch rim if anybody wanted to see my 1999 dodge ram 4x4 i have some 38.5 baggers with some 15 inch mickeyThomsonon 7 skyjacker duel frontshocksan a 3 inch body lift and imselling it to

 

Yea, I had 35s on 15" wheels when I had my '98 Dodge 4x4. It looked killer, a lot more meat than my current 35s on the 17" wheels. I guess you gotta give up something for more stopping power...

 

thx for that info hammer. if i go to 285's i would be good with 4.10's. odds are i will stay with the same but i want the advantage the 4.10's provide over the 3.55's that came with it.