I have a 1997 4x4 Expy with the stock 16 inch wheels and the stock 255 tires on them. I have the 5.4L with a 3.73 gear. I want to go to the 285/75/16 BFGs with Eagle Series 143 16x10 rims. I see alot of F150 guys saying that they fit without rubbing. Does that mean they will also fit on my Expy without rubbing? Also, I do not want to give up serious gas mileage and power but since I have the 5.4L and the 3.73 I thought that these tires will be ok. Any thoughts? Thanks alot in advance for any info you can give me!!!

Bill

 

I ran 285s on my 97 F150 with the 4.6L and 3.55 gears and it was about the limit. I should have stuck with them instead of going to 315s. With the 5.4L and 3.73s you'll still have some decent power but your mileage will go down. Anytime you put bigger tires on you'll lose mileage, theres no way around it. I'd stay away from putting 285/75/16s on 16x10 wheels. The tires are only 11.5" wide. The maximum width you'll want for safety and tire wear reasons is an 8" wheel. A 305 series tire is the narrowest you'll wanna put on a 10" wheel. But what do I know, I only worked in a tire store for 4 years in college.

 

They will fit by cranking up the torsion bars a little and/or trimming a little plastic off the front bumper's lower plastic valance. I would go with 305/70-16 BFG's on 16x10's though. I am running 285/75 BFG's on 16x10 Eagle's myself. I've had them for about 24000 miles without any problems, but BFG recommends a maximum rim width of 9 inches for 285's but there are not very many 16x9 inch rims out there. The only reason that I went with 285/75's is because BFG didn't make a 305/70-16 when I bought my truck. I have a 5.4 and 3.55 gears in my Screw and I really didn't notice any difference when I swapped my stock 255/70's for the 285/75's, but I only had the truck a day or so when I swapped them.

 

If you've got 'em, go with 'em. I had 285/75s on my '97 with no rub at all. Dropped my mgp from 16/17 to 14/15 but I had 3:55's also w/ the 4.6. Not much power loss except on steep inclines was noticable. If you go any bigger you will rub.

 

I have a 98 f150 5.4 355 with the 285 on stock rims... I don't think it will be any problem for you rig... I didn't crank trim or touch anything and they work fine. There was very little milage drop but the speedo is off about 10%