I have 3 wheel/tires from an 05 SportTac (and my daily driver 08 Escape) but they are 16" rims, I set them beside the current 15's and they are like 4-6" taller; I think it's the same bolt pattern.

Since it's only like 20 out; I don't feel like working outside to test fit them.

I found a post somewhere about what tires fit what; it only lists 15's for my truck.

Basically I need to buy at least 1 tire/wheel for a spare; if the 16's fit I'd get 2 of those instead and have interchangeable between the ranger & escape if need be in the future.

 

Well I braved the 20's and went outside to fulfill my curiosity.

Yes the 16's fit, look nice & full; and raised the truck an 1".

So what are the pros (other than aesthetics) and cons to a bigger tire?

 

I dunno what pros and cons are but those came on rangers as well.

 

I could be totally wrong but I think the same sized tire in a 15 vs 16 is just the sidewalls are shorter than on the 16s to accomidate the different size wheel and still keep the same tire height.

 

yeah rim size just changes the inner tire diameter but most standard 16's are than than 15's by design for different applications. You may get better grip because they are probably wider. The cons your speedo is probably off a little now but no biggie that can be adjusted.

 

The size of the wheel isn't a concern for fitment...it'll fit. What is a concern is the tire size....

 

a 235 in both 15 and 16 wheel diameter will be the same size whichever wheel you use. U never did state the tire size you want to run

 

Not sure what I want on it; the explorer wheels now have something like a 255/70 16. The truck has like 235/70 15's on 2 and 225/75 15's on the other 2 (front & back are paired) but they look real close.

I like the fuller look; just don't wanna kill mpg's (the 17 I'm getting kills the 12 my Expy gets!)

The 15's have pretty good tread left too; so I may just run those until they go bald.
After I figure out whats causing the shakes at 55 (tires, or something else)

 

I think we need to send you back to tire sizing 101....

235 is only the tread width in millimeters. That's all that tells us.

There's the other number besides the wheel diameter.......and that's sidewall height(or section height). Makes a HUGE difference in tire diameter. 235/70R15. If it's 70, that means the sidewall is 70% of the tread width. The section height goes down when rim size goes up. So 235/70R15 would be about the same height as a 235/60R16. It's a term called "plus sizing". *note: merely examples, I did not do any actual calculations.

 

thank you for the info. I was under the wrong impression that a same sized tire in different wheel diameters were the same size and the only difference was wheel diameter. Good info, thanks