33 Inch Tire Recommendations: 15" vs 17"
 

Hi Everyone, building my 2003 Ford Ranger XLT 4x4 this week and am looking for tire suggestions. Just put on a 3 inch body lift in preparation for 33 inch tires. This is a weekend only car that I intend to use for camping, ski trips, and offroading in California. A buddy who has a gx460 for similar use cases strongly suggested I get a rugged terrain/hybrid tire with a load range e. His tire of choice currently are Kenda Kelvers. He apparently has torn several KO2s on his previous car, which was a ZR2.

1. The issue is that most load range e tires require 17 inch wheels. Having trouble finding steelies in that size and most wheel advice for backspacing on the forum are for 15 & 16 inch wheels. Any suggestions or previous threads thay cover this subject? Did not have much luck searching this topic.
2. Should I be going down the 17 inch load range e path? Are there load range e tires for a 15 inch wheel thay are decent? Or should I do something different for my use case?​​​​​​

Also, before my buddy threw the 17 in load range e tires into the mix, I was considering 33x10.5r15, with 12.5" width as a close second. I like the look of the narrower tires, but willing to sacrifice looks for performance.

I ran 33x12.5 tires on a 15x10 steel wheel back when I had just a 4" suspension lift. Most of the tires I found were load range C, like you have found. That was almost ten years ago, so I'm sure it's even harder to find choices in a 15 today. And in researching steel wheels in a 17 years ago, I couldn't find many options either.

I stepped up to a 17" alloy wheel with 35" tires back in 2017, and the options for tires all seemed to be a load range E. They only difference I've noticed is that the Load Range E tires seem to last longer. But I can't speak for certain because I only ran Goodyear Duratrac 33's, and they didn't seem to last long which may have just been those specific tires. I've run cheap Thunderer and Centennial 35's and they usually last about 3 years with how I drive. The Duratracs only seemed to give me two years before they were at the wear bars.

Keep in mind that 35's on stock gears will kill your mpgs and performance. I have 4.88 gears, so the 35's don't hinder my truck like they would have with the stock 4.10 gears. I ran the 33's with stock 4.10 gears, and it wasn't terrible, but there was definitely a decrease in performance compared to the stock size tires.

A 33 x 15(78lbs) will weigh about 10lbs more than a 33 x 17(69lbs), because of more sidewall/rubber, 15 and 17 rims/wheels maybe 2lb difference or less depending on material they are made with
May not sound like much but the drive train must get them rolling and the brakes must stop them from rolling