I was just wondering how important they are when going up in tire size? According to the specs, I have 4.56 on my 5 speed manual trans. (3.0 vze engine) I shouldnt have a problem going from 31x10.5x15 on 15 by 7's to 32x11.5x15 on 15 x 8's, should I? I dont think I need a lift either. I guess I will find out when I put them on and turn the wheel.

 

32s arent that much bigger than 31s

 

Yeah, with such a small change, I don't think you need to worry about gearing. However, I bet you will notice a very small loss in power.

 

every inch counts.... lol

 

what are some good 32"s?

 

what type of driveing do you do

 

From the input I've seen on this and other boards, going taller than 32's would not be fun. Not knowing which engine you have, you will likely lose 5th gear, for the most part, with 33's and 4.56's. Off the line acceleration would suffer, too. You'd likely want 4.88's for 33's with your manual tranny. I think the general consensus is 4.88's and 33's are just about ideal.

Mike in AR

 

I went from 4.56/31" to 4.56/33" to 4.88/33" 3VZE with manual tranny.

4.56 with 33's is not too bad - IMHO, it's actually more drivable on the street than stock. You do lose quite a bit of "pep" in 5th, and generally run a gear lower than normal. Off road, the increase in effective gearing was noticeable. Speedo was 1MPH off compared to GPS at 70MPH.

4.88 with 33's is ideal though - a little taller than stock, which is good as it makes 1st usable, but still have "pep" in 5th. Gas mileage seems a little better, but kep forgtting to check speedo.

Either way, you won't have problems with 32's. I would recommend you look at 33x10.50 - more ground clearance, more noticeably bigger, and will still fit with no lift.

 

I have had my 4.88's from 31x10.50, to 32x10.50, to 33x10.50, to 33x12.50, 285/75/16, and 35x12.50. With the 35's my speedo is dead acutate, and with the 285's actually runs fast.

I have liked the 4.88's all around, the difference isnt there to go to 5.29's, but its a huge improvment over the stock 4.10's.

I had to run 4.10's for about 6 weeks a couple years back when my rear end blew up. I found that around town the 4.88's are better, on long steep hills the 4.10's had a better rpm for climbing hills at hwy speeds (3rd gear redline is a few mph faster), but overall I was very happy to get my 4.88's back. I of course couldnt do any slow speed wheeling since I still had 4.88's in the front. And one weekend driving from E Idaho to seattle I did 250 miles in 3rd gear at 4500rpm since it wouldnt hold 4th, there was a 30mph headwind. I really wanted the 4.88's back then.

Back to the tire ?? I have run may tires over the last 5 years, and one of my favorites was the TSL Radial 32x10.50. It fits a 15x7 perfectly. I put 25,000 miles on mine before I sold them and they were at 65%. They were great on the hwy, ice, and trail. Despite being a swamper they were a fantatic tire. And since its a 32x10.50 you wont need any lift to run it. I only sold mine because a 32 was too small for my 4" when I put it on.

 

I think if you went to 32's from 31's, with 4.56 stock gears, and you had your speedo recalibrated to read accounting the increase in tire size, you won't have much in the way of issues in loosing the offroad characteristics the 4.56's are known for as far as revving/winding up a bit to keep the RPM's up while climbing and things like that. But it might actually make it more driveable when you're on the highway doing 65-75 MPH in 5th as the rev's will come down just a bit.

 

You will barely even notice.