I have been looking around trying to figure out the right gearing for different size tires and blah blah blah. Just want to ask all the pros out there what their opinion is. It's an '88 pickup with 22re and stock 4.10 gears, will I be ok running 255/70-16s? My concerns are the usual: will mpg be noticeably worse, is it going to steal what little horsepower I have?

Thanks for any and all help!

 

no....shouldnt really notice it, might be a little bit more sluggish starting off, but not too much after that...i regeared from 4.10's and 35"s finally to 5:29's and im hardly able to use 1st. those gears and tires are the correct for making it like stock

 

Ran 31's on my 93 for years with stock gearing and no locker. Never had a minutes trouble.

 

No trouble here..
30x9.5's, it's not slow in the least.

 

i run 33s and there aint much difference from the 31s

 

Thanks for the replies. I'm new to these trucks and want to make sure any changes are done properly.

 

Took my 88 with 4:10's from stock to 255/75r16's, which is a tad taller than a 255/70r16, and definitely noticed the change. Not so much of a difference taking off from a stop but top gear and hills were very noticible- a lot of grades that I could hold 5th in now require a shift down to 4th. There wasn't a significant change in mileage though, either. I guess that's just from knowing when to down and up shift to keep the engine in the proper power band for your speed.

 

your stock tire should be a 15, not a 16, correct? anyway, I did some calcs, and the standard 225/75 , going up to a 265 even, only adds about 2 inches in height. now with the 16 inch wheel, you are going to add a bit more weight, so you may notice some differences as mentioned above; on hills, on grades in high gear. but mileage should not be barely a diff, unless you do a lot of city driving.

 

225/75r15 is approximately 28.25" diameter with a circumference of 88.86", give or take.
255/75r16 is approximately 31" diameter with a circumference of 97.5", give or take.
You're talking a tire that travels approximately 9" farther per revolution, or approximately 10% farther per revolution when compared to the smaller, 'stock' tire. That effects final drive ratios correspondingly and if you don't notice that, you drive conservatively.

 

The truck actually has 16" wheels off a 2005 Tacoma. It sounds like alot of guys on here are running bigger than stock tires and not having a problem. I guess the extra weight isn't that big a deal.