OK, I wanna change the rims on my Ranger and after a lot of research, I've ruled out Explorer Wheels and Mustang Wheels. In most cases these rims would need spacers to make them fit right. I really want a factory type look and most aftermarket rims look horrible. I finally stumbled on a Ford Crown Vic Wheel that might work. This wheel (17 x 7 )was used on the Crown Vic from 93 to 02. It has the correct bolt pattern and it has a back spacing around 4 to 4.5 inches (cannot find an exact number). I think it will work without spacers, so will it?? Any Ford Guys here that might know
Your truck came stock with quite a few wheels, 15x7, 15x6, 14x6, 14x5.5, hopefully you have the 15x7. If you have the 7 inch wide wheel you should not have any problemas with the backspacing or the offset. Just dont put a huge tire on it (i learned that the hard way). Even if you have one of the smaller wheels I dont think you would have any problems since the Ranger came with a 7 inch wheel as an option (width). Some problem areas to look out for, A arms, brake lines, inner and outer fender wells, esp when front wheels are cocked all the way to one side, shock towers etc. To be honest your main problems might be with the wheels being too tall and rubbing on the fender wells, the biggest wheel (height) your truck came with was a 15 incher, so you will be 2 inches taller. Dont forget the speedo gear, you will get a funky reading since you will have a taller wheel. I dont think i told you anything that you didnt already know but I just thought id chime in.
ok so now you got me thinking, you really need to measure the wheels on the ranger, cause some wheels have a valley that raises around the edges that can interfere with the brakes. If you just measure to the mounting pad and the wheels have a valley that raises up and you are not measuring, well you might need spacers.
Thanks for your response. My truck has the 14x6 inch wheels from the factory. The stock tire diameter with the 225/70R14 is 26.4-inches. If I do this, I plan on using a 225/55R17 which has an overall diameter of 26.75-inches. The Ranger sits at a stock height and a small spacer, nothing over 1/2-inch would be acceptable. I need to find both offset and backspacing for both rims.
if the difference is only .35 of an inch and you are measuring the diiference between the 14 inch and the new 17 inch I doubt you will have any problems. Remember your truck did have a 15x7 wheel as an option, so if you measured from the 15 to the 17, you might end up with more room esp with a low profile tire, but of course your ride will be a lot rougher.
So as long as the backspace and the offset on both wheels is near the same then everything should work out. I can find backspace info for the Ranger, its 4-1/2-inches. The backspace info for the Crown Vic is somewhere between 4 and 4-1/2-inches, but no one is nailing it down to a single number. But if 4 to 4-1/2 is accurate then we have no problem But what about the offset? Cannot find any accurate info. For the Ranger its 6mm. So if its between 0 and 20mm for the Crown Vic we are OK, but I cannot find any info. The Ford Part Number for the rim is 1W7Z1007AA. But I still cannot find the right info
really the only way you will have problems is if the new wheel has a negative offset and your stock wheel has 0 or postive offset. Wheels that have negative offset can play havoc with wheel wells and wheel bearings (more stress) not to mention interfering with brake calipers and discs. thankfully most stock wheels come with 0 or a slight postive offset. As brake systems have gotten bigger (calipers and discs) companies have had to make room for them and they usually did this by changing the offset to positive. They also went to taller and wider wheels as well, not to mention the better gas mileage that came with taller wheels. I went and pulled out one of my papers that I wrote when I was at UTI, dont ask me where I got the info cause I dont remember. Offset and backspacing are 2 terms in wheel measurement. while the terms are related, most people ask what is the best or most backspacing I can use to fit a particular wheel tire combo. But some wheel companies use offset for a measurement and not backspacing. Lets do an experiment. Wheel with is generally measured at the inside tire bead mounting surface but you must determine overall width from front to rear lip, usually .50 to 1 inch depending on the wheel and its uses. So a wheel that is advertised as a16x8 is 16 inches in diameter and 8 inches from bead to bead but 9 inches overall. If you have a 17x8 inch wheel, lay the wheel on the ground with the street side facing down, lay a straight edge across the rear lip and measure to the mounting flange. If the wheel had 0 offset this will measure about 4.5 inches- one half the width of the wheel plus the wheel lip width (.50 in this case) and result in a 4.5 inch backspace another example, a wheel with negative offset-- A 15x8 inch wheel with advertised as having -19mm offset=3.35 inches of backspacing, how do you get that? 8 inch wheel is 9 inches lip to lip, one half of 9 inches is 4.5 inches, -19mm offset is roughly -.75 inches, add the -.75 to the mounting surface location of 4.5 inches and you get 3.75 inches of backspacing. Or positive offset= A 15x7 wheel that is listed of having +40mm offset resulting in 5.5 inches of backspacing. how do you get this? 7 inch wheel is 8 inches lip to lip, one half of 8 is 4, +40mm offset is roughly 1.575 inches, add 1.575 inches offset to the surface location of 4 inches and you get 5.575 inches of backspacing. really the big lesson is that "backspacing is a direct result (or byproduct)of offset. Anywat are you confused now, lol. Let me look through old ford specs and see if I can find any info on your wheel!
ok i tried to find the wheels you are looking at. I found that they are a aftermarket wheel that ford used as a dealer installed option. I believe they are made by a company by the name of CCI part number ALY03471U20, they are 17x7 wheels, thats what i got when I cross referenced your ford part number, or they could just be a reproduction of the Ford wheel. I agree with you as there is not much info on the wheels, but that may be because they are no longer sold by Ford or maybe no longer produced at all, I cant tell you. I did find the wheel online still for sell under the part number that I gave you above but not under the Ford part number. Its kind of like when Ford uses a audio company as an dealer installed option (my kenwood cd changer) but they always have a Ford part number and of course they will have the manufactures part number also. I tried really hard to find info on your wheels but it just was not available to me, maybe call a Ford dealer and give them the part number and ask for any specs they can give you or try and looking up the company CCI. Sorry I could not help you out after all this but I tried.
Thanks for all the feedback, its been helpful. The Crown Vic rim looks like the best fit so far. I'm gonna do a little more research before I commit. Again thanks, if you find anything post it
Well I settled on a Rim from a 2005 Ranger. This rim is a 16 x 7 and it will be a really good fit on my truck. The trial fit looks really good Now I need to make up my mind on tires. My wife is getting annoyed, the rims are in the bedroom.
Ranger,I think that general makes the best tires on the market right now,and I research everything before I spend money.I have altimax hp's on my gtp,and grabber hts on the wifes expedition.I'm very happy with the performance of both.What type of tires are you looking for?
Just a good set of street tires. My Ranger has never been off road, in fact I won't drive it on a dirt road. I wanna stay around the same diameter as the stock 14s, so the two sizes that I'm looking at is the 225/60R16 or a 235/60R16. They are 1/4 and 1/2 inch bigger diameter than stock. So they will work. I have a set of Yokohama TRZ on my Mercury and I really like them. I also have a set of Yokohama Avid S/T on my truck currently and so far they have been great. So I'm kind of leaning toward Yokohama. Most all of my driving is highway, really it is, My truck is a 93 with 170,000 miles and I still have the factory original brakes. Because you don't use the brakes that much on the highway. So 99.8% Highway But still have not made up my mind.
Well just take a look at the altimax hp's.They're directional,quiet,and very comfortable.I don't blame you with sticking to what you like though.Have fun trying to decide.
The fun is in the research. I started this thread in May and finally found a set of Rims in August. I take my time. I really did want those Crown Vic rims, but I could not find any real info. But I ended up finding something else that I really liked. I'll research a lot of different tires. And I will take my time. But in the end I'll find what I want
I'm a really stupid spammer. I posted a spam ad at the end of a Moderators Thread. Now, How dumb is that? Really?
