Well its a simple question I hope.. If I change from a 265 / 75/ 15 aka 30 / 10.5 / 15 ( darn near ipossable to find at at a good price ) to a 235 / 75 / 15 on a 308 rear in a 1986 K1500 will it improve my mileage due to less work on the rear?
That's going to be a smaller tire which means more RPMs and most likely more gas since I doubt you have an OD gear in that puppy. Having 15" rims is going to limit your ability to find narrower tires that don't change the overall diameter significantly. On my Canyon, I upgraded the wheels to 18s, got rid of the super tall sidewalls without changing the OD significantly and it transformed the truck. Better handling (much!) and mpg picked up a tick too. You might look for a set of take-offs from something relatively new. Gotta be somebody trading their factory steel 17's or 18's for big money rims. If you want steel rims, should be dirt cheap even with good rubber on them.
Yep. Going smaller will hurt. Especially that much smaller. If your gonna step down to a narrow tire, you need to keep the sidewall height, so the O.D. is still relatively the same. Tread wright has some cheap tires in that size (most times they don't). But if your dead set on a narrow tire, then the sidewall ratio (xxx/75/xx) needs to be stepped up to 85 or 90 (245/80/15). That's just an example. Different manuf will make different sizes. Here are tires in the same size. Wardens are under $400 for four tires (before shipping) And then these are 1" narrower and 1" shorter.. These are under $330 (before ship)
These fellas are correct ! Ive played this same game on my Chevy's over the years ! Good luck buddy !!
Yep use to use a tire conversion calculator going from the metric to standard size. But anyway, I think the 235/75/15 was a stock size even on a 4wd truck(at least on half ton)? My k10 I believe the door sticker said 235/75/15 on it. And I too have either a 3.08 or 3.07 rear I forget which?? I thought they made both? Anyway I now have 33/12.50/15 on it and its really too tall of a ratio now. Truck can still get up and move and there great for cruising 60mph but the truck just do sent have the low end it needs cause of the tires. When pulling a big boat up at the lake I always put the T case in 4Lo to get a better ratio.
IIRC 235/75/15 uniroyal tiger paws would have been factory equipment along with an overdrive 700r4 if automatic. Sounds like that would put you back to factory specs and regain power/mpg while putting less strain on everything under normal conditions as gm's R&D dept originally intended. Of course there are variables that could come into play.
K10s/15s were that size stock bit I think the 3/4 ton were the size pete had if they were not 16" rims. Id either get the rereads like Dex linked or look for a set of factory takeoffs from newer truck
Well wow! Thanks for the info fellas! Actually my truck stock tire is 30/10.5 / 15 it's a literal beast of a truck. I wanted to down size because I noticed most trucks around here anyways use 235's stock. Gas mileage is really just a side question as I want affordable tires for once. @DexterDay I totally forgot about treadwright I just went and looked and can get stock tires at a great price.... Thanks buddy!
I like to purchase my new rubbers in person. They have a date stamp on them. Everything has a shelf life. One of the national news (cnn) did a story on tires being sold after sitting for years on a shelf. One of the national tire chains was the focus. Rubber deteriorates.... Having said that I run two different sets of 33/12.50 & 13.50 rubbers on 15 in. Rims. They never see the street except for loading on the car hauler. Btw... Tires are like ( . V . ) Once you play with em' awhile you want a bigger set.
The truck has wheels, not rims. MasterMech you of all people should know better! A 235/75r15 is around 29" tall. The 265/75r15 is about 30.5. Not a ton of difference. I'd probably run a 235 if I had to stick with the 15" wheels. A set of 16" would open up options for truck tires, though I'm not sure how common 6 lug 16" wheels are (I'm talking stock ie.. can get for cheap... stuff) 3.08s are an 80s "fuel crisis" gearing. An 86 1/2 ton should have a 700r4, though GM threw whatever was laying around in their junk in those years, so it could have a TH350 or 400 even. If it's the O/D trans smaller tires would help to get the revs up a bit and less engine lugging.
And I have never had a problem with tires and I have bought them from everywhere from local shops to discounttirredirect.com never had a tire more than maybe 6 months old. I think this was a rare case of them dumping a warehouse or something?
Well your right. I think where I got that then is that it has 3/4ton springs under it. And if it was 3/4 it would be 16" wheels.
I'm watching this thread as I have just acquired a 2000 GMC S15 Sonoma with the ZR2 package. It comes stock with 30/10.50/15. I'm going to need to get new tires and thought about switching also. I'm going to surf CL and see if I can find some good used.
The zr2 will look stupid with anything but the 30 or 31's on it. I would get the tires Dex linked too"!!!