My 15 - 16 inch wheel/tire upgrade

johnpsz

Well-known member
There have been a few questions from other owners with 15" wheels as to what upgrade is possible. I will post about my upgrade and provide as much detail that I found along the way. This is just my viewpoint, and not general rule of thumb. So I was unhappy with the fact that my new Extreme Light Elkridge had 5200# axles but only a 10080 rating due to the wheel tire combination, adding to the fact that the trailer had a gvwr of just about 12K#. I know going into this that I'm not going to change those ratings, but an upgrade gives me better piece of mind. I chose a wheel/tire combination that was capable of more than 20% OVER my Elkridge's gvwr on their own and went from the stack Blowmax D rated 225/75/15's to Bridgestone Duravis R250 E rated commercial rib style LT tires in 235/85/16. Now I debated for a while on going to a smaller 245/75/16 that would be about an inch shorter, but after a lot of measuring I confirmed that I would be able to fit the 235/85's with more than 1 and 3/4" to spare.

Now for some pics...

My little helper checking things out.
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Stock wheels and tires.
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Comparing old vs. new.
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New shoes on.
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johnpsz

Well-known member
Yeah, he was a great helper, but had more fun playing on the creeper than swapping out the wheels.

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jassson007

Founding Louisiana Chapter Leaders-Retired
Yeah, he was a great helper, but had more fun playing on the creeper than swapping out the wheels.

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I understand. Lol. Gotta have a bat mobile if you are batman. Lol
 

Bob&Patty

Founders of SoCal Chapter
John, good choice. When doing your weight ratings....remember that 20% of your 5ers GVWR is on the pin/truck. You should be well within specs now.
 

Jim.Allison

Well-known member
They will be running less revolutions and cooler as a result. And you have much more tire than you had before.
 

'Lil Guy'

Well-known member
Love what you've done. I just ordered the correct track II system for my E289. Am also going with 16 inch wheels and tires. Did you install the 2 inch lift cams in the neutral position or did you have to adjust the cams to align the axels with the kingpin? Did you have any trouble with the install? I dread crawling around on the ground doing the install but I need the height since my Ram 2500 is so high in stock 4X4 stance. About 2" higher than ford and Chev. What is your wheel size in width? Are they 6 or 6 1/2 wide? Better yet where did you get them? Looks great. Also, what is your wheel speck as to offset and PSI rating? Thanks in advance.
 

johnpsz

Well-known member
Baker, the correct track 2 was installed by my dealer and was wrapped into the purchase agreement, I did talk to the tech that installed them since only 1 cam was not in the neutral position and I thought that was odd. He showed me the instructions where it tells you to measure between the bolts and he re-measured it in front of me. As for the rims the are 16" trailer rims I don't have the model number handy but are 6" wide and have 110psi ratings.
 

'Lil Guy'

Well-known member
Thnks for the info. I'm talking to my dealer about the install now. Glad I stumbled onto this. I was concerned about the ability to get the TT closer to level. Thanks again and great mods to your unit.
 
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