Brace37
Full Access Member
Well...everyone is entitled to their opinion but ultimately its your truck...so do what ever feels right to you.
I got lots of great advice from family and friends when I decided to buy my Raptor.
"Why do you need a truck that big?"
"Where are you going to go that you need a huge 4x4?"
"Black only looks good when its clean, your going to hate it!"
"Fords suck!"
"Your not gong to be able to buy gas to drive that thing!"
Well, I still bought the truck, and never had a second thought.
As for tire and wheel size. What do you want to do with your truck?
Are going to enter the next big baja race? Are your going to take your 50k truck and go out to the local jeep park and start hitting the jumps a 60mph?
Once you can answer those questions, then you can accurately asses your needs. When I was trying to decide on wheel size I read a post that said if your going to go 18's, why not just stay at stock...but if you really want a change, go for the 20's.
My truck is a street queen, and I'm damn proud of it. I have the 20x9 Fuel Octanes with Goodyear DuraTrac 352/60/R20's and LOVE them! Yep, I lost a whole 1 inch of sidewall going with that setup over stock...but it doesn't bother me in the least. I'm not going muddin, or rock crawling...and I've spent the last three years of my life living in the deserts of Iraq and Afghanistan...so there isn't much of a chance I'm going to come home for R&R and take the Raptor to the nearest sandscape anytime in the near future.
I ordered my wheels from the good folks at SDHQ and chose the 5.5 backpacking. I had my shocks adjusted to the mid-perch and had the local 4x4 shop do some minor trimming inside the front fender wells...I initially had some minor rubbing when backing up at full lock left/right. Since the trim, nada. If you go with the 5.75 backspacing, you probably won't have to do any trimming, but your tires will stick out past the fenders a little more.
I believe the 5.5 backspace equates to a 12-13 mm offset and the 5.75 backspace equates to 18mm offset. I had a hard time wrapping my brain around all that...I found this link that offered some assistance in understanding the whole backspace/offset stuff: Custom rims, wheel tire packages for your ride - RIMSnTIRES.com
Bottomline....do what you want, its your Raptor...but for me, the Fuel Octanes and the Duratracs rock!
I got lots of great advice from family and friends when I decided to buy my Raptor.
"Why do you need a truck that big?"
"Where are you going to go that you need a huge 4x4?"
"Black only looks good when its clean, your going to hate it!"
"Fords suck!"
"Your not gong to be able to buy gas to drive that thing!"
Well, I still bought the truck, and never had a second thought.
As for tire and wheel size. What do you want to do with your truck?
Are going to enter the next big baja race? Are your going to take your 50k truck and go out to the local jeep park and start hitting the jumps a 60mph?
Once you can answer those questions, then you can accurately asses your needs. When I was trying to decide on wheel size I read a post that said if your going to go 18's, why not just stay at stock...but if you really want a change, go for the 20's.
My truck is a street queen, and I'm damn proud of it. I have the 20x9 Fuel Octanes with Goodyear DuraTrac 352/60/R20's and LOVE them! Yep, I lost a whole 1 inch of sidewall going with that setup over stock...but it doesn't bother me in the least. I'm not going muddin, or rock crawling...and I've spent the last three years of my life living in the deserts of Iraq and Afghanistan...so there isn't much of a chance I'm going to come home for R&R and take the Raptor to the nearest sandscape anytime in the near future.
I ordered my wheels from the good folks at SDHQ and chose the 5.5 backpacking. I had my shocks adjusted to the mid-perch and had the local 4x4 shop do some minor trimming inside the front fender wells...I initially had some minor rubbing when backing up at full lock left/right. Since the trim, nada. If you go with the 5.75 backspacing, you probably won't have to do any trimming, but your tires will stick out past the fenders a little more.
I believe the 5.5 backspace equates to a 12-13 mm offset and the 5.75 backspace equates to 18mm offset. I had a hard time wrapping my brain around all that...I found this link that offered some assistance in understanding the whole backspace/offset stuff: Custom rims, wheel tire packages for your ride - RIMSnTIRES.com
Bottomline....do what you want, its your Raptor...but for me, the Fuel Octanes and the Duratracs rock!
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