I'm looking for new tires/wheels for the truck and I wanted some feedback. Right now I have 285/70/17's Load Range D KO's on the stock wheels. They fit fine and are much better than the stock P tires.

I'm wanting a bit more rim and less rubber, and was looking to go 275/55/20 but all the tires in that size are only XL rated at best. If I was to go 275/60 or 285/55 I can find tires, but now between the 20" rim and tire you are getting prety darned heavy. Stepping down to a 18" wheel gives me 275/65/20 and 285/65/20. The wheels I'm going with have less offset than stock to push the wheels more towards the edges of the truck, so I'm leary of the 285/65/18s rubbing. The problem is all the AT tires that I find in the 275/65/18 are load range E.

So I guess my two questons are:
-have people run load range E's on their 1500's?
-have people run 285/65/18's on their truck and what did they have to crank the t-bars to prevent rubbing?

 

I can answer one question. 285/65/18's are the same size(width and height) as 285/70/17's. You can run E's on your truck, they will be slightly stiffer than D's(8 ply versus 10). If you stay with a 8 inch, or 9inch wide with the right backspacing, you will be fine just cranking your bars to level.

 

What I find weird is that I didn't even have to touch my T bars to get the 285/70/17's to fit. I got them used from a friend so they weren't at max diameter. The 285/70/17's are 32.8" tall and the 285/65/18 are 32.6 tall.

The backspacing I was going with with +12mm so thats 19mm more(assuming the 17's are +31mm). Are you suggesting I need to keep closer to the stock 31mm sidewall?

In regards to the D vs E ply rating, what amazed me the most switching from the stock p rated tires to the KO's was the cornering. I have been known to drive this truck like its a miata, and the ko's will loose traction and start to push before they even think about rolling over onto the sidewalls. For such a tall sidewall the truck corners amazingly flat. My buddy in his 10' tacoma and I played follow the leader on back roads and his side walls were chewed to hell and mine don't have a mark. I love how level the truck is with the KO's. They have 3 ply sidewalls vs most everything else of that load range has 2 ply. I hope by going to away from the KO's and to 18 wheels what I'll lose in side wall strength i'll gain in less sidewall.