E250 2wd tire size.

[dbhosttexas]

So an observation I have RE: a stock suspension 93 E250 Sportsmobile. I was needing to replace the factory size tires / highway treads. Looking to go wider but not necessarily taller. I needed floatation for beach driving and southern muddy road driving, not height for rock crawling.

I found the max size I could fit without having to trim or modify anything is a 245/70R16

I was in a sitaution of I need tires now, but will be replacing them later as I stash some cash for a 4wd conversion, so for now I have gone with...

Power Venom Terra Hunter X/T All Terrains in 245/70R16, and I wanted to show the size difference between these, and the OE size of 225/75R16, I will show for the same make / model tire so we know what we are looking at...

Specs are: Dimesnion | 245/70/R16 | 225/75R16 | difference in specs.
Overall Diameter | 29.53" | 29.29" | .24"
Section Width | 9.76" | 8.78" | .98"

So basically only roughly 1/4" larger diameter, or 1/8" taller radius, and a hundredth of an inch shy of being a full inch wider. At full compression and sweeping the wheel right to left we clear the front bumper, not by a big comfort margin, but enough I am disconcerned with the tire meeting the bumper, no issues at the back of the fender / wheel opening.

As we all know tire MFGs tend to round numbers, up for their benefit, these tires are effectively 30x10/R16, which in floatation size is odd enough, but wider enough than the more common 30x9.5/R16, to make at least a shave of a difference...

Am I going to go hog wild with this thing? Of course not, but it will get me where I need to go, and presume I have another rig with me that can pull me out of trouble should I get there.

These have a look VERY much like the BFGoodrich All Terrain TA KO2, with a changed up shoulder lug pattern, but going down the road there is a difference noise wise. These things howl like mud tires, not all terrains. It does generate some odd looks...

I did take them onto the beach on a fairly well travelled / camped hunk of Texas beach to test them out, and they behaved exactly as I expected, so yes, looking forward to actually camping this setup... And definately tossing my traction boards, shovel, and recovery bag in there for good measure!