Buying Cragar Soft 8's, 15x7, or 15x8???

[1996BLKBauer]

Buying some new rims for my 1996 Ford Explorer, I have already decided on some Cragar soft 8's. I was wondering what size I should get. Either 15x7 or 15x8? 15x7 is stock size, but 15x8 is slightly wider, but will make the tires sit at a lower profile. I am keeping costs low with keeping my same tires, but I am wondering if it will mess with ride quality at all?

[Tebo]

Don't stretch your stock tires. Bigger tires bigger wheel. I say stick with 15x7

[1996BLKBauer]

Don't stretch your stock tires. Bigger tires bigger wheel. I say stick with 15x7

Thanks for the input. I found that my stock tires have a width of 9.25inches, but I really don't plan on getting bigger tires, simply because they are more expensive, and the AWD system really does not like changes if wheel size, and mass.

[BeatBox]

id go with 8's, it will make the foot print of the tire alittle wider. it will be 1/2 inch on each side of the wheel witch is nothing

as far as installing the tires on the wheels it will be ok, you wont need to get different tires, if you wanted to go with a 10in wide wheel then you might want to get different tires

id be more concerned with the right offset so that they dont stick out too much, on explorers you should have a problem at all. if anything if they do stick out maybe 1/2 an inch would still look good IMO

hope that helps

[ds1919]

15x8 should work out fine. Usually a backspacing of 3.75" is what you want. Your tread width of 9.25 is fine. Your tires might stretch and lower your overall diameter, but its so negligeble it wont matter to your gearing or AWD. The most important thing for your AWD is that all 4 tires are the exact size/diameter. So make sure you rotate regularly to make sure they are all worn the same, otherwise its bad on the tranny/xfer case.

15x8 will look WAAAAY better than 15x7.

[1996BLKBauer]

15x8 should work out fine. Usually a backspacing of 3.75" is what you want. Your tread width of 9.25 is fine. Your tires might stretch and lower your overall diameter, but its so negligeble it wont matter to your gearing or AWD. The most important thing for your AWD is that all 4 tires are the exact size/diameter. So make sure you rotate regularly to make sure they are all worn the same, otherwise its bad on the tranny/xfer case.

15x8 will look WAAAAY better than 15x7.

15x8 should work out fine. Usually a backspacing of 3.75" is what you want. Your tread width of 9.25 is fine. Your tires might stretch and lower your overall diameter, but its so negligeble it wont matter to your gearing or AWD. The most important thing for your AWD is that all 4 tires are the exact size/diameter. So make sure you rotate regularly to make sure they are all worn the same, otherwise its bad on the tranny/xfer case.

15x8 will look WAAAAY better than 15x7.

I know it's been a while, but in what way would it look better? Everybody I have talked to said it would look better, but I don't understand how. Every time I ask, they said just buy it and you will see... I am not made of money to buy 2 sets of rims to see the difference in look. I just don't understand how it would be different.