Ranger Mods

For what's its worth --- Even before I took delivery of my Wildtrak I had the original 18" alloy rims and tyres replaced with 17' rims, to be exact 6 off ROH "Beadlocker" 17" x 9" rims fitted with BFG KO2 tyres, 285/70 R17. The rims have a 20mm positive offset as against the standard Ford units being 55mm positive.

My rationale for the change being the availability of replacement tyres way out in the bush, 16" are common, 17" not so common but 18" and 20" are as rare as hens teeth apart from which even in the city the tyre selection for both these sizes is currently woeful, I guess in years to come this will change but for now 17" is the new 16".

The reason for selecting the ROH "Beadlocker" was that they are TPMS compatible (my Wildtrak has TPMS) and their individual strength was greater than the OME units and as I was also having the GVM uprated from standard (3200kg) to 3500 kg each rim/tyre combination had to be able to be greater than 875 kilos, which at over 1400kg each they are.

I have the Ford flares fitted and the rims sit nicely 25mm inside the outer edge of the flare, 100% legal and no mud and crud thrown up onto the doors and at anyone following me, the front and rear mud guards take care of it.

Okay, 6450 kilometres into the Simpson Desert, it had rained the week before we arrived on the 17th March and we were driving over hot soft and some damp sand, on dry hard clay pans and on a slimy soft wet salt pan sinking down to our axles --- all components performed faultlessly, We ran 16 psi pressures front and 18 psi rear. The tyres are very quiet on bitumen and reasonably grippy for a A/T light truck rated tyre, on sand and other surfaces that we drove on they performed far better than I expected and we experienced little or no wheel spin, even driving up to the top of "Big Red" - not bad considering my all-up weight is just under 3450 kilos fully loaded.

The rims - well to me rims are rims and I only went alloy because of the weight and better side wall adhesion at lower pressures.

On bitumen on the advice of BFG we run the fronts at 38 psi and the rears at 40 psi (cold pressures).

Good write up Iain, thanks for sharing the information.

Cheers for posting that. I'm thinking about the same setup (special order ex Australia though... they only sell the ROH steelies over here!)

rjbarrington wrote: ↑Thu Apr 12, 2018 2:20 pm Cheers for posting that. I'm thinking about the same setup (special order ex Australia though... they only sell the ROH steelies over here!)

While I'm not a "wheel appearance man" I have to admit I was dissapointed to see that the ROH "Beadlocker" rims are now made in Taiwan and not here in Australia, I guess its a sign of the economic realities of our times.

Iainboyd wrote: ↑Thu Apr 12, 2018 2:33 pm While I'm not a "wheel appearance man" I have to admit I was dissapointed to see that the ROH "Beadlocker" rims are now made in Taiwan and not here in Australia, I guess its a sign of the economic realities of our times.

Mmm. True. Are there any still made locally? I think I read that ROH was the last.

I've been looking at Japanese-made wheels as well. Quality is a difficult thing to find these days. :-/

Minor note: Rear axle max load is 1850 kg so it'll be 925 kg minimum rating.

The Japanese JWL-T standard is 955 kg so I'm thinking a set of Rays wheels will be the way to go...

https://www.rayswheels.co.jp/products/w ... eel=FDX F6

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