Does everyone have to agree with you? If not, it means that they called you a liar? Hey, curb your ego.

Name calling may be against site rules but who's watching that the rules are being followed? I'd have to say that it's happened before. Any forum that allows a poll asking the members opinion on banning another member isn't being moderatored very well.

 

I called you arrogant because rather than correct anything I said, you simply said I didn't know what I was talking about. Even if you were right, what was served by a post like that? If you were simply correcting my error that would have been one thing, but that isn't what you did. I will apologize for the other part. It was said for purposes of emphasis. I would have said it to your face, but this forum wasn't the place for it.

Remember where he was talking about having only the spare as a larger size? That's the part I addressed. Obviously he'd be only running that one wheel in larger size. I've had vehicles with TC and donut spares and they say to turn off TC when running the spare. This vehicle should be no different. I never said I advised running one odd-sized tire. Even your response to me didn't refute any of this.

 

Bryan was talking about more than the spare tire and also how a taller tire would lower RPM's and increase MPG. One of your statements was completely wrong - "Put ONE heavier tire on and I bet the difference in fuel economy would be in the 10ths of a mpg if that." That statement is why I responded about your knowledge and experience on the subject.

Yes, I could have answered with a long reason why your statement was wrong but I had already just stated to Bryan about the effects of taller tires and MPG on the FEH. Your statement was simply your opinion that I was wrong and the effect would only be "in the 10ths of a mpg if that".

Since you apologized for your other statements after, I'll go a step further. I've learned a lot in the last 5 years about hypermiling and fine tuning the FEH for the best MPG possible. I've found that tires and rims are at the heart of putting the FEH to record MPG. If everything is perfectly tuned right with my FEH, I know it. If something is not tuned right, I find out what it is and correct the issue. This is a hobby of mine and I share the benefits of my experiences so others can have that knowledge if they want it. Sometimes I have a hard time explaining what works and what doesn't and have to rely on my mileage log as proof. This happened over a year ago when I found out that washing and waxing my FEH made it have more drag and gave me worst MPG. I'm sure there are still people on this board that will never believe that, but it's true.

Over the past 5 years I have seen the effects of having only one tire drop as little as 5 psi in pressure. My FEH gets out of tune every time and I feel it as well as see as much as 3 - 4mpg drop in my average MPG. The reason I know it is a low tire is because I locate it and add 5 psi and my MPG is back to normal. If all the tires were good after checking them, I know something else is out of tune. This happens and it's more often than not something I changed like waxing, overfilling the oil or changing tires.

GaryG

 

My tires are narrower but they wear the same as stock from what I can tell. Even though they are much heavier than the stock (38 pounds), I'm finding that they only cost 1-2mpg for me from driving with the OEM Continentals. I suspect that Ford follows general styling trends and customer preference which have been driving up wheel and tire sizes for many years. This trend is not based on actual performance or mpg needs.

I see on the TireRack website that the have a 16x7" Enkei wheel that fits a FEH and weighs 13.8 pounds. I know there are other forged aluminum 16x7 rims (i.e. Volk Racing) that weigh less than 10 pounds if someone has deep pockets.

Gary, any idea what kind of mpg gain someone could expect to see with 10# wheels and lightweight LRR tires such as the new Kumho which weighs 25# in a 235/70-16 size?

 

In theory, you should get much better mileage but that's not a certainty. Ford could have gone with a lighter rim and tires and they didn't for a reason. It may have affected regen, braking and traction. I try to fine tune a stock product rather than go aftermarket.

Back in the '70's I experimented with aftermarket stuff and always came back to stock parts that I fined tune. I slapped some huge rims and tires on the back of my Shelby for more traction which ruin my quarter mile time over the stock rims and tire size.

My stock '05 rims are the same as the stock '09 rims, but I got the optional Limited rims because I ordered the Limited package. The tire store that exchanged my wheels and tires was willing to bet me that one set of rims would not fit right. These guys sell aftermarket tires and rims everyday and were sure I would have problems because the rims were different on the newer '09 body style. I just smiled and said they will fix perfectly and they did.

The fact that you reduced the diameter of the stock tires and increased the stock weight, your real mileage maybe worse than you think. Those smaller tires increase your OD miles. Taller tires than the stock tires decrease your OD miles. When you divide the miles by the gallons you burned, it will never be right with your true MPG.

GaryG

 

That's interesting, in a previous post you described how shaving weight off of your wheels and tires helped you gain mpg but now presented with an even lighter combination you aren't so sure it would work. Are you still sure about the mpg gain you attributed to lighter tires/wheels?
I would suspect the main reason Ford didn't go with lightweight forged rims is that they cost almost $500 each at the retail end.

I believe you misunderstood my previous posts, I have tires that are narrower in contact patch but about a quarter inch taller than the stock rims. I don't think it's difficult to calculate mpg if my speedo error is within 1%. I don't think any of us have calibrated speed/odo gages to ensure accuracy greater than 99%. For that reason I suspect my mpg calculations are just as good as they were with stock tires.

 

Hi Don

You are mostly right here but are assuming to much of my statements. The '05 - '09 standard rims are lighter than the '09 Limited rims. The Eco-Plus 31 pound tires are heavier than the 29 pound Tours. My guess that the standard FEH rim with 50% worn Tours tires was met with a 63.4mpg tank. I can't say a lighter tire and rim will be better for MPG on the FEH, all I can say is what I got with my set-up. The set-up I'm using is a stock set-up on the '09 FEH.

GaryG

 

Well, I'll put in my 2 cents. I had one of my factory tires pick up what looked like a piece of metal - unfixable. I took the opportunity to buy two new tires, and ordered the factory replacement spare rim, which I mounted with the remaining OEM tire. I much prefer having that full time spare back there, and I'm not fanatic about MPG - I just try and get the best I can...

 

After driving on my '05 FEH temporary spare two weeks waiting to get an Eco-Plus tire from Ford, I did the same thing. Back then, I was one of the first '05 FEH owners to find out the tires were special order only from Ford.

Before delivery of my '09, I ordered a Limited rim and Tour for a full size spare and 2 Tours for my '05. At that time, I was already using my '05 full size spare and carried the temporary spare again. When I had destroyed the second Eco-Plus tire with chunk of medal the same place I did with the first one, I realized I was driving within a block of a medal recycling yard. The people driving those broken down trucks selling the medal were dropping medal all over the road. I changed that route right away.

Both my FEH's have complete sets of Tours and I use two old Eco-Plus tires on my full size spare rims. I still have both temporary spares in the garage as back-up also. I felt so much better having that full size spare for the second flat on my '05 FEH and I was able to wait 2 months for new Tours to become available back in July of '08. My '02 Explorer came with a full size spare but the 2011 on order will need one if it will fit.

GaryG

 

OK, now that i've filtered through the flame war...

I'm going to be replacing the rubber on my 08 FEH within the next few months. I'll likely be replacing all 4 with Goodyear Forterra Tripletred's (I am a huge fan of the Tripletred series from Goodyear). I have the opportunity to pick up another FEH rim and i'd like to mount a 5th tire on that rim and use it as a spare. My question is this... will a full sized tire fit underneath in the spare wheel well? Obviously I need to pop off the blue oval but that's a non-issue.