Quote Originally Posted by ray1970 View Post
Not specific to the Explorer in question, but sometimes downsizing rim sizes can depend on the brake rotors too. I doubt stepping down from the 20?s will be a big issue but but sometimes as wheels have gotten bigger it wasn?t done for looks or that cool factor but rather when manufacturers started putting bigger brakes on their vehicles.

My Dodge has 20?s and uses a 275/60/20 which is really an odd duck size and as far as I can tell is only used on Dodge trucks.

I was dreading what the price was going to be for a set but found it really wasn?t too bad. I went with Discount and got a full set of all terrains for about $650 out the door and just carried on with my life.
Great point on going smaller. The Tire Rack calculator for the Limited didn't offer anything smaller than 18", probably for a reason. The new Ram DT has issues with caliper clearance on many of the 18s, even though the Rebel comes with 18s, precisely due to caliper clearance. The wheels require a barrel that gets larger on the inside of the wheel for clearance.

You might find a Ford forum where folks are discussing the Explorer and see what they're experiences have been with wheel and tire combinations?

275/60-20 was the size that the Discount Tire calculator kept telling me was OEM for the 2019 Ram DT. It is actually 275/55-20 and there are fortunately a ton of options in that size.

As to unusual sizing, the 2016 Mercedes GL 450 that I had was so unusual at the time that there were only like 3 tire options in that size. Having a size that makes the tire almost a 'commodity item' certainly keeps the pricing down.