I bought 265's for my 88K3500SW truck, along with 16x8" rims. Used 4 sets of tires on them, ordered/bought a crewcab in 96. kept the same tires and rims, initially put 265's on some stock rims. What a joke. Horrible handing, did not carry wt well imho. On the other hand, if one had not had 265's using a proper width tire, I am sure the handling would have been fine. BUT, if you go from the proper 7-8" rated rims down to 6.5" rims, some will notice the difference, others I am sure not.
Anyway, to get the 3400 lb rating, one must use a 7.5" rim, if a wider rims is use, you gain a bit of payload, if a smaller rims is used, you lose some payload. As "AIR" is what carries the load, not the tire. The tire and rim are the vessels that hold the air. So the more air you have with in that vessel, the more you can carry. The air within the vessel, can be transcribed as PSI, along with volume. A smaller volume an equal PSI will not hold or carry as much as a larger volume at the same PSI. Hence why a 265 D rated tire, can carry as much as an E rated 245 tire. Both have the same volume of air in them, altho at different PSI's.
Needless to say, I would NOT recommend you put 265's on stock rim. Even GM on there SW rigs, come standard with 7" rims, NOT 6.5" rims as the 2500HD's come with. On MDT trucks, the 245-75-19.5's all come with 7" rims.......shall I go on?
marty
05 Chev CC D/A LS Dooley
92 Navistar dump truck, 7.3L 7 sp, 4.33 gears with a Detroit no spin
00 Chev C2500, V5700, 4L80E, 4.10, base truck, no options!
92 Red-e-haul 12K equipment trailer
3 Single axle utility trailers
Earlier a responding poster asked: "Why trust strangers on the Internet?"
Good question... so good that it begs the following question:
Why trust strangers in a tire shop?
Better yet...
Why trust strangers who are engineers at General Motors?
Why trust strangers at Michelin, Bridgestone, Yokohama?
Why trust strangers at the Tire Industry Safety Council?
Why trust strangers who author the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards?
Why trust anyone at all?
As for me, I'm only going to trust the people that tell me what I want to hear.
reno82 wrote: I've been running 265's on my stock 2500HD rims since I bought it, Chevy will put the 265's on those rims as an option, so the idea that they may not be safe on those rims doesn't hold water.
It's the "doesn't hold water" part that implies an untruth.
Chevy (the manufacturer, not a dealer) will ONLY put 265 tires on rims that are wide enough for 265 tires. That bucket will hold water all day into the next. Chevy isn't about to open themselves up to charges of negligence on such an obvious liability.
There are some wheels (steel and chromed steel on GMT800 style) on HD trucks that are 7" wide. On those wheels one may find 265 tires that Chevy mounted as OEM.
One will never find the forged aluminum 16 x 6.5" rims (RPO-PYO) fitted by the factory with a 265 tire. They will always leave the plant with a 245.
So, if anyone has a 2500HD that has 265 tires on since new, then either
1) the truck has argent steel, chrome clad steel, or chome styled steel wheels (easy to determine with a magnet), NOT the forged AL.
2) the truck was fitted with different tires after it left the factory (easy to determine by checking the Fed Cert tag on the jamb)
3) the truck is a GMT900, where a cast machined aluminum rim option was introduced, that is not only wider, but is a 17" rim, not a 16".
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