What Is The Biggest Tire You Can Put On A Stock Dodge Ram 2500?

The Dodge Ram 2500 is a heavy duty truck that drives on-road with so much power and also goes deep off the road. Under its hood is a powerful Chrysler Hemi engine that generates enough hauling and towing power for most of your needs. If you need to improve its look or make it travel deeper off the road, you can install bigger tires. 

Tire upgrades are common with truck owners. So, what’s the highest you can go on a stock Ram 2500?

What Is The Biggest Tire You Can Put On A Stock Dodge Ram 2500?

The biggest tire one can install on a Stock Dodge Ram 2500 is 35 inches tall and 12.5 inches wide. This tire fits the truck, and you do not need a lift kit to trim any parts. A 35-inch tire allows lock-to-lock turning, and you will never experience any rubbing issues. 

If your truck warranty is still active, and you do not need to make any modifications to the suspension system, a 35-inch tire will meet your needs. Again, it makes it easier for you now that you never have to trim or cut any parts. 

If you want to go bigger than 35 inches and wider than 12.5 inches, you need a leveling kit. You might also have to trim and cut to ensure a wide tire doesn’t rub. The wider tire will pop out, but this will only give the truck a Wrangler-like rugged look. 

With 35-inch tires, your truck maintains its droop and full articulation, allowing you to drive over rocks and many other places with ease. Better still, this tire size offers a perfect balance for truck owners who may want to drive around town, haul and tow, and sometimes go off the road. 

But what if you need a more aggressive tire size? Any tire bigger than 35 inches will require some modifications. 

What Is The Biggest Tire You Can Put On A Stock Dodge Ram 2500 With a Few Modifications?

You can fit 37-inch tires on a stock 2500 with a few modifications. The Dodge Ram 2500 comes 1-inch taller, which is why you can fit 35-inch tires with ease. Trimming and cutting will allow you to fit 37-inch tires. 

With 37-inch tires, there will be a lot of rubbing, especially on the radius arm fastener and the sway bar. This means you need to be ready to trim the wheel fender liner. Even after going taller, you still need to maintain the tire width as changing this will mean more trimming and cutting. 

What Is The Biggest Tire You Can Put On A Stock Dodge Ram 2500 with Aftermarket Wheels?

You can fit 37-inch tires with aftermarket wheels with no major modifications. If you keep the stock suspension and go for aftermarket wheels, you will have more options on the tires you can fit. If you really need to go bigger, but without much trimming, new aftermarket wheels will meet your needs. 

Aftermarket wheels on stock suspension ensure you never have to cut or trim the fender liner to fit bigger tires. This translates to a better looking Dodge Ram 2500. 

When shopping for an aftermarket wheel, you need to understand offset. Offset refers to the distance between the mating surface of the wheel and the tire center. If the offset is negative, the tire will appear to stick out, and if it is positive, the tire appears flush with the wheel hub. 

With aftermarket wheels, your tire can go as wide as 14.5 inches and still appear proportional to the size of your HD truck. However, the wheel needs to have an offset of between 18 and 27mm so that it doesn’t stick out. A zero or negative offset will affect the look and performance of your Ram 2500. 

How High Can You Go with a Lift?

You can fit 39-inch or 40-inch tires on your Dodge Ram 2500, but you will need a 6-inch lift. Fitting a 3-inch lift will only allow you to install 37-inch tires without trimming or cutting. However, installing bigger wheels requires more. 

Even after you fit a 6-inch leveling kit, you still need fender flairs, trimming, and cutting, and any other necessary modifications. Even though the Dodge Ram has a wider wheel well, a 40-inch tire will rub when you turn or drive off the road. To prevent that, you might even require extended control arms and an extended driveshaft. 

If it is not absolutely necessary to fit 40-inch wheels, you can stick with 37-inch wheels as they fit without major modifications. Again, 37-inch wheels will allow you to drive off the road and in so many other different places with ease. 

Can You Use Spacers Instead of Aftermarket Wheels?

Yes. Spacers will give you as many options as aftermarket rims. 

However, a set of rims with the right offset will work better than spacers any day. The rims allow you to maintain the carrying capacity of the Ram 2500. The size of these rims can fit larger tires without hassle, which is better than trying to fit bigger wheels on small rims. 

When shopping for aftermarket rims, go for a unit that doesn’t appear tacky. If you have a few tools at home and a few technical skills, you can install the wheels and the tires at home. 

How Do You Know You Have the Right Tires?

When you go for Dodge Ram 2500 tires, always check the lug nut patterns as they show whether the tires are for a 2WD or 4WD truck. If the tire has six lug nut patterns, it will fit a 4WD whose wheel has six lug nuts. Tires with four or five lug nut patterns will fit a 2WD truck. 

The easiest way to go bigger is to avoid lift kits and modifications. Lift kits are great, and they improve the look and functionality of your truck. However, the lift kits add to the cost of upgrading the wheels. 

You can install the kits at home, but if you have no technical skills or have never tried any modifications on your truck, it is better to hire a professional. 

The wheel well openings in a Dodge Ram 2500 are large enough to accommodate bigger tires even without a lift kit. By bigger, we mean 35 inches tall and 12.5 inches wide. Anything bigger than that, you have to deal with rubbing. 

If your budget allows a lift kit, and you still need bigger tires, go for 37 inches. If you decide to go this big, keep the following in mind:

• Bigger tires result in lost low-end torque. The bigger tire on your axle will turn slower and your truck will accelerate slower. If you go with 40-inch wheels, you might even need to add a supercharger or change your truck’s gearing. 
• Your truck’s gauges’ programming allows them to track metrics based on the standard tire size from the factory. When you go larger, you affect their accuracy, and you might need to re-program them. To program your odometer and speedometer, tap into the truck’s computer and adapt it for the new tires.

When shopping for bigger tires, the rule of thumb is to go only three percent higher than factory tires and three percent wider. With such an increase, you never have to deal with major modifications or installing a leveling kit. If you do not find a tire that falls exactly three percent bigger than the factory tire, you might need to go for a lift. 

When you go for a lift, a 1-inch lift allows you to add a 1-inch height on the factory tire. However, the lift doesn’t allow you to increase the width. If you increase the width, you have to trim. 

Even the “1-inch lift adds 1-inch height” only applies for the first three inches. After that, you will need many other modifications to fit a bigger tire. 

Closing Thoughts

While going bigger sounds like a good idea, you need to limit how big you go. Going too big will make your truck look out of proportion and the big tires might affect its functionality. If you go higher than what the truck can accommodate, you will have to make numerous modifications. 

For instance, a 40-inch tire might fit on your truck, but that means so much cutting and trimming. It also means you have to re-program your truck’s computer as the speedometer and odometer will have been affected.

Fitting bigger wheels will require you to consider a host of factors from the full functionality of your truck to the appearance and application of the truck. If there are no applications that require 39- or 40-inch tires, then we recommend you stick with 37-inch tires. These tires mean no major modifications, and you are sure that your truck maintains its full functionality.