Best wheel & tire fitment for the 4th Gen Ram 1500

Today we’re talking all about wheel & tire fitment for your Ram 1500, consider this our contribution to OnlyRams. This guide is specifically for the 4th generation, the gen that’s kinda been replaced by the 5th gen, but for some reason they produced a ‘classic’ version at the same time. This guide will apply to the Ram 1500 2010–2018 and Ram 1500 Classic 2019–2024.

The specs of your wheels and tires will change drastically depending on what direction you wanna go with your truck. In other words, what will the suspension setup be? Stock? Lifted? Maybe lowered? You can find a bit of everything with this platform, so we included as much as possible.

First, we’ll review the basic fitment info for all trucks. If you’re already a Dodge guru, feel free to skip ahead right to the fitment examples (but double-check ‘basic fitment’ before you order your wheels/tires).

Quick links

• Basic fitment info
• What can you do at stock height?
• Leveled and lifted NNBS trucks
• Lowered NNBS trucks

Basic fitment info

• Lug pattern: 5x139.7mm (5x5.5”)
• Nut thread: 9/16" - 18 / m14x1.5 (facelift)
• Center bore: 77.8 mm
• Nut torque: 120 ft-lbs

One detail that may or may not be important is that trucks made after 2013 (facelift) use a different lug nut: m14x1.5 instead of 9/16-18. Does this affect fitment? No, but make sure you get it right if you’re getting new lug nuts too.

Other than this, everything is pretty standard for a Dodge truck. The 5x5.5” bolt pattern isn’t the most widely supported, but we still have thousands of options to choose from.

See all 5x5.5" options

Aftermarket wheel sizes

In stock form, your Ram will come on anything from a 17”, all the way up to factory 22” Laramie wheels. 20” diameter is the preference for aftermarket wheels, however, this may change depending on how the truck will be used, also whether it's 2WD or 4WD. 17” is the smallest wheel you can run, 16’s won’t fit, end of story. So, your aftermarket wheels will probably be in the factory range of 17-22, unless you wanna jack your truck up and through on some 24’s.

Tire width is more important than wheel width, the factory wheels run somewhere between 7-9”. Anything between 8.5-10” will work well for aftermarket wheels. For offset, factory wheels are in the low positives, the preference for aftermarket wheels will be 0 or lower; -20 to 0 offset. If you want an aggressive look, you could throw on fender flares and go even lower with the offset.

Tire sizing

4WD trucks can run larger tires than their half-ton counterparts. The largest factory tires are a hair under 33” (285/70R17, about 32.7”), already larger than you can fit on a Silverado with stock suspension. How big can you go on a Ram 1500? 33-34” will fit just about all trucks without issue. Some can go even larger, but this varies - factory suspension can be a little different from rig to rig.

2WD trucks come with tires around 31”. Tires in the 32-33” will fit without trimming. Lowered trucks generally use a tire size similar to the factory 31’s.

If you stay on stock rims and just wanna upgrade your tires, the widest tire you can typically fit is 285. This goes for both 2WD and 4WD models. With aftermarket wheels, you can get away with a wider tire without rubbing the suspension. A lower negative offset wheel can run tires as wide as 305 or even 315. However, keep in mind that lower offset wheels, while giving room for suspension arms, increase the chance of rubbing the inner fender at full lock.

This was a basic overview of fitment for the Ram 1500, now let’s see what it looks like in the real world.

What can you do on stock suspension?

If you just wanna leave your suspension as-is, good news, you can still run some decently sized tires.

Stock tire size for this Hemi equipped 4x4 is 275/60R20. This truck is now fitted with a 285/65, otherwise, it’s completely stock. For reference, this setup is about 34.5”, showing just how large you can go on factory suspension. Different trucks may or may not need extra work to fit this size. If you want to exercise caution, you could try a slightly smaller 275/65R20 (34.1”) instead, this size will fit any 4WD 4th gen without issue.

Not much more to say about stock suspension. You could combine aftermarket wheels with the factory ride height, but most prefer to at least run a leveling kit if they’re going to make the investment. We'll talk about those next.

Leveling or lifting your 1500

Want to run 35’s? Simply leveling your truck makes it possible. There are two ways to achieve this: leveling spacers or Bilstein 5100 adjustable front struts. Bilsteins are the preferred method as they offer a number of advantages.Improved ride quality; the front might be stiffer, but feels more predictable

• Adjusting the spring perch allows for different height settings without buying additional parts
• Limited amount of downward travel to prevent control arms from overextending, leading to premature bushing failure
• Upward suspension travel is unaffected

Shop Bilstein suspension for Ram 1500

The only real benefit to spacers is the cost. They’re super affordable. If you don't plan on putting your truck in situations where the suspension will be fully compressed and decompressed regularly (i.e. offroading), spacers will work perfectly fine. We carry Rugged and Readylift products. Pick out whatever brand you like best, at the end of the day it doesn't matter too much - they’re just chunks of metal.

Shop leveling kits for Ram 1500

If you want to properly ‘lift’ your truck, you’ll need to raise the front AND rear. The rear is normally done with a spacer. Combine this with either Bilstein’s or another form of front suspension. We’ll start with leveled trucks, then look at a few lifted ones.

With aftermarket wheels you can get a nice wide stance without having to use spacers. In this case, the owner of this 2019 1500 classic opted for a very low offset, -24. We’ve previously talked about how poke on a truck should be relative to the lift, more lift = more poke, to keep the proportions correct. This truck only has a 2” Rugged leveling kit. Arguably, there was too much poke for the ride height, that’s why the owner threw on some fender flares later.

Much better right? Another reason for lower offset wheels is to run those wide 305 tires. The tire height is only around 33.2”. Should be doable without the leveling right? Well, having low offset wheels and wide tires decreases tire-shoulder to fender clearance, so the leveling kit was likely a necessity.

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It doesn’t take much to fit 35’s on a Ram 1500. This 2014 is running a 2” leveling kit from Rough Country. This gives enough clearance for the 35x12.5 K02 tires. We see 17” tires used, indicating this truck will probably see some logging trails. Normally, wheels are sized down for rigs that will be for used off-roading. As we said earlier, 17” is the smallest you can run on these trucks. 12.5” wide tires are equivalent to a 315, so zero offset or lower wheels are absolutely a must.

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A lot of people run 17’s or 20’s, but let’s not forget that there are sizes in between. This truck is sitting on 18x9 -12 wheels from Mayhem. With these specs, there’s a good 1.5-2” of poke. Without the lift, it might look a bit goofy, but as-is, the poke makes it look pretty mean (flares would look in this application too).

This is another truck with Bilstein’s, the only difference here is the addition of Eibach Pro springs. The springs alone provide lift, so when the two are combined you get 3” of lift from the middle setting of the Bilstein’s. The rear is lifted 1.25” with spacers.

Not surprisingly there is zero rubbing with this setup. The only caveat is that the spare tire doesn’t fit in the factory location, but this is a pretty normal complication of modding trucks.

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Did the 35’s look a bit too ‘stock’ for you? Normally in these fitment guides we are talking about what you need to do to fit 35’s. With the Ram, 35’s are easy, so instead the real topic is 37’s.

A 6” lift will be more than enough in just about any case. It will take a bit of modification such as pulling back the fender liners and possibly trimming a bit of the front bumper, but this is pretty standard truck stuff. Some have made 37’s work with 4-5” of lift, but it comes at the cost of more clearance.

The only catch with 37’s is that your truck will feel like it's in mud constantly unless you change the gearing. A 4.56 final drive will retain a good amount of torque and MPH.

The truck pictured combines 6” of suspension lift with 3” of body lift. With this much lift you won’t need any cutting or grinding. As we can see, this truck has been tested on the dunes and has zero rubbing, showing just how capable this platform is.

Lowering your 1500

Lowering is especially popular amongst owners of 2WD, regular cab, short bed trucks. In a nutshell, the idea is to go for the R/T look: a low-slung, sport truck running 22’s with fairly thin tires. If you’ve got a 4x4 1500, that doesn’t mean you can’t lower it, but keep in mind that you might need to size your tires up an inch or so to make it look right.

How is it done?

The most basic option would be reverse leveling with lowering springs or dropping the rear about 2” to match the front. It’s lower, but still not that low. This is definitely the most cost effective option as you only need a set of springs.

The more popular option is a 2/4 drop kit; bringing the front down 2” and the rear 4”. Belltech is the go-to brand for this kit. Of course, you could get crazy with a 4/6 or 5/7 drop, but this requires extensive modification to the suspension as the geometry is dramatically changed.

Here’s what a 4WD 1500 looks like with a 2/4 drop. The wheels are Hellcat reps from OE Wheels, staying on-brand. Normally, these would be the wrong PCD (5x115) and only in 20” sizing. However, OE wheels stepped up to produce this awesome design in specs that are tailor-made for a sport truck, 22x10 +25.

See more from OE Wheels

Like we said, tires on lowered 4x4’s should be a little larger. In this case, the owner is running 305/45R22 which fill out the fenders well. With this setup, there are no issues with rubbing. One reason 2/4 drop kits are so popular is because of the ease of installation.

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Now, here’s what the same 2/4 drop looks like on a 2WD Ram 1500 Express. The wheels are a lower offset, giving a bit more poke than the last. With a 2WD, a smaller tire was needed. These Toyo Proxes run about 1” smaller than the 305/45’s on the 4x4 we looked at previously. Less sidewall means this truck didn’t require any modification to the fenders.

This exact model of wheel is discontinued, but you can check out more from Vision

See more Vision wheels in this spec

Wrap up

Hopefully you learned how to fit some badass wheels and tires without the need of an angle grinder. Compared with their Chevy and Ford counterparts, these trucks can run some very large tires without needing to do irreversible cutting or trimming… so keep that in your back pocket next time you’re having a heated internet debate about which truck is best.

You can do a bit of everything with this platform: slam it, lift it, or just keep it OEM+ with some upgraded tires. Whatever your style is, if you have a modded Ram, or anything else for that matter, be sure to upload it to our gallery - a great place to flex your build or get inspiration.