2015 Lariat with Boss Ultimate and OEM 18's
 

After buying my 2015 4x4 Lariat, 2.7 EcoBoost new in July of '15, I knew I was going to lift or level it and throw on larger tires. I never expected it to take 7 months and that I would end up going the route I did!

First, this forum has been great. I travel a lot for work and I have spent countless hours in airports, on planes, in hotel rooms and at hotel bars sitting by myself with my phone reading the pages of this forum. That said, all of the posts, the great pictures and the invaluable information contained in all of the posts by "dubsesd" regarding his Platinum build were hugely informative and provided the basis for what I have tried to do. I have never spoken with him but he is "the man".

I also wanted to say that my experience with Alex at f150lifts.com has been, like almost everyone on here, out of this world. Whether on the phone or via email, Alex was great with me, answering questions, bouncing ideas and understanding both what I was looking for and the concerns I had. Thanks very much again for all your help!

As mentioned earlier, I was looking to build a clean, conservative, lifted F150 that would have a more aggressive stance, an improved suspension, accommodate larger tires but still retain a factory look. I started with a Boss Ultimate Kit and planned on setting the coilovers at 2.75". My hub to fender measurements before the install were 22.25" so the goal was to be at 25" afterwards. The removal of the stock struts and the installation of the Boss Coilovers went very smoothly although we had to turn them down slightly to keep the front measurement at the 25" I was looking for. The coilovers ended up somewhere between 2.5" and 2.75" to achieve the 25". The guys at the shop loved the Boss products so much they were calling Alex before I had rolled out to inquire about becoming a dealer!

The rear install was even easier. I decided to go with the tapered 2.75" Raptor Style rear block in order to retain a little bit of rake. I use my truck as a truck and didn't mind .5"-.75" of rake especially when hauling stuff in the bed or towing the boat. The current rake is not perceptible without a tape measure.

As mentioned earlier, I was committed to using the factory "Chrome Like" 18" wheels that came with my Lariat Chrome Package. Those wheels ended up being 18" x 7.5" with a +44 mm offset. I had originally thought about going with a tire in the 33 x 11 size range but my research indicated I could probably go a little bigger without an issue. My choices came down to the 295/70/18 (34.29 x 11.77) or the 285/75/18 (34.84 x 11.26). I had originally hoped to go with KO2's but the options in 18"s were limited so either Toyo's or Nitto's seemed the best alternative. I spent a lot of time measuring the clearances to the wheel well, UCA, Crash Bars, etc. (there are a couple of good tools available on the internet that helped with this exercise) before deciding that I would probably have better clearance luck with the taller skinnier tire than the shorter wider one.

I had Nitto's on previous trucks and liked them, so I decided to go with the Terra Grappler G2's in the 285/75/18 size. These tires, at just under 35" tall looked massive next to the OEM rubber, but mounted without any rubbing, scrubbing or other issues. If I was ever doing any rock crawling, I'd remove the crash bars where the clearance is closest but otherwise everything works great.

In reading all of the information on here about wheel spacers and being concerned that my tires would look too "tucked in" after the coilovers were installed, I decided to order a set to have on hand at the time we did the install. The FG's were going to take two weeks at least to get but Alex had a set of 1.5" BORA, hub centric, spacers in stock so I ordered them with the rest of the Ultimate kit.

We initially mounted the wheels with the new tires without the spacers and knew as soon as the truck hit the floor that the spacers would be needed especially with the offset on the factory wheels. After applying loctite and torquing the spacers to 150 ft.lbs. we remounted the wheels and tires and as soon as the truck touched down, we knew we had the look we wanted. The tires now are flush with the wheel well fenders and look perfect. I was initially torn between 1.25" and 1.5" spacers but with the factory wheels and 285/75's 1.5" spacers are definitely the way to go. The extra 3" of width in the stance also greatly improves the overall look of the truck.

As far as performance, I had anticipated the speedo and tranny shift points being off. The speedo was off about 4 miles per hour and it wasn't until the next day that I could hook up the Hypertech Speedo Calibrator that I had ordered a few weeks before. The unit worked well although you do have to play around with the tire diameter that you enter to get it to be spot on. I first entered a tire diameter of 34.75" and that was way off. I kept redoing the calibration with smaller diameters until I got to 33.25" which dialed everything in perfectly. I confirmed this with both a handheld GPS and a windshield mounted Garmin unit.

Once the speedo was recalibrated I noticed very little change in performance. The 2.7 EcoBoost and 3.55 rear handles the larger heavier tires with no problems. My fuel consumption around town is largely unchanged but at 72 mph on the highway for several hundred miles earlier this week I was at 18.2 mpg. I would probably have been right at 20-20.5 mpg with the baloney skin OEM tires. I'll take that tradeoff any day.

The ride with the Boss suspension is vastly improved. The truck sucks up bumps and potholes and is much firmer around corners. You do feel a bit more of the road but, as others have described, its a good feel. I had Porsche 944 many years ago and while I know it sounds crazy, the ride now reminds me of the ride in that car. I like everything about it.

I also have a Peragon Retractable Bed Cover installed on the truck along with a Thule roof rack for skis/snowboards in the winter and surfboards and surf rods in the summer.

My next plans for the truck include removing the front air dam as soon as I get a warm day, having a spray in bed-liner installed and I might look at an LED light upgrade along with an exhaust system at some point. For now, I'm good....

I know this is a long post but I wanted it to hopefully answer some questions for the next guy as the information I gleaned from this site really helped me. I hope you enjoy!

Looks good! And I see you can't be far from me (Parkville).

Good looking truck and excellent write up.

Small world! I'm in Perry Hall!


Nice write up OP, truck looks great!

I grew up there! Small world indeed.

Thanks!
 

Thanks guys . I'm from Harford County, just up the road.

Awesome write up man! I am literally in the same boat as you. I decided to keep my factory 18" wheels instead of upgrading to the 20" King Ranch wheels (too expensive). I am still torn between the 285/75/18's and 295/70/18's. And like you, I wanted the BFGoodrich KO 2's, but they don't make them in those 2 sizes. So it's either the Nitto Trail Grapplers, or Nitto Terra Grapplers. I've owned the Terra Grapplers before, loved them, never owned the Trail Grapplers.

My truck will most likely be a pavement queen (it may see a little dirt or mud once in a blue moon), so my leveling kit and tires are mostly cosmetic. I LOVE the ride quality on my 2016 F-150 XLT FX4, so I'm worried the Trail Grapplers will be a little harsh and noisy. I want as meaty of a tire with minimal road noise (BFG's). I'm leaning towards the Terra Grapplers, but I haven't eliminated the Trail Grapplers yet.

The Trails are quite a bit rougher and louder for sure. Definitely a noticeable difference from the stockers. I actually plan on moving from the Trails to some R/T tires like the Toyo or ST Maxx or KO2 for that reason.

Awww that's not what I wanted to hear, or maybe it was haha. Did you notice a decent mpg drop with the Trail Grapplers? I know I didn't buy a 385hp truck for the fuel economy, but dang it sure is nice to get 19-20mpg! My 2011 Ram 1500 that I traded in for my F150 got 14-15mpg, so I'm trying to get a little better mpg to make up for the extra $125/mo payment. Although my Ram did have a 2.5" RC leveling kit, and 285/65/20 BFGoodrich tires.

I found that the PSI you keep them at makes a big difference in sluggishness and MPG. I keep mine at 45psi and it seems to be the sweet spot as far as responsiveness, comfort, and MPG. I leveled and put larger tires on at the same time, so idk how much contributed to what. I really only do city driving (once a month I'm on the highway) but loss of no more than an mpg.


I've never had anything but stock tires before I went to these, so I cant compare to other M/T or R/T tires, but noticeably louder and rougher than stock.