My rig weighs 9000# wet with my wife and I. My buddy up the street has a similiar truck with flatbed mounted Phoenix camper. His setup weighs 10,500# loaded. He's driven hundreds of miles along the Pacific coast of Baja aired down to 30# with one slow flat,no sidewall damage. Actually,I had some 285-70-17's first but sold them to a guy in CT with some factory rims. My current 285-75-17's came from a friend who upgraded to some 35" Toyo Mt's. I had a near catastrophic blowout on my popup-equipped 98.5 CTD with D rated Bridgestone's,preceeded by numerous cuts and flats. That gives you a little background on why I'm a fan of E rated tires,just as Dodge is. If I had a truck with a shell and a few hundred # of gear in the back,a weaker tire might fit the bill better. They sure ride better and hug the contours of the terrain. Aired down they'd be vastly superior in sand. With my heavy ******** setup I'd rather err on the side of safety over ride quality. Your truck's coming along nice! I've had two Callen's in the past when Papa Callen was running the show.
Stock 3rd gen wheels are 17x8 with a 6" BS. The reason you see so many is because they actually look good and can really take some solid abuse. I used to rock 37x13.5's on mine and only had slight rubbing issues on the control arms. Just in the last week to a switch over to H2 wheels as I wanted less BS to clear up the control arm rubbing.
