New wheels, finally! 18" AFS content!

[TRbetngu]

Got this car not long ago, and the wheels just weren't doing it for me. Decided to go ahead and pull the trigger on these. Besides, it's only money. The center caps are missing in the pics, but they are now on and awaiting good pictures. Lots of rainfall around here lately.

[DSG2003Mach1]

nice!

is there more clearance between the spokes and the calipers with the 18s? I know the factory wheels theyre super close and wont clear any bigger calipers

[TRbetngu]

Originally Posted by DSG2003Mach1

nice!

is there more clearance between the spokes and the calipers with the 18s? I know the factory wheels theyre super close and wont clear any bigger calipers

The spokes and the caliper or the inside of the wheel and the caliper?

Either way, I believe the answer is yes to both. The AFS wheels have a bit more offset so there is a little more space created, but not a whole heck of a lot.

[TTSaleen]

Nice!

[03Shadow Grey]

Thumbs up !

[StangFever2846]

Looks great! Now hurry up and posts some pics with the center caps on!! I wanna see what my car would like like had I gone with 18's.

Oh and get that front end dropped stat and you'll be golden!

[TRbetngu]

Originally Posted by TTSaleen

Nice!

Originally Posted by 03Shadow Grey

Thumbs up !

Originally Posted by StangFever2846

Looks great! Now hurry up and posts some pics with the center caps on!! I wanna see what my car would like like had I gone with 18's.

Oh and get that front end dropped stat and you'll be golden!

Thanks dudes. I will get more pics soon. Straight rain until Sunday

[DSG2003Mach1]

send that rain this way, we need it...whole damned states gonna be on fire soon it seems

[StangFever2846]

Originally Posted by DSG2003Mach1

send that rain this way, we need it...whole damned states gonna be on fire soon it seems

Send us some too. 5.45" of rain total for the year. See pic above.

[TRbetngu]

Originally Posted by DSG2003Mach1

send that rain this way, we need it...whole damned states gonna be on fire soon it seems

Originally Posted by StangFever2846

Send us some too. 5.45" of rain total for the year. See pic above.

StangFever, give me a short review of those Nitto NT555 G2's and I'll come up there to both of you with a bucket of water lol

[ab_mach1]

They look great!

[TRbetngu]

Originally Posted by eruza

They look great!

Thanks, Lee!

[311-420]

In for pics with center caps and more lowwwww!

[slomach03]

Looks pretty clean!👌🏻

[StangFever2846]

Originally Posted by TRbetngu

StangFever, give me a short review of those Nitto NT555 G2's and I'll come up there to both of you with a bucket of water lol

Deal!

They're pretty good for the price ($845 total with certs for free replacement and lifetime balance). I do like how quiet they are. Lateral grip is very good too and the thread pattern looks badass! They do pretty good in the rain considering the width of these rear monsters. I had to special order the 315's at Discount Tire, the 275's were in stock. One of the reasons I went with 17's is if I get stuck on the road with a flat or blowout one of the rear tires, I can just put on my spare and not have to worry about the tire diameter difference (25.54" vs 25.67") killing my limited slip diff.

They do not rub anywhere! I did roll my rear fenders and the fronts were already rolled (don't know if all Mach 1's came this way). I was gonna flip the new Gabriel replacement quad shocks for clearance, but quickly found out that it wasn't necessary. I had plenty of clearance (about 1.5"). The Gabriel's are a little thinner than the OEM ones so that helped too. BTW, the Gabriel quad shocks are available at Autozone for $24.99 each and are found under steering damper under miscellaneous suspension and the part number is 14039. Much cheaper than the alternatives from Ford, Bilstein, Koni etc. To anyone planning on getting these, they will not be able to find them looking under shocks/struts so tell them where to look and take your part number with you for verification of correct part.

I can't really compare handling to the tires it replaced since I did most of the suspension work at the same time as the tires/AFS wheels. If Nitto had made R's in the new G2 style I would've gotten them instead for the rears (I really do need a DR with decent tread life...read paragraph below). My OCD would've killed me if I had gotten the regular 555R's and the G2's for the front. They look nothing alike. And buying the old NT555's for the front was not a option due to them being more expensive than the new G2's when I bought them. I thought about getting the NT05's, but I needed something quiet and good in the rain since almost every time I take the Mach out of town I seem to get caught in a rainstorm. Oh the irony!

I did a few launches a few weeks ago and anything more than 2K rpms and slipping out the clutch resulted in the tires just spinning for all of 1st gear. The 1/2 shift = just a slight screech. The 2/3 and 3/4 dead hook. I have the rears set to 28lbs and the fronts to 32. I have maybe 2K miles on them (mostly highway) and they still look brand new.

When new, they left VERY dark black thread stains on the concrete floor. I don't know what to make of that, but the stains are alot lighter now that the tires have some miles on them. They seem pretty sticky for a street tire so maybe that's why. They're alot better than the Kumho Ecsta SPT's that were on before. I will never buy Kumhos again. With those (in 245 width), all of 1st and half of 2nd = no traction, followed by going sideways on the 2/3 and a screech on the 3/4 (yes on the 3/4 shift!).

Unfortunately, those tires were on the car when I bought it. There's no way in hell I would've bought those cheap *** tires if not for a shitty situation. You see, I got a ball on a rear tire twice while travelling out of town. I had to stop at a Discount Tire (that's who the P.O. bought them from) mid-trip and get 2 rear tires on 2 separate occasions, effectively giving me a new set of these POS tires. Had I known I was gonna get another ball just 5k miles later, I probably would've gotten different tires. Also, had this happened while I was at home, I would've just put tires on my new AFS wheels that I was waiting to put new tires on. Instead, I had to wait to wear out these tires first.

Pics and an exhaust vid showing a good view of the rears below and in the next post. Yeah they look huge in the bed of my 1993 Ranger!

[StangFever2846]

More pics





Vid

http://vid1381.photobucket.com/album...psun2rigpi.mp4

Sorry for the video quality, photbucket degraded it alot when I uploaded it.

[TRbetngu]

Originally Posted by StangFever2846

Deal!

They're pretty good for the price ($845 total with certs for free replacement and lifetime balance). I do like how quiet they are. Lateral grip is very good too and the thread pattern looks badass! They do pretty good in the rain considering the width of these rear monsters. I had to special order the 315's at Discount Tire, the 275's were in stock. One of the reasons I went with 17's is if I get stuck on the road with a flat or blowout one of the rear tires, I can just put on my spare and not have to worry about the tire diameter difference (25.54" vs 25.67") killing my limited slip diff.

They do not rub anywhere! I did roll my rear fenders and the fronts were already rolled (don't know if all Mach 1's came this way). I was gonna flip the new Gabriel replacement quad shocks for clearance, but quickly found out that it wasn't necessary. I had plenty of clearance (about 1.5"). The Gabriel's are a little thinner than the OEM ones so that helped too. BTW, the Gabriel quad shocks are available at Autozone for $24.99 each and are found under steering damper under miscellaneous suspension and the part number is 14039. Much cheaper than the alternatives from Ford, Bilstein, Koni etc. To anyone planning on getting these, they will not be able to find them looking under shocks/struts so tell them where to look and take your part number with you for verification of correct part.

I can't really compare handling to the tires it replaced since I did most of the suspension work at the same time as the tires/AFS wheels. If Nitto had made R's in the new G2 style I would've gotten them instead for the rears (I really do need a DR with decent tread life...read paragraph below). My OCD would've killed me if I had gotten the regular 555R's and the G2's for the front. They look nothing alike. And buying the old NT555's for the front was not a option due to them being more expensive than the new G2's when I bought them. I thought about getting the NT05's, but I needed something quiet and good in the rain since almost every time I take the Mach out of town I seem to get caught in a rainstorm. Oh the irony!

I did a few launches a few weeks ago and anything more than 2K rpms and slipping out the clutch resulted in the tires just spinning for all of 1st gear. The 1/2 shift = just a slight screech. The 2/3 and 3/4 dead hook. I have the rears set to 28lbs and the fronts to 32. I have maybe 2K miles on them (mostly highway) and they still look brand new.

When new, they left VERY dark black thread stains on the concrete floor. I don't know what to make of that, but the stains are alot lighter now that the tires have some miles on them. They seem pretty sticky for a street tire so maybe that's why. They're alot better than the Kumho Ecsta SPT's that were on before. I will never buy Kumhos again. With those (in 245 width), all of 1st and half of 2nd = no traction, followed by going sideways on the 2/3 and a screech on the 3/4 (yes on the 3/4 shift!).

Unfortunately, those tires were on the car when I bought it. There's no way in hell I would've bought those cheap *** tires if not for a shitty situation. You see, I got a ball on a rear tire twice while travelling out of town. I had to stop at a Discount Tire (that's who the P.O. bought them from) mid-trip and get 2 rear tires on 2 separate occasions, effectively giving me a new set of these POS tires. Had I known I was gonna get another ball just 5k miles later, I probably would've gotten different tires. Also, had this happened while I was at home, I would've just put tires on my new AFS wheels that I was waiting to put new tires on. Instead, I had to wait to wear out these tires first.

Whoa man. That was way more in depth thant I was thinking I was going to get for a bucket of water! Thanks a ton, I'm looking for new tires front and rear and these have been an option. That review might be worth two buckets of water! There's flooding all over this state, so we have plenty.

They have a lot better traction than I was thinking they were going to have. Which is good, but I also like sliding around in first and second.

Thanks again! Still raining here, but I'm looking to get pictures ASAP.

[StangFever2846]

Eh I was bored, so I figured I'd give back to the community.

Now where's my (2) buckets of water!

[TRbetngu]

Originally Posted by StangFever2846

Eh I was bored, so I figured I'd give back to the community.

Now where's my (2) buckets of water!

Shipped them via FedEx Monday, should be there by now? What gives?

[StangFever2846]

I **** you not, it rained last night! Right on schedule. Thank you brother!!

[Tommy Z]

Did you get the 10" or 10.5" rears?

[TRbetngu]

Originally Posted by StangFever2846

I **** you not, it rained last night! Right on schedule. Thank you brother!!

Boom baby! Anytime!

Originally Posted by Tommy Z

Did you get the 10" or 10.5" rears?

These are the 10" rears. I didn't see a 18x10.5" option when I bought these.

[Turbo900rr]

Originally Posted by TRbetngu

Boom baby! Anytime!



These are the 10" rears. I didn't see a 18x10.5" option when I bought these.

The 10.5 are out of stock for another 4 months. I wanted the afs but gave up and picked up a set of Durbins.

[WNTAMACH1]

OP, Those wheels look great!!! Plans on lowering it? So glad AFS did the DD 18's. I like keeping the Mach 1 style wheels on the car.

[TRbetngu]

Originally Posted by WNTAMACH1

OP, Those wheels look great!!! Plans on lowering it? So glad AFS did the DD 18's. I like keeping the Mach 1 style wheels on the car.

Thanks my man! I do have plans on lowering it, but those plans may have to wait a little bit. I have other things that should probably start getting my attention.

i.e. girlfriend that I should probably turn into a fiance, and that's not cheap.