2023 Ford Ranger build: Fuel Ripper wheels and Maxxis RAZR tyres

Nothing sets off a car build like a new set of wheels and tyres. Not only is it an easy way to personalise your car by replacing the factory-fitted wheels with something more to your liking, but also the perfect time to equip the car with tyres better suited to your intended driving.

Our 2022 Ranger Sport came with 18-inch alloy wheels wearing tame 255/65 Goodyear AT/S tyres; fine for around town but less than ideal for any outback overlanding. We wanted some more durable light truck (LT) construction tyres with a taller sidewall for both a bigger footprint at low pressures and a bit of added ride height. An aggressive mud-terrain tread pattern would also be handy for those muddy High Country weekends.

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We’ve had a great run using Maxxis Tyres’ RAZR range of LT tyres and, for the Ranger, we’ve gone with the more aggressive MT772 pattern. We had these on our PX Ranger and were more than happy with their performance and durability.

For the RA Ranger we’ve gone with an LT285/70R17 tyre that gives us the additional height and taller sidewalls. They are an LT tyre with a 10-ply construction and deep 14.3mm of aggressive tread design.

An aggressive mud-terrain tread pattern would be handy for those muddy High Country weekends

The MT RAZR 285/70R17 is 837mm tall, so it’s pretty much smack on 33 inches in the old money, and it has a broad 305mm section width which sits in our Ranger’s wheel wells without fouling at all on full steering lock and standard suspension.

The MT772 is available in 36 sizes all the way up to 40-inch monsters.

Fuel Ripper rims

When you’re looking at wheel choices for your 4x4, no one has a more extensive range of choices than Wheel Pros Australia. Wheel Pros handles all the big brands of 4x4 alloy and steel rims, in every size you could ever want and in more styles you would think possible.

Choosing your new wheels on the Wheel Pros website is like being the kid in a candy store who is spoiled for choices and wants one of everything. So many choices make it hard but allow you to personalise the look you want to achieve.

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We had a couple of prerequisites for our new wheels in that we wanted to step down to a 17-inch rim from the 18s to again allow us a taller tyre sidewall; we wanted an open design without too much detail or too many spokes to keep them easy to clean; and we wanted them black.

The wheel that ticked all those boxes for us was the Fuel ‘Ripper’ design in a 17x9 size with a positive 20mm offset. This gives a deeper dish than the factory offset wheel, but does mean the 285 tyres poke outside the guard lip a tad – we’ll cover them up with a set of EGR flares. More importantly, they are close enough to factory offset that the bigger tyres fit without any rubbing or requiring modification to the inner guards.

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The Ripper is an older design from Fuel and I remember eyeing them off when we built the PX Ranger, but we wanted a different look for that car. We’re glad Fuel still offers them and we could get them for the new Ford.

The Fuel Ripper is available in a range of sizes and offsets, while our ones have a suggested RRP of $338 each from Wheel Pros.

As always, we had our new rims and rubber fitted by the great team at Competition Tyres & More at Murrumbeena. They always do a great job for us, and a bit of extra work on the Ranger involved stripping the factory tyres off the rims and removing the tyre pressure sensors to fit them to the new wheels, then refitting those tyres again. This way, we retain the Ranger’s standard tyre pressure monitors.

More information

Maxxis Tyres: www.maxxistyres.com.au
Wheel Pros: www.wheelpros.com
Competition Tyres & More: www.tyresandmore.com.au/stores/murrumbeena