Wheel compatability (same wheel, different tire)

Not all rims, street and off-road can safely be interchanged with defferent specs tires.
Not knowing the mustang wheels you are talking about, I would take one to a good tire specialist and see what he/she says.
The reason is that rims are designed for certain use and their side lips are contoured to accept certain use tires.The tires themselves, regardless of their size, are constructed accordingly.

The 265/70/R16 are too big for the Escape, even to a 2" lifted one.

Unfortunately Tang, there is a problem.For very conservative driving not so much if they are a little overinflated, but with Jacinda's driving, (as an example), the sidewalls are overstretched, especially around turns.

What Goodyear or any other manufacturer does not tell you is that the tire put on the 6" rim will have a much wider cheek protruding off the rim and as a consequence this set-up is more prone to sidewall tear at an off-road excursion.Also the same set-up invites for the tire to come off the rim at a fast tight corner or during an avoidance maneuver.
I believe that speedometer accuracy is the least of worries when one fiddles with tire sizes.
After all, two similar tires from different manufacturers but with the same dimensional numbers on them have different perimeters when equally inflated.
When given the opportunity one can verify this descrepancy.It might be not much but it is still there.

theescaperoute said:

SUVord said:

The 265/70/R16 are too big for the Escape, even to a 2" lifted one.

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I'm on 255 55 r18 with plenty of clearance, and stock height.

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Doing the math, the 255/55/18 combination is smaller by 2" in total diameter from the 265/70/16 combination.

Ajax said:

I forgot to put this before but I'm running 255/65/16 on the factory rim, virtually no height change over 235/70/16. Here's a tire size calculator:

http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalcold.html

The 265/70 is 1.6" larger than stock.

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That is true Ajax.Your height difference is only 1.75 mm according to the tire calculations.Negligible.
The point for serious consideration is when one changes to a much bigger configuration and when is that evident that is not correct.With the car at level ground one may think that some bigger tire fits ok since by turning the wheel there is no rubbing felt.
But when the car is driven uphill or downhill or even on level ground and the wheels turn then one will sense the rubbing.
That is why the safeproof method when installing bigger tires is to install the front ones first, jack the rear of the car up and turn the steering wheel from one end to the other.If no rubbing then they are ok.