The other day I went to a local junkyard just to see how many 8L rims they had and how many $ they would expect. I found a fair amount of 8Ls, all pretty recent vintage. So, I went home and made a jig out of corrugated cardboard, sort of a go-nogo guage, that tells me,rim size(15,16,16.5,etc.), offset(3-5.5"by.125"), center hole dia.(min.-max.), bolt pattern(yes-no),and trueness(un-bent). My tie rod end is 4.625" from the outside drum plane. A 4.5 " back offset will clear by only an eighth, too close for me, so a 4" or slightly less back offset on a 7" is fine. The trailer rims, mentioned above,in steel, can be had at the local Farm & Barn with the offset I desire, special-order (time & $$$). I'm still going to exhaust all options at the scrapyards before going that route.
More later, thanx for the input, I'll stay in touch,
Muck
