The idea was simple at first, Just get a wheel manufacture to make a custom set of new wheels, but that ended with empty promises and sorry w can't do that.
Then I figured that in the car and truck world people fix billet rims by cutting the centers out and re-welding them into new hoops and for the classic / muscle car group people take original centers and put them in wider rims to fit wider tires. So take the same concept as that and apply it to the larger trucks. I call around and find a few companies that say this process is part of their normal routine, so I remove the genuine Firestone RH-5 centers and drop them off to a shop. Well it comes to it most of the places that I went to came up with the conclusion that rims in a 22.5" size are unavailable. So I ended up searching and tracked down some 22.5" rims that would work a 8.25 and 11.75, a 7.5 was really prefered but I was unable to locate any new ones. Shortly after a pallet of wheels arrived, I did some test fitting and the sizes were pretty close, tried to get them pressed in locally and they were slightly too big. Ok, that's not a problem chuck them up on the mill and shave them down to size, well it appears that they are slightly too big for what I have, go around and look for a local machine shop that has a large lathe, and no one has one to swing these. Well it's back to the wheel shops, guess what, none of them had a large lathe either. After almost 2 years in the making, much expenses, and travel all over I have a set of partially completed tubeless rims. Still needs finishing coating, and some rubber.
The original equipment wheels
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2856/9239741569_544cdd58e6_z.jpgRH-5
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7370/9242518806_93f910f6a9_z.jpgCut the original rims off
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7415/9239739387_66b3812700_z.jpgNew Rims
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5488/9242515858_a5b04f4c3f_z.jpgLooks like it might work
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5349/9242511288_e5d4455f21_z.jpgPretty close fitment
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7285/9239721967_613d8a3d7a_z.jpgThere are some other pictures
http://www.flickr.com/photos/5251168/Thi s was not an easy process for something that should be pretty simple. I think for my green truck, if a wide track rear axle can be located a set of four 8.25" wheels will be used with 315 tires and just flipped around to save on costs, plus the 385 seems a little over kill, but was needed to gain a wider stance with a narrow axle.
