The Stovebolt Forums Forums The Parking Lot Tons 'o Fun Rim-Tire combos

Jim's post reminded me (BTW, his truck is gorgeous and a lot of fun to convoy with!)

Yet *another* thing to consider ... A lot of guys have had their tires made perfectly round on a tire lathe. I thought that was crazy until my friend with a Powerwagon did it to his *very* expensive Michelins. The difference was truly amazing. And you (like I was) might be completely gobsmacked at just how out of round most tires are these days.

If you find that balancing still doesn't smooth things out, consider a tire lathe. Next trick is finding someone who has one ...

I worked as a mechanic in a tire factory for five years, most of that time in the section known as "Final Finish." This is where the new tires that come from the presses go to be cleaned up, balanced and then sent to the inspectors. All new tires go through a dynamic balancing machine where they are graded. If they are on spec, they get sent on for clean up then final inspection and off to the shipping department. These are OE tires (for auto/truck manufacturers). If they require grinding to get into spec, they head to a machine that chucks them up (horizontally), pressurizes them, then spins them at a high speed to determine where the "thick" spots are. A pair of grinders on arms then moves in to remove tread at these spots. This process is repeated until the tire is in spec. These tires are sold to your various local tire stores. It was well known in the plant I worked at that the tires that had the most rubber ground off of them were sold to WalMart.

I have a 3800 chevy stake body truck. The original wheels are 18". I am looking to upgrade to 19.5" tires and rims. Will a newer chevy wheel work, or do I need a Ferd wheel? Can anyone help with my situation?

Later model 19.5 rims that come off panel vans and small buses with a GM drivetrain will work on your truck. I have found that front rims have a different offset as compared to the rears on some trucks. On my truck I used fronts on the inside rears to give a little more clearance between rim and rear springs but I'm running a 14 bolt rear instead of the original. It may be a little different using the original axle. The only drawback I've found with the 19.5's is most all of the tires are 10-14 ply and are quite pricey. Hope this info helps. There's a picture of my truck at the beginning of this post.

8 lug on 6.5" 19.5 dual type wheels can be found with two distinct center or dish profiles. I don't believe this is relative to front or rear location nor wheel width or offset, just different style from different manufacturing time or place, I've had both and believe they had same part number.

The "cone" shaped center does not fit on the rear drums of our old trucks, or not likely to fit.
The "concave/convex" shaped center likely will fit.

Even with the concave/convex type 8 lug 19.5 wheel the center dish can be very close or too close to the drum. When I had these wheels on my 51 GMC 1 ton I cut the centers out of some old cast drums (from a 14 bolt) to make wheel spacers enough to clear the wheels on the drums.