The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Advance Design Wheel question

I'm looking for wheel and tire information on a stock sraight axle truck. I know several people have custom wheels on the front of there trucks. I would like to know what works as far as rim and tire size, offset, etc. I don't want to spend good money on rims to have a rub issue on the tie rods.

Please help. I am not interested in tire size of MII or Camaro fronts... different geometry... Stock front ends converted to disc is OK.

Go with a rim for a pre-'87 solid axle GM 4x4, with a 3 1/2 to 4 inch offset, 15x8 would look real nice and give the most choices. Watch out if you want either 15x6 or 15x7, some of the wheel manufacturers seem to think that they only need to make jap truck offsets in those sizes, and they will rub.

Can we assume you want 15" and not 16"?

Actually... I have a set of 16 inch artillery wheels. I am going to take them to Stockton Wheel to have the rims widened to 7 inches. I was going to have 3.75- 4 inches backspacing for the rear. I wanted to make sure I wouldn't have any clearence problems in the front with the tie rods.

Bill are you sure that will work on an AD truck?

I'm running the 5 lug disc conversion with 235/70/15's on 7" rim width and 4" back spacing on my straight axle 54-3100. With the stock tie rod ends I had about 7/8" clearance. With the upgraded tie rods I have additional clearance.

I run 255/70/15's on the rear with a 62" Camaro diff (same as stock width)and run 15 X 8's. I tried the 8" rims on the front with 235's and still had plenty of clearance from the tie rod ends.

If I had to do it over again I would run 15 X 7's with 235/70/15's all the way around...then I could do a conventional rotation.

I think you would be safe with 4" or even 3.75" as I don't have any clearance issues on the outside with the fenders and that would give me a tad more tire-to-box wall clearance on the rear. I also run front and rear swaybars.

Dave

Dave,

Thanks for the 411. I will probably be running 255/70R16 rear, and 235/70R16 front. They will be 7 inches wide, front and rear.

Of course this will be going on a 1940 with a front suspension that will match an AD truck, so there still is room for error.

How much clearance do you have to the bed? Mathamatically I should have 3/4 to 1 inch depending on offset used. Is that enough to account for suspension travel, tire roll, and articulation?

On the rear of the truck, with the 8" rim, before I installed the sway bar I had some tire rub on one side. My truck sits high in the rear with the relocated diff/spring plate. It's actually a little HIGHER than stock and I didn't have my bed dead-center on the frame. There was appreciable body roll and I didn't catch the bed alignment faux pas until after I put on the swaybar.

With the bed centered, and the swaybar I've had no more issues. The 255 is really a wide tire...and a full inch taller than the 235. On a 7" rim I think I would adjust my backspacing proportionately. Hope this helps.

Dave