The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline $$$ for wheels

Howdy,

So grandpa's truck has three 15" wheels and one 16" wheel. Since I was hoping to stay with the 16" wheels I was wondering what to expect to pay for these? I'd like to get 4 of them so the one I have can be a spare. Any help on pricing would be greatly appreciated. LMK if this belongs elsewhere.

Thanks

If you are looking for originals then they are usually pretty cheap. If you are looking for more modern radial/tubeless options there are lots of threads here that have discussed them. I bought 16" 1991 Suburban 3/4-ton wheels so I could run radials. I bought a set of 4 for $80 at a local salvage yard.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/advance-design_parts_co/8129054429/in/set-72157631867396207

Thanks Brad. I guess I neglected to say I wanted original wheels if possible. I believe they are 4.5" or 5" wide. How wide are yours? They look nice.



Thanks
Scott

What year 15" wheels are you looking for?

What size truck (how many bolts)?

GMC or Chevrolet?

Tim - I would like 16" wheels to take a little rpms off of the motor. My truck is a 52 chevy.

Thanks

Man I just can't get it together.....3100 6 lug. Thanks

Scott,

You might e surprised to find that the rolling/loaded radius/diameter of 15" tires on original rims/wheels were sometimes larger for 15" rims compared to tires on 16" rims.

http://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/chevyresto/52154.html

Thanks Tim - I noticed that as well when doing tire size research. What I think is swaying my decision will be the purchase of new radial tires. I was under the impression that a 215/85 R16 was around 30" in diameter and had a fairly narrow profile. Considering the narrowness of the stock wheel they may even be taller when installed. My hope was this tire would look good on these wheels and not cost $200+ per tire.

I know that there have been discussions over old stock wheels not being designed for modern tires but given my planned usage of the truck, I hope that not to be a factor.

Any tire size verification on mounted tires you or others may have would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

I think new wheels and hubcaps are available. I believe one of the sources is Wheel Vintiques or something like that. You can get a width that suits the modern tubeless radial.

Thanks truckernix I will see what they have to offer and get back to you.

I have Cooper SRM II radials on my orginal 16" wheels. They have a high profile ("natural looking") and are blackwalls like the originals ("natural looking").

I have used these on my Suburban for about 9 years with tubes, and will be using the same tire on real nice original 1954 16" wheels without tubes (on a truck I am restoring).

The Suburban tracks and steers nicely (at low and high speeds).

Their loaded diameter at about 40psi is about 31.5"

Thanks Tim. That is a good looking ride you have.

Please let us know what rim you decide on. I have a 49 3100 that needs new rims. I can't seem to find anyone selling good used ones. I would use either 15 or 16" rims both with six lugs.

Will do.

Scott

The irony of you having 3 15" wheels and one 16" wheel is funny. When I acquired my truck, it had one 15" wheel and 3 16" wheels. I found two more 16" wheels, one was free, found in a barn at work. The other one was $25. My tires, tubes and wheels are similar to Tim's, only difference is that mine are Michelins.

Yeah well here's something funny, I thought I had all 15" wheels too. Why??? Because all the tires were 15". The tubes and tires were ruined so we mounted some old tires on the wheels so I could roll the thing around. All but one that is. We tried like heck to get a tire on that 4th wheel and then figured it out....

Somehow that old man managed to get a 15" tire on a 16" wheel.