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16" wheels... are they the next dead wheel size?

hidesertwheelin

hidesertwheelin

1/2 ton status
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I'm currently running 16.5" wheels, and tire selections sucks. I found some 16" steel wheels w/ stock tires locally and they are asking $125 for all 4. I'm guessing I can get them for $100. I'm thinking about buying them for the wheels, but not sure if 16" tires are going to go the way of the 16.5". Opinions?
 
Depends on size up to a 35 I think 16 have a decent future. Longer than 15s imho
 
blazinzuk said:
Depends on size up to a 35 I think 16 have a decent future. Longer than 15s imho
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agree
just priced some Toyos for my 16" beadlocks, in 38" size. Only a couple manufacturers even make 38s but you can find 35s all day long.



If you are looking to go to another size wheel, 17s are best. Around my area, looking on CList for used tires, 17s are most popular and give me a better selection. Either that......... or 20s. :doah:
 
As mentioned 17s are the latest rage. I went with 17s because I didnt want anything to do with grinding my calipers down to fit out dated 15s. I think the 15s will stay around for the toyota guys but anything larger than 35s for 16/16.5 inch rims will be discontinued in the future.
 
Yeah not much for 16s in super swampers, kind of a dying breed as said already id say.
 
I think you will have a decent selection of 16" tires for quite awhile. If you think about it 16.5's haven't been offered from the factory since the early 80's timeframe and while the selections are slim there are still some floating around. Basically it took 20 years for the selection to start slimming down and after 30 they still exist. For 16" tires you still have vehicles rolling off the assembly line with that size and a lot and not many years removed from many others coming stock that way. Believe GM still had 16's standard on the 2500HD and 3500HD until at least 2010. The availability of tire sizes is based on demand and you will have a lot of vehicles rolling down the street with 16's for many years.

You can find just about any major brand truck tire up to at least a 35" size for a 16 right now, and while the choice is smaller there are quite a few larger sizes all the way to at least a 44" tire. Did a search and National Tire & Wheels lists Interco as having over 80 different tires available for a 16" rim.
 
I don't think 16 ever really took as a popular rim size. 17 inch wheels took the popularity prize.
20 inch are for people who don't really know any better and there are a lot of them.
Only time I think you need a 20 inch wheel is when you are mounting a freaking tractor tire and hitting the mud hole with your blown mega truck.
 
I dont see any factory 17" rims other than H2's off any brand of truck that are available cheap used ,that'll work on a square body truck...

I've asked around at tire shops and junkyards ,they all say the offset on the newer trucks 17" rims are too "tucked in" to work,and the Ford 8 lug 17's are a different bolt circle and hub hole size than GM's,so those are out...some said Dodge 8 lug 17's might work,but they might rub the calipers without a spacer--and no one had any,if they did they would get 65 bucks each for them used,due to being "uncommon" around here..

I scored 4 decent B.F. Goodrich 17" 245/75/17 e range tires that would be nice for my pickup..IF I could find cheap used rims..years ago,you could buy just about any size aftermarket steelies cheap,like 30-40 bucks,but those days are gone..
Cheapest ones new I've seen online are more like 70 bucks each...

I think I'll just sell the 17" tires and look for 16" ones..truck ain't worth that much $$$ and hassle,just to run 4 freebie tires on it..
 
JDNobodi said:
I don't think 16 ever really took as a popular rim size. 17 inch wheels took the popularity prize.
20 inch are for people who don't really know any better and there are a lot of them.
Only time I think you need a 20 inch wheel is when you are mounting a freaking tractor tire and hitting the mud hole with your blown mega truck.
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What you are saying might be true for aftermarket but for factory vehicles the 16's were the norm with probably billions of trucks rolling off the showroom floor with them. The tire market is driven by factory offerings even when talking about non-stock tire sizes.
 
6.2Blazer said:
What you are saying might be true for aftermarket but for factory vehicles the 16's were the norm with probably billions of trucks rolling off the showroom floor with them. The tire market is driven by factory offerings even when talking about non-stock tire sizes.
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There is no doubt there are a lot of factory 16 inch rims out, but a majority of those rims are narrow. I think 7 inch wide.
 
6.2Blazer said:
probably billions of trucks rolling off the showroom floor with them.
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Billions? You're exaggerating, right? A good year in the US is like 2 million trucks sold. Let's overestimate and say it's been this way all the way back to 1960 - that's still like 1/10 of one billion. Then think about what percentage of those had 16" wheels and what percentage of those are still being driven and that gives you an idea of what should be in the tire market.

I think it's correct to say that factory wheel offerings drive the tire market, as probably less than 10% of cars on the road have aftermarket wheels (plus, those who bought aftermarket wheels probably sold the factory ones to somebody else...). So look at what has come on trucks in the last 15 years or so and that will tell you what tires will be most available today.
 
Blue85 said:
Billions? You're exaggerating, right? A good year in the US is like 2 million trucks sold. Let's overestimate and say it's been this way all the way back to 1960 - that's still like 1/10 of one billion. Then think about what percentage of those had 16" wheels and what percentage of those are still being driven and that gives you an idea of what should be in the tire market.

I think it's correct to say that factory wheel offerings drive the tire market, as probably less than 10% of cars on the road have aftermarket wheels (plus, those who bought aftermarket wheels probably sold the factory ones to somebody else...). So look at what has come on trucks in the last 15 years or so and that will tell you what tires will be most available today.
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I wasn't trying to exaggerate when typing that response but it is not right as you say above. Will blame it on a bad day at work:whistle:.

However the number has to be in the tens of millions, or a heckuva lot of trucks! I would say almost every 3/4 to 1 ton truck produced from the early 80's up until the 2000's had 16's as standard equipment, then add in
 
evolve991 said:
Wow. So I should plan on having my dinosaur 15 steelies modded to 17 in the near future?:dunno:
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I dont think 15s will ever die in the aftermarket tire scene. And 16s wont go away because theres a **** load of fleet duallys running them. Its the selection of tire you actually want thats the problemo.


I have ridiculous tire sizes Ive always dreamed of for everything Ive built. I wanted 32x14in street tires for the back of the street truck, always wished that someone made an actually good 34x10.5 or 11 mud tire like the south american guys have.
 
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