Where can I find some 6" wheels?
CK5
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20" wheels?
- Thread starter TNH
- Start date
fishinnutt
1/2 ton status
6" wheels? You must be run be running a 31" tire, you could get high centered at the grocery store with those.......
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Randy92782
1 ton status
I'm actually thinking he meant starting from a 15" wheel. Most of the rigs on the show run 40's or bigger 
fishinnutt
1/2 ton status
Ian absolutely meant 40" and larger for rock crawling specific vehicles. A full size vehicle is barely getting started in the realm of rock crawling with a 37". A lot of peoples tow vehicles are running 37" - 38" tires.
Yep, The Blazer is bone stock and liking it. Even if I step up to some 32's...where am I going to get 7" wheels?6" wheels? You must be run be running a 31" tire, you could get high centered at the grocery store with those.......
fishinnutt
1/2 ton status
That recommendation is clearly for rock crawlers, a K5 on 31" tires is not a rock crawler by any definition. The tires for a serious rock crawler begin at about 40" unless we are talking about a Suzuki Samurai or maybe even a Jeep, so no you won't have to look for 7" wheels anytime soon. Not that there is anything wrong with a non-rock crawler.
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Sarcasm my man...sarcasm...
Did a decent chunk of rock crawling in my SoCal days up near San Bernadino. Stockish Blazer on 33's. Wouldn't run with the big dogs of course. Then again back then 35's were "huge!"
Did a decent chunk of rock crawling in my SoCal days up near San Bernadino. Stockish Blazer on 33's. Wouldn't run with the big dogs of course. Then again back then 35's were "huge!"
fishinnutt
1/2 ton status
Sarcasm my man...sarcasm...
Did a decent chunk of rock crawling in my SoCal days up near San Bernadino. Stockish Blazer on 33's. Wouldn't run with the big dogs of course. Then again back then 35's were "huge!"
I remember the days of 33" tires being huge, then my next ride had 35" tires and now the new one has 39.5" tires (I already wish they were 42" tires and I have 0 miles on them)
Randy92782
1 ton status
I figure if i can't go where i want on 35's or 37's i don't need to go there. If i need 44's then i'll just have to either hit it hard or find a way around.
I say that now but when i get my motor back it may be a diffferent story
I say that now but when i get my motor back it may be a diffferent story
Seems to me Dleroy43 ran all over the Hammers with a chopped up 'burb on 37's. That's a little more than "barely getting started".
Ian also recommended putting Bushwacker fender flares on your pickup to cover up rust holes. Remember it's a TV show.
My non-car/truck guy buddy watched that and had to call me immediately he thought it was so dumb.
My non-car/truck guy buddy watched that and had to call me immediately he thought it was so dumb.
fishinnutt
1/2 ton status
Seems to me Dleroy43 ran all over the Hammers with a chopped up 'burb on 37's. That's a little more than "barely getting started".
Therein lies the compromise, the Burb was radically chopped in order to work. I suppose the other part it takes to make my earlier statement correct is "full bodied" as well. Almost any Burb on any tires would have to chopped up pretty good if you are going to wheel a school bus sized vehicle through the Hammers. If your tires are not big enough, you better make sure nothing is going to hang you up. I am also sure that not every line out in the Hammers was available to his Burb on those tires either.
We went out to the off road park here the other day and were watching dozens of rigs try the biggest obstacles (big rocks, big holes and lot's of undercut portions). There were not any rigs there that could do the hardest obstacles, their tires were not near big enough at 37" - 38", there may have even been a few 40" in the bunch. Most of the rigs at that event were very built Jeeps with no body issues and lighter than a fullsize. Without bigger tires, the vehicles ended up in the biggest holes sitting on top of some part of their axles or under carriage.
Everything we do to our off road vehicles tends to revolve around the tires. The lift is mostly only so we can fit bigger tires for instance. The more extreme the terrain, the more we benefit from bigger and bigger tires, I think that is fairly undeniable. And yes, a 37" tire is probably the first and smallest tire that should be considered for serious rock crawling in a full bodied full size rig. The 37" tire is the new 35" if you follow me.
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fishinnutt
1/2 ton status
That is one thing Ian did that I instantly shook my head over as well.
Let's not forget one important part of this whole debate, Ian did not make up the 12.5" rule, he hit the forums hard and gave a pretty obvious explanation as to why we are seeing this trend in off roading, tire manufacturing and wheel production. You can't simply dismiss the idea because Ian said it, that would be a fairly ignorant thing to do. Interco tire did not make a 44" tire with a 20" wheel so someone could have bling. Clifton Sleigh did not make 20" Spyderlock wheels only because they would look cool. The public interest has helped to convince manufacturers to produce these new sizes for function as well as form. The whole idea is not so dissimilar to the rule stated earlier about your wheel being no more than half the size of your tire.
Is it so hard to see that a fifteen inch wheel with a 44" tire at 5psi has less lateral stability than a tire with a shorter more ideal sidewall dimension? Kind of the same way high performance cars like the Corvette have almost no sidewall for higher lateral stability. One thing people need to get over is that 20" wheels might have been all the rage on low riders and mall crawlers, but now the four wheel community is using them for a functional purpose and potetially gaining a small advantage out of it. I don't mind if someone is stuck on a 15" wheel, but that is old school and getting harder and harder to pull off in a community where the axles are bigger, the brakes are bigger, the tires are bigger and the obstacles/challenges are way bigger today. A 17" wheel is a great compromise until you go past 44" in my opinion.
Desert Yeti
1/2 ton status
It is true that with larger brakes on larger axles 17's are the "new" 15. It is also true that this evolution of optimum wheel size will probably continue.
That being said, until you need larger wheels to clear mechanical components, there's no reason, IMO to run larger wheels. I don't buy the lateral stability argument at all until you get into the realm of 46+. That's what bead locks are for. Who needs lateral stability from a shorter sidewall when a good quality beadlocked 5psi tire will grab the hell out of anything it tries to climb and scamper right over the rocks?
As for the "that's why Corvettes have small sidewalls" argument... please. The sports car world (where lateral stability IS a huge issue) is a totally different animal. If you're driving your K5 like it's a Corvette, and looking for that sort of stability out of your sidewalls, I wish you luck. And wear your seatbelt.
I also think that there are a LOT of posers who buy the best stuff that their daddy's credit card can handle... just because Interco and Poison Spyder are building 20 inch stuff doesn't prove that it's better than the same type of equipment in a 17 inch size. I just means they recognize a strong market opportunity.
And again, if you choose to run 20's for aesthetic reasons, I'm 100% ok with that! With a large enough tire they look really sweet!
That being said, until you need larger wheels to clear mechanical components, there's no reason, IMO to run larger wheels. I don't buy the lateral stability argument at all until you get into the realm of 46+. That's what bead locks are for. Who needs lateral stability from a shorter sidewall when a good quality beadlocked 5psi tire will grab the hell out of anything it tries to climb and scamper right over the rocks?
As for the "that's why Corvettes have small sidewalls" argument... please.
The sports car world (where lateral stability IS a huge issue) is a totally different animal. If you're driving your K5 like it's a Corvette, and looking for that sort of stability out of your sidewalls, I wish you luck. And wear your seatbelt.I also think that there are a LOT of posers who buy the best stuff that their daddy's credit card can handle... just because Interco and Poison Spyder are building 20 inch stuff doesn't prove that it's better than the same type of equipment in a 17 inch size. I just means they recognize a strong market opportunity.
And again, if you choose to run 20's for aesthetic reasons, I'm 100% ok with that! With a large enough tire they look really sweet!
fishinnutt
1/2 ton status
The reason given in this thread for the extra lateral stability was when your front end was climbing up on an obstacle. No one ever said that anyone was going to go throw a K5 around like a Vette (that wouldn't work out to well I don't imagine). The Vette example just goes to show that in all activities there is an ideal measurement for everything and apparently the sidewall height of a 44" tire on a 15" wheel is no longer considered ideal. Beadlocks will do nothing to keep your front end from shifting to the left or right due to "excessive" sidewall height/sloppiness when climbing an obstacle. I am not sure what to think about the debate, but I do know that if what Ian presented is the case it will not require me to believe in it for it to work (kind of like gravitiy). Basically I don't have a dog in this fight, but I did at least offer a reason for the new trend as it was explained to the whole powerblock audience. I went with 17" wheels myself on 39.5" tires and have a full bodied/full size rig that will be a total compromise of sorts in the world of rock crawling as it is. Admittedly the only reason I chose 17" wheels is due to concerns such as fitting over brakes and the like.
Desert Yeti
1/2 ton status
fishinnutt: No offense intended... When I re-read my post this morning it came off kinda harsh. I just got all riled up. 
I've seen maybe 2 episodes of Extreme 4x4 in my life, so I'm not objecting to Ian at all... don't know that much about him... I'm just engaging in the debate about sidewalls.
I'm not heavily invested in this debate either, I live for the difficult obstacles that come up along a trail, but my (full bodied) truck is a trail rider at heart, not a rock racer. I'm not likely to ever have tires larger than the 37's I'm running now. and 4 to 4+ trails the most difficult I'm likely to tackle.
To each his own!
I've seen maybe 2 episodes of Extreme 4x4 in my life, so I'm not objecting to Ian at all... don't know that much about him... I'm just engaging in the debate about sidewalls.
I'm not heavily invested in this debate either, I live for the difficult obstacles that come up along a trail, but my (full bodied) truck is a trail rider at heart, not a rock racer. I'm not likely to ever have tires larger than the 37's I'm running now. and 4 to 4+ trails the most difficult I'm likely to tackle.
To each his own!
fishinnutt
1/2 ton status
fishinnutt: No offense intended... When I re-read my post this morning it came off kinda harsh. I just got all riled up.
I've seen maybe 2 episodes of Extreme 4x4 in my life, so I'm not objecting to Ian at all... don't know that much about him... I'm just engaging in the debate about sidewalls.
I'm not heavily invested in this debate either, I live for the difficult obstacles that come up along a trail, but my (full bodied) truck is a trail rider at heart, not a rock racer. I'm not likely to ever have tires larger than the 37's I'm running now. and 4 to 4+ trails the most difficult I'm likely to tackle.
To each his own!
Not a problem at all, I am just interested in debating the point as well, although I don't often articulate my thoughts clearly enough that's for sure.
