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Wheel rant

AJs72K5

AJs72K5

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Starting to plan my next set of tire and wheels. My 16" wheels will need to go. I've been pouring over aluminum wheels and have decided that the Jeepers and Bro Dozers have taken over and killed wheel selection for 17" or 18" in 8x6.5":

  • The black and machined aluminum wheels don't belong on an old truck
  • Same goes for the zero backspace Bro Dozer wheel
  • Simulated beadlocks (no offense if you have them) are for mall crawlers (yes, I know this could be me and may cave on this)

There's only about 5ish choices in polished aluminum: what I already have (Procomp 69s), US Mags Indys (basically Ansens), or Raceline Renegades, or Raceline Rockcrushers
 
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How about the AR-23 or Outlaw 2's?
 
I was just on summit and there's about two dozen old school wheel choices.

There's less in aluminum for sure though
 
Some OEM white spoke re-pops in 17" with stock backspacing would be nice for us old square body owners with 8 lug axles..
 
diesel4me said:
Some OEM white spoke re-pops in 17" with stock backspacing would be nice for us old square body owners with 8 lug axles..
Click to expand...

like this ?

brand new out of the box . blasted and redone in white . conversion lug nuts and 4 drw 88-98 style rear center caps .

88 crew cab build 138.jpg

88 crew cab build 155.jpg

88 crew cab build 160.jpg
 
Yeah,just like those !..too bad my truck is worth less than the rims & tires would cost...but they would be a good upgrade for 16's for sure..

15" tires aren't getting any easier or cheaper to find either...

I don't understand why every ten or so years they decide certain size tires are "obsolete" and then increase the price...in the 80's they phased out 16.5's,then the 15" tires started going away in the 90's--now 16's are being scaled down a lot too..
Surprisingly OLD cars like Model T's had big rims like 20"..guess things are going backwards ?..

My original 16" 8 lug rims and others I've gotten of similar vintage are getting rusted around the beads now,and some good sized chunks popped loose on them last time I changed some tires--had to use lots of bead sealer..been keeping my eyes open for more spare rims at junkyards and craigslist,the few I've seen are no better than mine and they still want $35 for each one..

I was given 4 decent B.F. Goodrich TA's with 1/3 tread left ,didn't realize they were 245/75/17 until I got them home--guy I got them from didn't read the size right and I assumed he had...not sure if I should sell them ,he claimed they were on a dually pickup and had no issues,they look OK inside,no plugs or patches,I just hate to have someone buy them and come back saying they thump ,etc..
No 17" 8 lug "junkyard" rims for cheap money that would work on a square body around here either..
 
I just caught on this but I have 4 of the older style Centerline wheels that have holes in them around the inner edge... They are aluminum and in rough shape. Someone started painting one black and I'm kinda thinking of blacking them out all the way. Not sure about PC or paint but I'll make up my mind later down the road. They're the traditional 15 x 8 inch size and to me its not so much the color of the wheels that do not look right but anything larger than a 16 kind of starts to make the trucks look like clown cars in my eyes. Maybe its just me though, but it makes no sense when guys put 22 inch wheels on their truck, then have a thing sidewall and go around worrying about if they bent their rim or not. Definitely not going to happen on these old wheels I have, regardless of if I leave them aluminum or black them out.... FWIW I think there are only some colors you can really get away with dark wheels on but to me the three primary ones are white, silver, and for some reason yellow really stands out well with black wheels.... Then again Yellow looks really sharp with a good clean set of white wagon spokes as well.... I'm going with Silver Upol on my Jimmy once I get it running again so I am thinking the dark 15 inch CL's will hold over fine, but I'm also going to swap in a 14bsf at some point and I know you can get them with 6 or 8 lug setups so once I get the rear end I may go ahead and plan on getting new wheels, but if I do they will probably just be 16 inch slotted type steel wheels. I have a set of 285/75 16's that I am going to be taking off my daily driver to wear down, and then once I use them up I'll probably just stay with 33's and I think that will be the perfect combo of tire to height ratio for me (with 2 inches of lift).

I'm not so sure what is meant by obsolete tires sizes though. I can easily find 33 x 12.50 in every wheel size, it's just a matter of whether you want them that day or want the tire store to order them in for you on some occasions... I would imagine bigger tires sizes to get a little more out of sorts on smaller wheels but again, mail order or Ebay is your friend. The 285/75's I ordered from discount tire came from ebay and the shipping was free and they had every other tire size available I could have wonted, all I had to do was be home for them to be delivered so door thieves would not get a score, then load them in the truck and take them to a DT and get them mounted. Cost about 100 bucks total.
 
I bought my F250 brand new in 1989, custom ordered. Then it went straight to a shop, was cut in half and shortened to short wheel base specs and a swb body put on. After a lot of other mods, I went shopping for tires.
I wanted 12.50/33s in mud grip.
Maybe Mickey Thompson or other house brands sold them in 16 inch, but for national brands there were exactly two. One was BF Goodrich, don't remember the other, but they were only available in 16.5. There were none in 16 inch. I bought some 16.5 inch wheels, and all was well.
Except for a weird balancing problem. I could balance them on the best machine in town. Hit the road, run 70 with smooth as silk. Two or three trips around town, and it was like they were square.
Rebalance them, and it was the same thing again. Turned out, due to the gradual slope of the bead on 16.5 inch rims, the tires were rotating on the rims without losing air. I had to glue them on.
By the time they wore out, there were dozens of models in 16.5. Last year, when I wanted to replace the latest set, my tire guy could not find any 16.5 12.5/33 in mudgrips. I had to buy new 17 inch rims to get the tires I needed.

Way things go, I guess.
 
True, but beadlocking them would add to the width, I'd say over an inch but I'd have to check. You may be able to add a couple inches. They machine off the outer part of the wheel & weld on there own. Imagine thoes factory wheels, OMF beadlock conversion & a 42x15.5x16" Pitbull..... Too bad they don't make them in a 17, id be all over it. What do people think about the Allied steel beadlocks?
 
I bought some allied rockathon beadlocks second hand. I like them. Good finish and I like the centers.
nedceifus said:
True, but beadloght cking them would add to the width, I'd say over an inch but I'd have to check. You may be able to add a couple inches. They machine off the outer part of the wheel & weld on there own. Imagine thoes factory wheels, OMF beadlock conversion & a 42x15.5x16" Pitbull..... Too bad they don't make them in a 17, id be all over it. What do people think about the Allied steel beadlocks?
Click to expand...
 
Those PY0 wheels were produced by Alcoa. Forged goodness. One of the sharper looking factory wheels GM ever put out.
 
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