Presently I've got 17" on the front & 15" on the rear. I want to go to 4, 16" tubless tires & prefer radials. Does anyone have any help on where to find wheels & tires? Thanks
I have a 53 3/4T PU and looked everywhere for replacement wheels for my truck. Give up, there are very few options. Here are the options I found. (1) Find a complete set (all the same size) of the original rims and use them. Most tire shops will not work on these rims, however, coops in rural areas will because all the old farm trucks have them. The old rims work the best because of the tie rod knobs on the front come in such close contact with the tires. When using the old rims, make sure the tires you put on them are not wider then 6” to 6.5” or once again the tie rods become a factor. However, if you are planning to change the front end, none of this may matter. (2) Now some will tell you that you can find 8 lug replacement rims off a variety of models from the 70s and 80s in salvage yards. And I did find some 8 lug rims available. However, they were too wide. I also called 1-800-USED RIM and 1-800-463 RIMS (Capitol Wheels) who both confirmed these rims will not work. I also called all the new rim manufacturers (well, maybe not all) including, Wheel Vintiques, American Racing, Cragar, etc. I found no one that made a replacement rim. (3) You can send your rims to a company who will modify or custom the rim so they do not need tubes. For example, Stockton Wheels (http://www.stocktonwheel.com/) in California will do this for a fee depending on what you would like to do. I was quoted around $100 per rim. If you find out anything different, I would be very interested. However, my old rims with new tires and the original hubcaps look pretty good.
These wheels abound in older junkyards , I just went through the same thing and wound up paying less than $10.00 each but I had to dig them out of a pile of 10,000 old tires & wheels . just keep hunting , I'd recommend you not use the O.G. split rims , plenty of solid one out there if you just have patience to look . -Nate
Thanks for the hints of finding the right wheels. I went to an old junk yard about 3 weeks ago and all I really got was about 20+ wood ticks crawling on me. I'll keep looking. Ernie
Wood ticks - eww ! I'm glad I now live in the desert where there's only snakes , scorpions , black widow spiders , red ants and stuff like that . I don't use nor recommend split rims except for trailer queen / show rigs ~ had one too many pop apart whilst tooling along country roads ! . really scares the s**t out of you plus lots of folks DIE when they blow and the truck rolls into the ditch . -Nate
You might want to go to http://www.chevytrucks.org/tech/wheels.htm It gives a good description of what other 8 lug wheels might work.
I used late model chevy 3/4t 8 lug rally rims on my 50 3600. I did have to move my steering arm inboard about 9/16 of an inch and shorten the tie rod 3/4 of and inch and thread it deeper 3/4 of an inch for steering adjustment, which gave me about 3/16 to 1/4 clearance. I am using 16x8 wheels with p245 75 tires mounted on them. If i need to balance on the inside of the rim i may have to use the 1/4 inch spacers behind the wheels.
