More tire & wheel discussion

From: Don Rey (radon220@gmail.com)
Date: Sat Oct 07 2006 - 14:09:29 EDT


WAS: Pros/Cons: 17" Wheel/Tire

Tom, what you posted here just sank in (yeah I'm slow)... I have
31x10.5x15 BFG T/A KOs on my 89 dak with no body lift (yet) and I get
zero tire rub. My torsion bars are cranked up... and I'm using stock
Jeep steel wheels. I just measured them, and there's only an extra
1/4" backspacing. Also, they are 7" wide, where the stockers are 6"...
so in addition to the extra backspace, the added width brings the
outboard bead an extra 1" um... outboard. So if you get into tire
geometry, I'm sure that brings the inner sidewall outboard a bit too.
These don't sit nearly as wide as Christine's, but fit nicely without
rub.

Now, before I cranked the torsion bars, I used to rub on the rear of
the wheel well (I have holes rubbed through my mudflaps).

Where are you closest to rubbing... the treads or the sidewalls? Have
you tried your tires on different rims? I wonder if you've got too
much backspacing (to the point of negative offset). The greater the
outboard (negative) offset of your wheels, the farther the outside
tread blocks "reach" forwards and backwards when you turn. Hmm did
that make sense? Walt has a good explanation and illustration of this
on his site.

A little more on my wheels:

Since the stockers and jeepers all have tires on them, I was only able
to measure from the outside of the rim, rather than the inside of the
bead (that's where measurements are typically made from, right?), so
my backspace measurements may not be entirely accurate, but they
should at least be consistent enough to compare the two wheels.

Stockers: 15x6 with 4-1/2" backspace (1-1/2" positive offset)
Jeepers: 15x7 with 4-3/4" backspace (1-1/4" positive offset)

Tom, I'm really curious about the measurements of your wheels now. We
might have to measure & compare at the bbq! Wait... no that didn't
come out right...

Don in CT
89 Dakota Convertible 318 NV3500 4x4
74 Dart Sport 340
pbase.com/radon220/mopars

On 9/25/06, Terrible Tom <SilverEightynine@aol.com> wrote:
>
> 32 tall or 11 wide is about the limit on a stock suspension.
> taller/wider than that and you will see rubbing.
>
> Personally, and I'm not trying to tell ya what to do with your truck,
> but I think wheels that stick out way the hell past the fenders, look
> really bad. I have 31x10.5x15 Kumho mudders on Chrstine, the wheels are
> backspaced about 3 to 3.5 inches outwards. I've never really been
> thrilled with it, but even with a 3 inch body lift, it was what I had to
> do to keep from having tire rub.
>
> http://members.aol.com/silvereightynine/front.jpg
>
> Thats a fairly good photo that shows how far out the wheels sit from the
> fenders. I think if you went 4.5 inches outwards back space... its
> going to stick out too far and look.... different.
>
> --
> -------------------------------------------------------------
> Rocks are for skipping... I'm all about the mud
> 75 Honda CL360, 89 Dakota, 89 Dakota 4x4,
> 95 Dakota 4x4, 96 Neon, 01 Ram 4x4
> http://members.aol.com/silvereightynine/
> AIM & Yahoo: SilverEightynine
>
>



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Nov 01 2006 - 01:35:00 EST