Big tires, stock steelies?

[DLW]

Just picked up some factory 8 lug steel wheels taken from a 1977 2wd camper spiecial. I'm not sure of the width. Wanting to mount 36x12.50 on them. Has anyone done this or know if it will work?

 

[77 K20]

Hate to break it to you- but I doubt it will work. I think most of the steel wheels are 6.5" wide. No tire shop around here will mount a wide tire onto a narrow rim.

Years ago a friend mounted some 35x12.50s on some 7" wide wheels. It did work- but we looked at his tire tracks one day after he drove thru a puddle. The rear tires only were riding on the middle 4" of tread. With the sidewalls being tilted inward to get to the rim it ends of warping the tread instead of it being nice and square and flat. He tried to drop the tire pressure to make up for it. I think he was down to 24 psi in the rear.

I'd say you would want at least a 8" wide wheel and some would argue you need at least 9"...

 

[DLW]

They are 8.25 turns out.

 

[CSFJ]

If they're the 8" wide steelies, you should be fine on a 12.5 wide tire. It seems odd to me though that they'd have the wide steel wheels on a 2wd.

 

[DLW]

I thought the 9.75 were the wide ones

 

[theblindchicken]

I'd think it being a camper special would be the reasoning behind the wider wheels if they weren't swapped in at a later point.

But look up the tire specs and it'll tell you the min and max wheel width for that specific sized tire.

 

[77 K20]

Guess I have some things to learn. My '77 K20 camper special only had the 6.5" wheels on it when I bought it.

 

[bucket]

The 16.5's were available in the 8.25 too. I think they were about as common as the 9.75's.

And you can run a 12.5 tire on a 6.75 rim. It's a little squeezed, but works OK. Depending on the tire type, you just might have to play with the air pressure to get a good contact patch. A narrower tire would be ideal, but 16.5's are slim pickens anymore.

 

[stlbob]

i have a set of new GM 16.5x9.75 white steelies

 

[Craig 85]

If the rims are 16.5", I think Interco is the only still making tires for those wheels. I had bought some BFG's about 3 years ago, but they have since been discountinued.