Wheel spacers for my unusual 55 (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Dec 20, 2007
Threads
124
Messages
1,056
Location
Orcas Island in NW Washington State
Website
www.mtpickettwoodworking.com
Some of you have seen what I did with my badly rusted '79 FJ 55. It has worked out well and a blast to run aroung the island in the summer. I am finishing up my windshield this wee in anticipation of a road trip in August. Been running factory 16" split rims on the back with 255 85 r 16s. Well yesterday I got a flat and thought I'd jjust switch over to some 33 950 15s on mini truck steelies I had out in a shed. Now they all match . Dia was very close with the 16s. But.... I lost 1 1/2" in offset with the mini trucks. Now my rear wheels are set back that much further. Like 4"( Ick). So looking for spacers need the standard old hole size for the hubs. I did a search here and found very little and have been on amazon and ebay.... The vehicle gets very light service, mostly hauling grandkids and or crab pots in the summer months, so KI feel ok with spacers. Anxious to get this solved. Leaving early August. Thanks in advance, Gary

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Some of you have seen what I did with my badly rusted '79 FJ 55. It has worked out well and a blast to run aroung the island in the summer. I am finishing up my windshield this wee in anticipation of a road trip in August. Been running factory 16" split rims on the back with 255 85 r 16s. Well yesterday I got a flat and thought I'd jjust switch over to some 33 950 15s on mini truck steelies I had out in a shed. Now they all match . Dia was very close with the 16s. But.... I lost 1 1/2" in offset with the mini trucks. Now my rear wheels are set back that much further. Like 4"( Ick). So looking for spacers need the standard old hole size for the hubs. I did a search here and found very little and have been on amazon and ebay.... The vehicle gets very light service, mostly hauling grandkids and or crab pots in the summer months, so KI feel ok with spacers. Anxious to get this solved. Leaving early August. Thanks in advance, Gary

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That thing is SOOOO cool! Love it.

These guys make spacers in America:


I don't think what you are after is anything unique or special. Just a 6x5.5 patterned spacer that has bore ID to fit over what looks like a full floating hub?
 
Understand and appreciate that you're building out of a parts collection...have some experience in that myself. But be careful of mixing wheel and tire sizes front to back. Needs to be very close if not exact if you plan to use 4wd. Hate to see you mess up a transfer case. 2wd should be no problem.
 
Thanks all! I looked at some factory landcruiser steelies I have and they seem to have the same offset as mini truck. The 16" splits have zero offset. The splits stick out into the fenders 1 1/2" more than the mini truck. This morning I broke down the flat on the split rim and patched the tube and back on. The front 33 950 15s are within 1/8" of the rear 255's. I used the 4wd last winter in the snow to rescue my wife's subaru. But I know not to use it on hard surface. If you want to see the story of this build I will bring my thread up top here. Yes, it was based on Aussie Ford open cab pickups that were normally fitted with Marmon Herrington 4wd for desert service.
 
I don't see the need for spacers unless you're rubbing, the old Ford truck fenders stuck out well over the tires like that originally. Badass "Tord" you have there, bet it's a fun ride!

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Hmmmmm I have maybe six minitruck wheels, some have a curved in lip on the 4.25 center hole, one af the flat faced ones has 1/2" different offset. I buy them at junk yards when I see them. About 5 years ago I sold a 60 that was parked for years on our dirt road and later I put my last set of new 33x9.50 x15s on my original '79 55 rims with caps. The dude that bought the 60 would have been fine with 'white spoke wagon wheels', (gag me with a tire spoon), So I literally threw them away. Can anybody school me on offsets.? 30 years ago I cut the centers out of a set of chev 16" junkyard wheels and mounted 7.50 16 bias. To cut the holes I placed a firewood round alongside, jacked one rear and let out the clutch. I had a carbide tipped formica cutter in the flattened end of a piece of pipe. Set it on the stump and lathed out 4 perfectly acceptable rings of steel, each of which fell onto the ground below and rolled away. This was on a '70 fj 55 so I would have better gearing on my way home from a family trip from Seattle to Boston and back.
 
Not sure what you have...but if that truck has fj55 axles under it, then stock 15" fj40/55 wheels will fit just fine with proper backspace. Aftermarket white spoke wagon wheels could have any backspace measurements, and IFS wheels have different backspace. The lug pattern and center bore is not tied to backspace or wheel diameter.
 
The entire chassis/drivetrain is a '79 FJ 55 with ford tin modified to sit on the rubber donuts and mounts on the 55's frame. The '42-'47 ford pickups were the first to have 49" wide bed floor. I had to put some tubs in the bed as the 40, 45, 55 are not wide enough to do this. When I made and installed the tubs I had the zero offset splits on the rear. When I put stock LC steelies or minitruck wheels on the rear they contact the inside of these fender tubs unless I'm going straight down a smooth road, and where I live very few roads like that exist. So I need the zero offset and right now all I have are the splits like that. A few years back I was searching for 16", six lug rims and found the Dexstar Conventional trailer wheels. They have zero offset, are 7" wide and just need the centers opened up. Of course then I'd want a nice set of new tires on 'em. I think this summer will find me rolling the splits in the rear now that they both have 35 lbs of air in them. I DO however have some 15" chev pickup wheels in my boneyard...... Details at 11, stay tuned.
 

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