Seeking 15x7 or 15x8 wheels that will fit a 77FJ40

[vtsteve]

I’m looking for aftermarket wheels, 15x7 or 8, that will fit a 77 FJ with disc brakes.

I’ve done tons of research and have concluded that fitment of aftermarket wheels, especially 15”, is finnicky due to tie rod and caliper clearance. The cruiser currently has 15x? White wagon wheels with 4” of backspacing, further bamboozling me as many swear that only 3.25-3.5” of BS will work.

Show me some pics and tell me what you’re running in the 15” category. I like the “snoothie” look, but striking out and prefer to not use spacers.

I have brand new 31x10.5 BFG MT’s, hence my desire to stick with 15s.

 

[Grayscale]

10cm = 3.94-inch back-space I saw these on a 60 a while back. Awesome conversation, friendly folk chatting about 2Fs and 4-speeds.

Vehicle Configurator – Nomad Wheels

www.nomadwheels.com

The owner sold the 60 for a 100, and was "just back from the Yukon hunting grizzly and caribou." Here for an elk this fall. I can't help but wonder, who cares about wheels when you are capable of hauling two to three-hundred pounds of meat over a mountain, by foot, to a dozen ice chests in the back of the Hundred-Series Cruiser?

 

[jim land]

Why not stock 15x5.5 steel wheel
No need for 8" wheel for 31" tires

 

[jim land]

#1. 15 x 8 american racing
#2. 15x5.5 stock wheel

33x10.5 15 tire

 

[Grayscale]

Why not stock 15x5.5 steel wheel
No need for 8" wheel for 31" tires

Not sure for certain, but, it could help with the profile of the tire's contact-patch, at a given pressure? There are shops that will mount tires to wheels outside of the manufacturer's specs, and shops that won't.

 

[WarDamnEagle]

Lots of people run that size on stock rims. I have that size on my 55 with stock rims.

 

[Grayscale]

I could see the advantage of the narrow rim, like in rain, a curvy contact patch could avoid some hydroplaning. Keeping your contact-patch flatter, you'll get better braking and acceleration. Also, a 1.5-inch wider wheel pushes out your tire's centerline by .75-inch, which helps with the change in scrub-radius due to the larger 31-inch diameter tire - steering won't wander so much, even with castor-correcting shims/wedges.

I used to rub on the steering box drag-link doing sharp turns with 33s BFG Mud Terrains (12.5-wide MTs on 8-inch steel rims iirc); those were Rancho springs; a bit more clearance with wheel-width can't hurt, but, I'm not sure that it was needed.

Those metallic American Racing wheels look ok, they just need grey paint, and a photo in front of some awesome log-cabin construction.

 

[WarDamnEagle]

I could see the advantage of the narrow rim, like in rain, a curvy contact patch could avoid some hydroplaning. Keeping your contact-patch flatter, you'll get better braking and acceleration. Also, a 1.5-inch wider wheel pushes out your tire's centerline by .75-inch, which helps with the change in scrub-radius due to the larger 31-inch diameter tire - steering won't wander so much, even with castor-correcting shims/wedges.

I used to rub on the steering box drag-link doing sharp turns with 33s BFG Mud Terrains (12.5-wide MTs on 8-inch steel rims iirc); those were Rancho springs; a bit more clearance with wheel-width can't hurt, but, I'm not sure that it was needed.

Those metallic American Racing wheels look ok, they just need grey paint, and a photo in front of some awesome log-cabin construction.

I could see the advantage of the narrow rim, like in rain, a curvy contact patch could avoid some hydroplaning. Keeping your contact-patch flatter, you'll get better braking and acceleration.

The size of your contact patch is controlled by tire construction, tire pressure, weight of the vehicle, and surface the tire is on. Regardless of all that, by definition "contact Patch" has to be flat if the tire is sitting on a flat surface - period. Flat doesn't mean it has to go all the way across the tread though so maybe that's what you're trying to say. However, pretty sure on that tire it will go all the way across the tread unless you severely over inflate the tire - maybe. Doubt there would be any measurable difference, given all else equal, between a 5.5 and a 7 inch rim.

 

[jim land]

I did not see any difference on the road after swapping to stock wheels, lower pressure like 26-28 lbs take care of the contact patch

 

[Grayscale]

Flattening, as in a balloon being pushed against a wall - https://www.goodyear.com/en_US/learn/tire-basics/tire-contact-patch.html

In post #5 I mentioned, for a given tire pressure.

When you are mounting tires, and you are having trouble getting the bead seated, it is commonplace to place a ratchet strap across the middle of the tread. When tightened, it takes the bicycle-like profile of the tread away, and it forces the tire's beads to move away from center, like on a wider wheel, thus the bead seats with a smaller volume of air discharged in to the tire. I'm assuming that the opposite is true, that by pinching in the sidewalls at the bead with stock wheels, you are actually changing the shape at the tread, as the dimension of the sidewall can't change, but the distance between the tread shoulder and wheel bead gets longer with the narrower rim (consider the hypotenuse-side of a right-angled triangle). And, with the narrower wheel, for the same over-sized tire, it creates more of an oval contact patch (unlike being squeezed in with the ratchet-strap so that it is wide and squared-off at the tread shoulders), where the very fore and aft-sides of the contact patch are not conforming to a flat road-surface across the entire tread width.

I'd think that stock wheels vs. something 7 or 8-inches wide is basically imperceptible to the driver, maybe for some people who are weaving thru cones on a track. However, this forum has dropped names of companies that previously gave Mudders static regarding mounting tires. And, there is a lot of dough shelled-out to get 31-inch Mud Terrains in the first place, why not use them in accord to how they were engineered?

 

[77mustard40]

Not to disagree with any of the contributors to this thread, but I’m close to 15 years on 33-10.50/15s on stock rims. I‘ve had to change tires once due to age as opposed to wear. I run a 1/4” generic spacer to avoid the drag link at full left turn and love the setup. 33’s ride better IMHO than 31’s because of the extra tire height. 28-30 pounds max for comfort on the highway and 15 for the real fun.