Steel Wheel Tech

[regretful]

Just checked the Summit page for the Vintiques wheels, (12-670604) and they are showing that you can't order them and they don't know if they will be available. Still showing up at JEGS and at the Ventiques page.

 

[John McVicker]

And here is why I’m eventually moving up to 16’s or 17’s. The other day 5 of us ran a trail in Panamint Springs. Was not an event, just the 5 of us, but when they do have an event, this trail requirement are one locker & 35 in tires. I am running 33’s & when aired down to the mid teens I really have to watch my ground clearance.

Here are some before & after pics of my 15 in wheels after this trail. 33x15 BFG Muds are actually barely 32 inches. Once I get some 16 or 17 in wheels I can get some BFG Muds with a true 34 in size. With the lift I now have I don’t believe I can run 35’s.

Here are a couple of pics of my wheels after the beating they took and then after I hammered them back into usable shape. After the hammer repair, the wheel is not pretty…but the inside bead is useable. For now I grabbed a spare wheel I had in the garage.

After the trail.
View attachment 2877414

After a few hammer blows. The inside bead is good.
View attachment 2877415

Spare wheel from the garage.
View attachment 2877416

Here is a 3/30/23 update. Now have 16’s on my 60. I removed these 16’s from my 40 & put them on my 60. I now wheel harder with my 60 than I do with my 40 so the cleaned up 15’s will be fine on the 40. These black 15’s are Jackman Wheels if anyone remembers them. At the time they were the bomb diggity.

Installed a new set of BFG Muds 255-85-16’s. I had these 16’s made by Stockton Wheels over 20 years ago. Cleaned them up a bit, made sure they would fit the front disk and all is good.

Glad to have 16’s on the 60



I live in a small town, after a bunch of phone calls the tire shop could not get these BFG’s

The next day I called Tire Rack, drove to their Reno, Nv. Warehouse & picked them up myself

 

[HemiAlex]

Those look fantastic. I really like how the 255's drive. It took about 25k for the tires to get loud enough to be annoying.

You made a good choice.

 

[island45]

I just received my Dexstar 16" conventional wheels. My plan was to make a pilot so I could cut the centers out with a hole saw. I bought the Milwaukee 4.25" 'hole dozer' hole saw last week, but when I unboxed my wheels and started figuring out my jig I set the hole saw onto the raised center lip of the Dexstar and it fit tightly, but just a press fit by hand. I picked up the wheel and shook it upside down and the hole saw stayed put. I thought to myself, " that's my pilot". Next was how to hold the wheel stationary while I attack it with my gear drive right angle hole hawg driving this hole saw. I grabbed a 33 x 9.50 x 15 on a mini truck wheel and bolted the 16 on top of this with two long 1/2" bolts. Very stable platform. Keep in mind I will be 70 in May and I'm 5-6 and 150 lb, but I'm a tough old man with a good grip and a low center of gravity. (And I live on an island with no machine shop) The tooling followed the lip like it was made for this. The cut was very smooth and nicely centered. Took about 2 minutes to drill. I had to brace my knee against the long pipe handle on the drill and hold on, but no drama. The vehicle pictured is my '79 FJ55, fully intact under the 47 ford sheet metal. I have 33 9.50 15s on the front and 255 85 16s on the rear, both sets are same OD but at least 20 years old and I just got another flat on one of my splits. As usual I'm rambling. Still have to load today's wheel pics.....

 

[island45]

 

[island45]

Update... This little orange brush thing did a miraculous job of prepping the powder coat for paint. I bought a set of 3 different grits at napa a few years back. Since I am most often dealing with with rusty metal, they never impressed me. I have prepped literally hundreds of wheels for paint in the past 50 years, but never seen anything else that gets into the complex shapes so 'nice and deeplike' as this does in less than 5 minutes a wheel. I decided to test this 'classic gray' from krylon. I'm not trying to match factory color, as there's no such thing as factory anything on this old mutt. Edit:
Since this steel wheel tech thread will most likely be looked at for years to come, I'd like to add that I decided to measure the thickness of the steel used in the center of this dexstar as compared to a riveted FJ40 wheel I had nearby. The area between the lug hole and the stiffening web has a slightly domed surface so I set my caliper in only 1/4" for my measurement in both wheels. The Dexstar measured .187" and the Toyota measured .159". The difference in thickness is quite apparent to the naked eye. The other 2 wheels should arrive tomorrow and 255 85 16s on Wednesday.

 

[frankenyota]

Looking at getting some 16 x 7” rims from BCI in Australia, wanted to run 255/85/16 but they only seem to be mud tyres and prefer an AT. Anyone run a 285/75/16 on a 7” rim?
Recommended minimum rim size is 7.5”
Here’s a pic of the rims.
Can get the Hilux steel wheels here in 17x 7.5” but think they will rub on the steering.

The other option was to run steel 80 series rims so l could swap wheels between vehicles but they also rub on the steering and need a 5mm spacer. Like these wheels thou 16x8”