Hip hip hooray I finally got my steelies mounted! A flat in Death Valley was good fuel for the fire in convincing my financial manager (wife) to go ahead with the new shoes. This was the last trip for them anyways. Went with another set of Coopers, ST Maxx this time.
I got a set of smooth Vintiques from Summit. This is a better option than my eTrailer as mentioned earlier because the center bore is 4”. No machine needed.
I painted them darker this time since this truck came with the darker color
I’ve been posting this in my build thread but thought I would also post here if it will help someone else looking for wheel options.
I’ve been wanting to go to steel wheels and tall skinny tires since I built my pig but unfortunately something else kept getting in the way and I’ve had to wait until recently to make the switch.
I had originally planned to go to a 16” wheel but all of the 35”X10” tires I was finding where 17” and 17” wheel options are limited to just a few. Not sure how any of this was going to look I pick up a set of US wheel Rat Rod in 17”X7” with a 3.5” back space and planned to add some type of clip for the Toyota hubcaps once I got the wheels here. After ordering several types of clips and none of them working out I just chucked up my wheels in my rotary table on my mill and drilled them so I could attach the caps with screws. The screws are less than ideal but it was quick and easy got me on the road.
To order these wheels I had to call Summit Racing and give them the specs I wanted, the part number was 69-8712-spec. These wheels can be ordered in 15"-16"-17" in various width and back spacing.
So after I got my wheel dilemma sorted a friend of mine @fj55-100 had mentioned he was thinking about going to 17” wheels and I said that if I had to do it over I would have ordered the wheels with the hubcap clips that US Wheel installs and figured out how to modify the Toyota caps to fit. He took me up on that offer and this is what I came up with as an easy inexpensive way with basic hand tools to fit the Toyota hubcaps to the US Wheels.
US Wheel hubcaps have about 10” ID and Toyota is 8” +/- so modifying the Toyota cap wasn’t going to work.
This photo shows the factory clip on the wheel.
My original thought was to redrill and tap the clip holes but the wheel starts the depression for the lug nuts in that area and was going to complicate this, so to keep this easy and move the clip inboard 1” a plate is needed. #80 chain has a 1” pitch and the links are reasonably stiff alloy steel so instead of making a bunch of little brackets I just ordered some chain links and used them for the spacer plates.
You’ll need to knock the pins out of one side of the links, pretty easy deal with a vise, hammer and punch.
Toyota caps fit perfectly and sit tight against the wheel.
I’ve been running the 35”X12.5”X15” BFG mud terrain tire for a few years now on a 15”X8” 3.5 back space wheel with the same lift you are running on your pig, I like the fact that this wheel tire combo pulled to tire back under the fender lip, no issues with rubbing even though these new tires are slightly taller.
@wngrog can grab a bottle of decent whiskey and head to my place and measure, mount on his pig go for test drives pretty much whatever.
I suck at this internet thing and taking pictures and typing on my phone is reminding why I'm no good at it
@wngrog can grab a bottle of decent whiskey and head to my place and measure, mount on his pig go for test drives pretty much whatever.
I suck at this internet thing and taking pictures and typing on my phone is reminding why I'm no good at it
I have the same US Wheels and opted not to get the clips. I'm curious how hard it is to get the caps off on the wheels with the modified clips. The stock wheels raise the caps up so you can pull them off and I thought they'd sit too flush with these wheels. I may just screw some caps on like yours.
I have the same US Wheels and opted not to get the clips. I'm curious how hard it is to get the caps off on the wheels with the modified clips. The stock wheels raise the caps up so you can pull them off and I thought they'd sit too flush with these wheels. I may just screw some caps on like yours.