As discussed in previous threads I am changing the wheels on my 32 Vicky. Tires are available in the daimeter and width I want to run with either 15" all four, 16" all four or a combination of 15" front 16" rear. Wheels will be unpolished kidney been Halibrand look a likes from Vintagewheel. Is there a purpose/advantage to running 15 front 16 rear. If not I will most likely run 16 on all four! Because I am not changing tire diameter to accomplish rake, I'm just not sure which would be best.
Can you post a side pic of the car. I prefer same size wheels, not much rake, if the car has rake, build it into the suspension. Bigs and littles look great for width, when the front tires have to run significantly shorter sidewalls to get the rake, the stance loses something... for me. A Vicky sitting level or a little rake with same rubber all around could look great, depends on the rest of the build and if its riding high or lowered. Matching the rear fender radius to the tire is key. This one looks good to me with 15's This ride height with 16's and a tall sidewall would also work. Id still want to lower it a little to line up the rear fender arch with tire.
Thank you, as explained previously I am not a picture taker in particualr of my own rides, just don't feel the need for pictures, so I don't really have a decent close up side view. the suspension has enough rake built into it that I do not need the big/little option. I think I'm leaning to 16's all the way around with a final rake similar to your first picture. I feel current big/little tire wheel combo has the front to low for me.
There's no 'right' answer. It's a toss of a 3-sided coin which option to go with. There is actually a fourth option of keeping the wheels the same at the four corners but going slightly taller and/or wider tire on the back end.
If you’re happy with current ride height and looks , maybe work out overall tyre diameter, then consider new style of tyre diameter, then work your way back from there. Adjust to suit, so you get a good balance, looks wise front to rear. Study other cars on the HAMB . I suspect that you will end up with 15” and higher side walls , but depending on your long term vision for your car is where you should really be looking.
That is what I plan to do, rear right now is 255 70 15 and does not rub, I want a little narrower cross section tire with basically the same diameter. The front is 185 65 14 I want a taller tire up front with similar cross section to now . I can accomplish both goals with either 15 or 16 wheels or a combination of so just wanted some opinions. Thank You
If you're running bias plies I would run 16", if radials I'd run 15".. I too would run all the same diameter rims....
we have 15,16 17 18 my sedan has 15 and 18, a friends pickup has 17 16 Let me know if i can help, we have the wheels in stock in lug mount of pin drive. scott
Yesterday, after a similar number of posts, a thread on the same topic was shut down (no further replies) for mentioning 16” or larger aftermarket alloy wheels. IMO, made no sense, as the OEM wheels were 16” as were the wheels posted. However, the Moderators have the final word, no matter the inconsistency or lack of logic. So, don’t be surprised if this thread gets axed. Ray
while this would be traditional, just a note to OP, bear in mind that generally bias tyres are higher profile and radials are lower profiles, so again look at overall tyre diameter. I run 15” steel rims, (mercury late ‘40s early ‘50s), with bias tyres on one vehicle. And currently 16” with radials on the other.
google search..... 255/70R15 Tires. 255/70R15 tires have a diameter of 29.1", a section width of 10.0", and a wheel diameter of 15". The circumference is 91.2" and they have 694 revolutions per mile. Generally they are approved to be mounted on 6.5-8.5" wide wheels for passenger tires and 6.5-8" for LT tires. 185/65R14 tires have a diameter of 23.5", a section width of 7.3", and a wheel diameter of 14". The circumference is 73.7" and they have 860 revolutions per mile. Generally they are approved to be mounted on 5-6.5" wide wheels.
Well, you do when you start asking people questions like this. Get out and take a picture man...help folks.
^^^^^last time he posted pictures , he got a lot of negativity about the street rod look of his deuce. Pity really as he appears to be trying to make it more traditional looking, working with what he has, and came to the HAMB looking for helpful advice.
I also prefer wheels of the same diameter on a conventional hot rod. I actually did an analysis of this for a local magazine about 25 years ago. What I found was that the ratio of sidewall to wheel has a huge influence: the more sidewall there is relative to the wheel, the chunkier and more muscular the wheel/tyre assembly looks. The more wheel there is relative to the sidewall, the lighter and leaner the assembly looks. This is all to the good on a conventional bigs-and-littles setup with the same wheel diameter all round, because it puts the lightness on the front where you want lightness, and the chunkiness on the rear where you want chunkiness. @DDDenny's roadster above is a good example of that. The problem with running the same sidewall height on different wheel diameters is that the front wheel/tyre assemblies end up looking proportionally chunkier than the rears. It just looks wrong to me. The wrongness is especially noticeable on '90s "hi-tech" builds with huge-diameter rear wheels which for that reason look spindlier than the front wheels. The only way to pull off that look is if the front-rear ratios of wheel diameters, sidewall heights, and section widths are all nearly constant i.e. the front tyres are pretty much scale models of the rear tyres in all respects. It's still not a look I like, really. Another good rule of thumb on a conventional big-and-little setup is that the ratio of section width to tyre overall diameter should be the same all round. As with all rules of thumb there are exceptions, and as with anything in design the trick is to be able to motivate your deviation. Using the overall diameters @clem calculated, here are a few combinations which satisfy the rule of thumb: F: 205/55R15 (23.9"Ø) R: 255/70R15 (29.1"Ø) F: 195/50R16 (23.7"Ø) R: 235/70R16 (29.0"Ø) F: 205/45R16 (23.3"Ø) R: 255/65R16 (29.1"Ø) F: 225/45R16 (24.0"Ø) R: 275/60R16 (29.0"Ø) I've checked: all these tyres actually exist. Some might go too far into rubber-band territory for some tastes, though all the 16" pairings I've listed present the same combination of front and rear sidewall heights.
Any kind of rake takes positive caster out of the front end and that's bad.. I never liked the look either.. On the other hand the gasser look adds positive caster and looks cool to me.. I like the same diameter all the way around with the rear wheels deep dish due to a narrowed rear end...
As you can see comparing the pics of ETwheels vs. Ratrod0, it is just as important to choose the right tires as the right wheels. You either get "tame" or "HOT ROD!". Which do you want?
When I was a kid and 14s were king I sometimes ran 15 rears and 14 fronts. There was not real advantage other than rubber rake. Today I would probably run the same diameter wheels on all 4 corners. But I would not rule out running smaller diameter wheels on the one end either.
I'm sorry to be the individual pursuing some no no, I am trying to make my car more traditional looking and I have limitations as to what I am willing to do. Currently wanting to remove the rake that my 23.5" overall front tire and 29.1" overall rear tire adds to the suspension rake. I at the same time want to put a more vintage wheel look on the car and a suggestion I got from here on the HA.M.B. which I really like and appreciate was the Halibrand kidney beans as often seen on salt flat vehicles. I'm now wondering about wheel diameter.
As you can tell from the date this was almost fourteen years ago, I simply do not have many pictures of the car.
If you run smaller diameter on the front and larger on the rear, you go faster and have better fuel economy because you are always going downhill. Ha! .bjb
@rsinor .....seems to me the wheel diameter can be whatever you like the appearance of and is available. Further, I think the tire sizes you choose are more important than wheel diameter if I correctly understand your goal. Ray
You do have a fairly extreme big:little ratio at the moment, with the rears 24% taller than the fronts. Perhaps a more moderate ratio will bring you closer to what you want? The rear tyres fill the fenders well, so I wouldn't mess with that, so a less extreme rake would entail raising the front end. The 235/70R16 I calculated before is about 16% taller than a 205/55R16 (24.9"Ø) 11% taller than a 215/60R16 (26.2"Ø) 5% taller than a 225/65R16 (27.5"Ø)Again, all these sizes exist. The 5% ratio is very subtle, and I don't know if you'd want to see 225mm (almost 9") of section width from the front. For a conventional big-and-little look, the 205+235 combo seems to be around the sweet spot. The other way would be @Elcohaulic's approach, where the front and rear tyres look the same from the side and only differ in width. A 195/75R16 is 27.5" tall and a 255/60R16 is 28" tall. Both will show a bit over 5" of sidewall height, but the rears are over 30% wider than the fronts. You'd still be filling the rear fenders nicely, but you'd have to raise the front of the car by about 2".
This is a good loking car. REAR - size you have now looks great, centered and stuffed in the rear fender. You can stay with 15's and same size tire or go to 16's with same overall height and width. FRONT - my opinion the wheels sit too far inboard and need more sidewall height. Depends on 15 of 16 choice from there. Id still keep wheels same diameter all around, 15 or 16.
Thank You, @okiedokie, @clem, @Ned Ludd and @indyjps, basically the conclusion I am reaching, there are more tire choices in the 16" range than 15", so I'm probably going to go 16” wheels all the way. I like the rear tire fill on the car but would like it to be just a little narrower and close to the same height. The front has been a major concern for me for years the tire wheel combination is in my view to wide and short for a wheel, and the tire over all height I just do not like. Tastes change. Are there any photo-shop guys here that could shop the side view picture into 16" kidney bean Halibrand KO's keeping in mind the front tire will go from a 24.5 tall to a 27.0? I've tried and I am not computer literate enough to even come close.. To all of the H.A.M.B. board I realize this car may be borderline or simply never fit the traditional hot rod look (because of the color alone), but I do think I can get it a lot closer than it is and that is my goal.
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