I have a 40 Ford Woody that I put a 4" Dropped axle with a disc brake conversion, and a Exploria Disc brake rear axle. Front and rear wheel bolt pattern is a 5 x 4.5". I'm wanting to put 17" Torque Thrust ll on it, and I want big and little tires. What size wheels/ back spacing and size tires will work? Does anybody have this combination? I do know the smallest American Racing is 17 x 7 with a 4" back spacing. Also thinking of 16" in front with 17" in the rear which will give me more options. I hope you guys can help.
I like those wheel tire combos. However, being an old fart, don't care for them on the older cars.. However, your car, your choice... so enjoy
I'd start with what diameter tires you want to fill the wheel openings. For instance, say you choose a 28" or 29" diameter for the rear. Next, go to one of the on-line tire retailer's website, such as Tire Rack. Look for a tire in the category you want, say All Season, in any 17" size and find tire you like the looks of. Each tire has a series of links below it....."Surveys", Ratings", "Specs" "Other Sizes Available".......that last one is what you want. All the various size mutations will be shown, along with all details as to diameter, tread width, rim width recommendations, etc. You can find a 17" in 28" or 29" diameter that way......or any other you may think appropriate' Edit: I don't know what the "Traditional" complaint is in this matter. Is it the alloy wheels vs steel.....or 17" diameter vs the original 16"? Back in the day, when these traditions were founded, people changed wheel sizes routinely. Usually to smaller (15" '48 Merc wheels in place of 16"). Rodders in those days adopted the newer tire sizes. But there was, and is, a movement to the optional 18" high clearance wheels by many HAMB rodders. So maybe it's the alloys? But, the famous, traditional and highly sought after Halibrands were magnesium, not steel. I am puzzled. Ray
OK I will reply, I own a 40 and getting a modern wider than a bias ply tire into the wheel well is tough. Now if the woody is stock suspension then there is a ton of room for tall rubber, like the 16's of stock. It sounds like there might be a bit of lowering and or hot rodding, the reason for wanting the torques? If you were to lower the front of the 40 with a dropped axle you would likely have tire rub when making max turn with the stock 16's. Now the OP wants a modern wheel and unless he was running a 4 inch wide torque I would imagine a bit of tire rub. Now back to the back. Not a lot of wheel well room, again tall narrow stock 16 would fit but also a stock height woody would have the body floating over the wheels. What is the narrowest 17 rubber available? I think most 17 tires were set up for vehicles like truck, magnum wagons, and other OT vehicles which meant wide and rubber band. Sorry for being old fashion and thinking the largest aftermarket wheel, in a stock appearing vehicle, should be a 16 inch rim which allows for the rubber to fill the void, be it black wall or white wall. Now a sliced and diced custom with new wheel wells and or radiused wheel opening, stuff in a 20.
A lot of the modern smaller/mid size SUV/Crossovers and sporting compacts have modest 17" tire sizes. Have seen lots of Fords of the era with 'fat' rear tires and most were not 'tubbed'. I do agree the front is more problematic than the rears.......but not insurmountable.....if you are willing to spend some time, effort and money on that. Ray
You might have a better fender clearance with 16's on the rear and 15's on the front. A 4 inch dropped axle lowers a 40 about 2 in. Rather than going with larger dia. rims you might consider using 16 inch rims all around. The photo below shows a 40 with a completely stock front suspension except for a Magnum 4 inch dropped axle. The Magnum axle is 3/4 inch narrower than the stock axle. The rear suspension is completely stock. All 4 tires are 600:16 bias ply. The tires fill the fenders and did not hit the fenders and you can see a very slight forward "rake". with
Thanks for the replies you guys. This isn't my 40. I'm doin the work on it. It belongs to a good friend of mine. He likes the 5 spoke of the Torque Thrusts ll. I think keeping the 16" size would have better options. This is the Exploria rear end with disc brakes.
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