Fitting big tires on skinny rims...who does this?

Tire shop with a blast bottle

 

I'm no tire expert, but I really think you'll be fine - 3/4" at the bead is not going to make any significant difference in your tire profile/contact patch.

 

What the hell? He didn't ask about HOW to mount them, but IF! I've seen 17s with 750s and unless this is your daily (doubtful) it would take a long time to wear out those tires on such a light car. I've been "trad" long enough to know the second season of "Happy Days" and the SHA NA NA variety show were for POSEURS!

 

Years ago Tom Cepek (**** Cepek, Inc., pioneers in developing off-road wheels and tires) schooled me on the importance of matching rim width to tire size. The most significant and dangerous result is cracking along the bead of the wheel, not the tire, if the rim is much too narrow for the tire size. More recently, Frank Mauro at Stockton Wheel Service confirmed this in a conversation we were having about wheel specs.

Some tire catalogs I've seen have recommeded rim widths in their specs.

 

Happy Days jumped the shark when they had Fonzie in shop cl*** talking about the '55 Chevy he was working on -- and the car was a 1953/54 (no front clip). Did NO ONE on the entire set see the problem?

 

Grimy, a good rule of thumb is to match the contach width to the wheel width. So, for that 5.5 inch wide tread, you should use a 5.5 inch wide wheel.

 

i don't think you will have much of a problem,,, just look at the fronts on a lot of drag cars

on my race car i run a 26x7.5 m/t frontrunner which is a way common tire

i have these mounted on 15x3.5 prostars which is again very common

never had any problem with this combination and this is on a heavy in comparison muscle car

just something to think about

 

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Grimy, a good rule of thumb is to match the contach width to the wheel width. So, for that 5.5 inch wide tread, you should use a 5.5 inch wide wheel.

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What he said with the addition that most tire makers will show about a plus or minus one inch on the rim width, compared to the tread width.
So a 5.5" tread would be ok on a 4.5" rim but a 4" would be pushing it and a 3.25" rediculously too narrow.
Yes, it will hold air.
Yes, it will hold up the car.
Yes, it might split the rim, and since the beads will be damn near side by side they just might roll the tire right off the rim with any good amount of lateral acceleration. (That means turning.)

 

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Happy Days jumped the shark when they had Fonzie in shop cl*** talking about the '55 Chevy he was working on -- and the car was a 1953/54 (no front clip). Did NO ONE on the entire set see the problem?

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Before that "Happy Days" jumped the shark when Fonzie JUMPED THE SHARK! Also when they added the laugh track it lost the whole retro/American Grafitti feel- so season 2 "jumped the shark", again when Al replaced Arnold, again when Mork from Ork showed up, again when Joannie & Chacchi fell in love, and when they all started wearing '70s disco clothes and haircuts when it was still supposed to be the early '60s was STUPID!

 

Dr. J nailed it and JimA must be drinking today.

JH

 

Hey, no ragging on '70s TV. If it hadn't been for HEE-HAW I wouldn't have know who Roy Clark was untill I was in my twenties.

If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all. Woe, despair, and agony on MEEEEE!

 

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This car will be a daily driver...at least as far into the year as I can make it here in the Midwest. I'll do a lot of highway driving too. Happy Days was rad....never saw SHA NA NA.

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Lucky you never saw Sha Na NA (Bow, Bow, Bow). I did think Da Fonz was OK 'til he started doing those comercials for the ERA.

Apart from cracking around the bead the real big problem with too wide a tire on a narrow rim is tire shake on the big end. That shouldn't be a problem for you unless your planning on cruising somewhere between 100 and OH WOW, or running a AA Fuel Altered. You're not looking at a speed rated tire anyway.

In a perfect world you want the tire and the rim to be pretty close to the same width. The other school of thought is that a little bulge is good to protect the rim from curbs, or you could just try not to curb 'em.

If the tire is way wide you can let a little air out to flatten it, but that kinda defeats the purpose.

I wouldn't worry about it unless it was gonna be extreme. But that's just me.

 

I checked the Coker site,and didn't find anything relating rim width to tire size.But,on tirerack.com I found a few different manufacturers making your sizes.Most recomend a 5.5 to 6.5" width rim.

 

Grim, It will bulge the tires in center,If that were the only problems it caused, and let me tell you it isn't,don't try and run on a narrow rim.--TV

 

Yo, Kevin......I worked in a few tire shops as a younger whipper-snapper and I can tell ya, you don't wanna get too carried away with wide tires on narrow wheels. We hadda guy that usta insist on putting heavy duty 15" 7.50X15" tires on his skinny *** Datsun pickup 15X4" wheels. He was back every week or so for more wheels after the bead would crack off his wheels. We finally sold his silly *** a pair of wider chevy pickup wheels and he never came back.

 

Roy Clark was TRADITIONAL.

JH

 

Grimlock- remember my 29 Ruster pickup rear wheels? I had the wide five 39 steel rims on it and they were narrow. I took a chevy truck rim[1988] IT WAS A 16.....i CUT IT AS CLOSE TO THE CENTER [WIDEWAYS] AND DID THE SAME ON THE OLD RIM ONLY TO THE OUTSIDE- FOLLW ME? WHAT I ENDED UP WITH WAS A 16 THAT WAS ABOUT 5-1/2 -6" WIDEi CHUCKED IT UP ON MY "LATHE"-READ THAT [FRONT HUB] SPUN SLOWLY AS I CUT-with plasma torch....then I ***embled it on the same hub- tacking and turning slowly till I corrected all runout.....using my hi tec runout guage[ pop bottle] alongside the rim and after tacking and whacking with a hammer- I welded em solid in and out and only ground down the outside -they worked!I drove them 85 MPH for a 100 mile stretch trying to commit suicide--didnt work- ALSO I think total tire height available in a 16 could closely match a 17 so gearing should work fine......

 

Those tires will not fit on that wheel due to the width of the wheel and the cross section of the tire ( 8.00 ) and the footprint ( 5.80 ). The recommended rim width for this tire is @ the smallest a 17x5.5 & @ the most a 17x7. This means the best rim for the tire would be a 17x6 to 6.5. You would be better off with a 17x6. It'll give you a much better ride w/ out worries of popping of the rim or cracking. This is the best advice.......

 

i asked about a month ago if u could run 750 or 700 on 16x4 rims and the only answers i got were yes with no problem and i talked to coker and they said no it would not be a good idea i am lost

 

Aside from rim stress as mentioned above, I'd be worried about wearing the center out of the tires. I had a car with 14x5 wheels and 235 60 14's on it, the center of the tread wore out quick.

 

What THEY said. I'm the tire guy (32 yrs). The idea is to have the bead width equal to the tread width. Ideally the bead shouldn't be ****ed to a severe angle on its seat, either.

 

Now if you could find some 20" wires some 7.50's would get some speed.
Bob