Hot Rods 55-59 wheel size

Hey guys I’m trying to figure out the biggest wheel I can run on my 56 Chevy truck. I have a 3 inch dropped axle in the front and 2 or 3 inch lowered leaf springs. I currently have 15 inch chrome smoothies with bias ply whitewalls, but they are cracked. So I need new tires so I thought I would maybe get bigger wheels. I was told I needed to run a bigger wheel then a 15 inch because of the scrub line like when I have a flat or speed bump that sort of stuff. So I’m wondering can I run like a 20 inch wheel with the dropped front axle? Or am I limited on clearance. Any help is appreciated. Thank you

 

I think you’ve got bad advice. We don’t do most “hoops” here. Someone will chime in with proper advise.

 

Thank you. I don’t really like the looks of the 20’s some are fine but most aren’t. But 16,17,18 I’m open for suggestions. Thank you

 

Do you know what scrub line is? You can look under the truck and see if the suspension is lower than the edge of the wheel...if it is, then you can either raise it back up a bit, or get larger wheels, to fix that issue.

 

Yes I know what scrub line is. I’m pretty close right now the way the truck is sitting. I’m going to add bilstein shocks when I get too that point.

 

Kind of hard to see in the picture. But looks like my leaf spring mount is lower then the bottom of the wheel in the pic

 

looks to me like the lower shock mount is hanging down too far, relocating the shock up would fix it, but take some effort. That is quite a drop.

if you get the camera down at the same level as the bottom of the wheel, then the picture would be more helpful....also, if you turn it sideways, so the picture is wide, not tall, then those of us using computers to view it can see what's going on. But it messes it up for those of you using phones to view it.

 

also notice that I'm not suggesting any larger wheels to go on there, because I'm an old fart that thinks these trucks should have 15" wheels, or maybe 16s if you can find some old steel wheels like they used on older cars/trucks originally.

 

Ok I will try to do that. I’m perfectly fine with 15 or 16 inch wheels just wasn’t sure if I would have issues with the way mine is setup now with 15’s. I like the look of the meat on the tires instead of the skateboard wheel and tire look

 

let the air out of the tire and you will figure it out real quick.

 

Jack it up under the axle, take the tire off and stick a Carpenter's square under the low hanging shock bracket, the other end of the square should be at your spindle.
Read what it says, multiply by two and that will be the bare minimum on rim height, keep in mind that the rim actually measures a little over an inch more than tire size.
As an example a 15 inch rim really measures 16.25, a 16 inch rim really measures 17.25 etc etc