Wheels and Tires - Larger than 15" w/ Raised White Letters

[voxnor]

First off - a big "Thank You!" to Steve_Hafner, PICKMUP, and SS Tim. I am very new to these boards and have been asking some very broad, not-always-well-thought-out questions and you guys (among many others as well) have been nothing but helpful/polite. Thanks!

Now... onto yet another question..

On my 69' LWB I am keeping the stock ride height (minus the helper springs in the rear, which I am told may bring it down a hair in the back?). However, I can't stand a wheel/tire that looks too small in the wheel well.

When I look at pictures of LWB's with stock height, 15"'s just look too small to me. That has me looking at a 17" Smoothie. Are Smoothies still period correct for the late 60's/early 70's? I'm leaning towards the all-chrome ones with a chevy police cap.

Along with the 17"'s, I wanted to go with a raised-white-letter tire. Currently, the only one I can find is the Long Trail T/A by BFGoodrich. It's a good looking tire. Anyone using one of these in a size bigger than 15? Are there any other 17 inch options with raised white letters?

[kcsa75]

I can't imagine why anyone would want raised white letters, but if that's your thing, you shouldn't have any problem. All the major manufacturers and many of the minor one offer raised white letters.

[74baggedbug]

I want raised white letters for my 17's also.. In for more replies

[voxnor]

Originally Posted by kcsa75

I can't imagine why anyone would want raised white letters, but if that's your thing, you shouldn't have any problem. All the major manufacturers and many of the minor one offer raised white letters.

lol - to each his own =P.

I'm not having tons of luck finding any... I have found a couple options like the one above, with white outlines (Cooper makes one, and then BFG above). But the only solid white letters I can find are on 15" and below.

[72peace]

Your classic hotrod setup, Crager SS with BFG Radial T/A is only available up to 15" the BFG's go up to P255/70R15 and will give you 29.1" of height that's as tall as they come. Not sure if the Firestone Wide Oval is any different. Good Luck, you may have to go with a non-classic tire to get the size you want.

P.S. Still saving up for mine, about $2k for all around, crager and BFGs.

[CC69Rat]

http://www.cokertire.com/285-70r15-b...blackwall.html

285/70/15 These used to come in RWL, but Coker bought the mold as I understand it and now are just blackwall.

[SS Tim]

Originally Posted by voxnor

... However, I can't stand a wheel/tire that looks too small in the wheel well.

When I look at pictures of LWB's with stock height, 15"'s just look too small to me...

Thanks for the kind words!

On the 15" wheel/tire perception, is it the size of the wheel, the size of the tire or the wheel to tire ratio?

Most C10s have passenger car tires (P) and these tend to have a shorter sidewall the a light truck tire (LT) even if they are the same size.
As a general rule car tires look small on these trucks because the fender radius is the same as used on up through a 1-ton truck.

Keeping 15" wheels and going to an all terrain LT tire will give you more tire side wall height and overall diameter. This tends to fill the wells visually.

Here are some pictures of Yote1234's truck (now sold) both before and after the tire change. As I recall he also replaced the springs but the specifcs escape me as to being stock replacements or a plus size for a minor lift.

Remember there are several factors working here to create the overall "appearance", the color/size of the wheel, the color/sidewall height of the tire, a contrast between the wheel and hubcap, plus finally if it has white letters/ or stripe.

Stripes and letters tend to make a tire look smaller.

As an example I have also posted a C20 picture showing how blackwall can fill the well and look like a truck.

Overall if you want a big tire look vs a big wheel look I'd run 15 or 16" wheels and LT tires. But then I was never a big fan of chromed or chromed reverse wheels.