Need Help, TF wheels and tires and suspension

[hotrodrookie]

Hey guys, at the moment I’m trying to build my suspension and I think I’m gona need some wheels and tires pretty soon. I don’t know very much about wheel sizing but I think I want to go with some steelies and white walls and what I’m working with is an 8.8 explorer rear end that is either 59.75" wide with the ford bolt pattern, or 61.75" wide with the Chevy adapter plates. The blue line is the Ford width and the red line is the Chevy width (all measurements in inches). The caliper in the disk brakes also has a 12" diameter off the centerline.
I picked up some coilovers that are 17" extended, 11" compressed and they came with 350 lb springs. My plan was to mount them on the outside of the frame so I could make a little kick up mount so that the rear doesn’t sit too high. In doing this I will probably have to tub the floor for clearance. QA1 says that they should me mounted at 14" at ride height, I’m still not sure how that going to play out.
My initial guess was to set the tires at 29.5" tall, this was only an assumption as to what I thought looked good on the screen. This is where you guys come in. And being that I will probably have to tub the floor for shock clearances I could probably run a wider tire as well.

Now, (Finally!) what I want to know is what size wheel and tire combos are you guys using, offset, backspacing, etc... And what do you think would work for me?

Pictures of wheels on your truck would also be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[hotrodrookie]

cmon, I know you guys have wheels on your trucks. lol

[Laid_Out_50]

Why dont you get the axles and rotors redrilled and you dont have to run adapters

[hotrodrookie]

I was looking around and i found this cool aplication that they have on the Jegs website if you plan on buying wheels. You can choose from a huge selection of classics too.

Im thinking something like this will be in my future

[blackdiesel]

Hmmm its your lucky day! (actually mine too, always looking for a reason to show off the latest project....)

Heres mine, just got the rear suspension tuned in and the front clip set on just for a picture.



rear end is a ladder bar setup with coil overs. Speedway sent me a set of 350 lb coil overs and they wouldnt budge a touch, even with all the weight of my custom bed with dad and i in it. i exchanged them for a set of 275's and they lowerd it a bit and actually work like a suspension should

sorry for the crappy pics, i didnt have my good camera on me

[hotrodrookie]

very cool diesel, I figured you were going to chime in on this sooner or later when I saw the wheels that you got. Could you share the wheel and tire specs?

I had a feeling that I was going to have to swap the springs that I have. I'll probably invest in 225 or 250 lbs. I was happy when i picked these up, ebay is great.

And here is the worst mock up job in the world..

[blackdiesel]

they are 18x8 coys chrome c55's. zero offset. tires are 255/55-18 which stand 29 inches tall or so. fill out the wheel well great. i also have the explorer rear end with one inch spacers (totally necessary with this tire!!!) i have a finger's with clearance on the inside and outside of the tires. very very tight fight.

My coil overs are designed to operate at and optimum height of 12 3/8 inches. check out my build thread on how they are mounted. i'm not sure how well they will work on the outside of the frame? Looks like it may interfere with the tires

[hotrodrookie]

I was thinking that I will mount them more verticle so the bottom doesnt hit the tire as it would right now. I figured I could get away with mounting them on the outside from looking at no limit's kit, dont tell anyone

[blackdiesel]

that would provide more stability for sure.