Rally Wheel FAQ

[gringoloco]

Rallies, ralleys, rally's, rallys, rally wheels, ralley wheels, rallie wheels... Whatever you wanna call 'em and however you wanna spell it. These wheels, though never installed from the factory on '67-'72 era trucks, have managed to make their way onto a number of them and look just as at home here as they do on '73-'87 trucks.

This tutorial will focus on the three types of 5-on-5 lug patterned wheels that are available in the steel rally style, 6.5", 7", and the most common, 8" wide wheels. I am putting this together because I have seen questions frequently asked about them, recently needed some info myself and couldn't find solid answers, and just so happened to have a pair of each in my possession at the same time. There is a stamp on the inner surface of the hoop of each wheel that identifies it, but is not always accessible or legible, so I will detail some easy ways to identify the different sizes of wheels, as well as some other possibly useful information.

Pictured here is a 6.5"(L) and a 7"(R)

[gringoloco]

We’ll start with the most common, the 15x8 wheel. These were installed on probably millions of trucks between 1973 and 1991. They are easily identified by the 1.5" step between the inner wheel and outer hoop. The backspacing and width become problematic when installed on the front of lowered trucks, rubbing not only the fender wells, but also the lower control arms. They work well all on all four corners of stock trucks.

Specs are as follows:

Mounting Surface: 8"
Backspacing: 4.25"
Front Lip: 1.5"

[gringoloco]

Next up is the semi-rare 15x7 wheel. At least, they seem to be more scarce than the other two types. I am not sure of the origin of these wheels as an OEM application. I assume they were used on the ‘light duty’ ’81-’87 C10s, the same ones that used the 1” thick ‘big car’ brake rotors. They can be externally identified by the slightly smaller 1" step between the inner wheel and outer hoop. These wheels will help with the lower control arm and fender well rubbing issues common on the front of lowered trucks.

Specs are as follows:

Mounting surface: 7"
Backspacing: 3 5/8"
Front Lip: 1"

[gringoloco]

Last is the 6.5” ‘van rally’, so named because it is found primarily on full size Chevrolet vans, which, by the way share a ton of suspension parts with trucks of the same vintage. They are easily differentiated from the other two by an almost non-existent step between the inner wheel and outer hoop. These wheels can help with the rubbing issues at the fender well by tucking the wheels deep inside the fender, but at the expense of limited clearance at the lower control arms when using drop spindles.

Specs are as follows:

Mounting surface: 6.5"
Backspacing: 4"
Front Lip: .25"

[gringoloco]

I also like to install the 88-98 center caps and trim rings on mine. Here is an easy way to install the center caps- the rings just snap in place.

The rear of the caps will have plastic plugs in each of the posts on the back of them. Remove them with a flat-blade screwdriver and use a 1/4-20 tap to cut threads for screws. The holes in the wheel align perfectly with the holes on the center caps. You can do all five, but I just used three and some thread locker