Another tire/wheel question

[gono]

At what point should you narrow your rear end? Is it possible to run a stock rear axle with 15X10 wheels with 8" of backspacing? Would this cause additional stress on the axle bearings leading premature failure or worse, rupture? I want to run as wide a tire as I can without having to buy a narrowed rear end or narrrow mine myself. What do you think?

[buggy5872]

I would not run a wheel like that. Find something else with a narrow rear and put it under your truck. I have a dana 44 out of a 74-75 Jeep CJ5 under miy 59. Pretty strong and is 50 1/2" wide and cheap. I paid 50 bucks for mine. I am running 15.5 wide tires and probably have room for 18.5 wide if I wanted.

[mknittle]

the closer the center of the wheel on back spacing the better.Besides with only 2' on the front the wheels would look sort of odd.

[mr48chev]

With 8 inches of back spacing you would have to run tubs and you may have spring and or frame clearance issues. And They would look a bit odd as MKnittle said with the limited offset to the outside.

Or are you talking about running an 8 inch deep reverse wheel and just have the terms backwards?

By the way, posting some info on your truck on your profile might help guys give better answers to your questions as we won't have to guess or go through your previous posts to figure out what model of truck you have. Luckily I only had to read 13 posts this morning to figure out that you have a 55 second series (Task Force )truck or at least that is what I think it is.

[Speedbumpauto]

It's my experience the leaf spring is the limiting factor. I'm building a pro street look step side and between the frame rail and fender lip, about 15" of tire is as much as will fit and I'm using a 4 link and coils inside the frame rail. Narrowing the rear is only part of the equation. That being said, a 10 might work with close to zero offset. Get a straight edge and lay it on the drum. Measure back to the spring and subtract 3/4 inch. Do the same to the fender inner lip and subtract. The first is your backspace and the two added toghther is the max width. You can fudge the 3/4 a little but that's as close as I like to be.

[buggy5872]

If you want a cheap way to get maximum tire, take the spring hangers from the front of a task force and use them in the back. It puts the spring under the frame so you can get a much wider tire with out narrowing the frame.

[gono]

Originally Posted by mr48chev

With 8 inches of back spacing you would have to run tubs and you may have spring and or frame clearance issues. And They would look a bit odd as MKnittle said with the limited offset to the outside.

Or are you talking about running an 8 inch deep reverse wheel and just have the terms backwards?

By the way, posting some info on your truck on your profile might help guys give better answers to your questions as we won't have to guess or go through your previous posts to figure out what model of truck you have. Luckily I only had to read 13 posts this morning to figure out that you have a 55 second series (Task Force )truck or at least that is what I think it is.

I wouldn't mind running tubs if I could get the width of tire I want. I've got a four link in the rear so spring clearance isn't an issue. I think I had the terms correct with backspacing, just not sure if I could do what I had asked about. So, ideally I should run backspacing in the center of the wheel?

[gono]

Originally Posted by Speedbumpauto

It's my experience the leaf spring is the limiting factor. I'm building a pro street look step side and between the frame rail and fender lip, about 15" of tire is as much as will fit and I'm using a 4 link and coils inside the frame rail. Narrowing the rear is only part of the equation. That being said, a 10 might work with close to zero offset. Get a straight edge and lay it on the drum. Measure back to the spring and subtract 3/4 inch. Do the same to the fender inner lip and subtract. The first is your backspace and the two added toghther is the max width. You can fudge the 3/4 a little but that's as close as I like to be.

Thanks this will really help. So, to add a little more to my problem, I'm running air bags on the truck. With the pan hard bar installed, I might get and inch of lateral movement from full up to all the way down. I guess I'll have to take that into consideration. On your pro street, did you use a pan hard bar or triangulated four link?

[Speedbumpauto]

Panhard bar, but I only have about 5" total travel which is less than 1/4" total movement when the bar is set up correctly at ride height. If you want a big tire, you'll also have to use tubs. I prefer lots of offset for the deep dish look so I cut the rear end and am only using 4" backspace on a 13 1/2" wheel.

[gono]

Very nice! I'm not thinking of moving my 4-link in the frame rails for a little more room. What truck did you get your tubs out of? I like that they're not totally round and have some shape to them.

[Speedbumpauto]

Got them from a U pull it off a 68 fleetside, but now, brothers(and others) sell them for a decent price, considering the work to remove and restore. I used them BECAUSE they looked factory and not like race tubs but a also sectioned them 3" because they are wider than the frame rails when left at the stock width. Leaving your 4 link on the outside will limit your tire width but probably not as much as the leaf spring.

[gono]

Do you happen to know the width from fender to fender? I've since changed the rear suspension to trailing arms & wishbone and have decided to run with the widest tire that will work with the stock fenders. I'm getting close to ordering wheels so I'm gathering info. I'm pretty sure my axle width is 62 1/2" if someone has already figured this out.