Wheel Sizes - Battling Everyones Dilemma

[WHITE AND RED 69]

It took two and a half months to get the wheels on backorder, but got them in this weekend.  Weld S79 18x10 with 5.7 inch bs in the back wrapped in Nitto NT01 305/35 and 18x8 with 4.7 bs in the front in 245/30.  Will try and find a taller profile tire next time around, but for now I think dropping the suspension about an inch will get the gaps about right.

Looks awesome!     Got any details on the build and more pics?

[XS29L9B2]

 Very Nice

[BIGBLCK11]

It took two and a half months to get the wheels on backorder, but got them in this weekend.  Weld S79 18x10 with 5.7 inch bs in the back wrapped in Nitto NT01 305/35 and 18x8 with 4.7 bs in the front in 245/30.  Will try and find a taller profile tire next time around, but for now I think dropping the suspension about an inch will get the gaps about right.

Looks great!  Something different than the usual suspects.

[chargedup68]

Well the car started out as a standard 318/727 car and I started tearing it apart back in 2001.  In the past 17 years I have swapped out just about all the sheet metal save a a door, fender, roof and firewall.  I put in a RMS Alterkation kit up front and street lynx in the rear with strange D60 with 4.10's.  Wilwood brakes all around and a hydromax booster.  Tremec TKO600 with a hydrualic clutch that I need to plumb in.  608HP/658Ft LBS MASSFLO injected 505 wedge, 26 in Champion 3 core with twin fans.  At this point I need to order a drive shaft, plumb the brakes and fuel system, finish off the interior, reassemble the grille and drive it!

[garner7555]

Nice setup.   That should be a ton of fun when you start driving it   

[zias66]

HI im new to this site

ive just imported a dodge charger to the UK and want to change the wheels- currently they are after market ones
What would be the wheel bore size and PCD and offset I would need to go for?
Also what would be the maximum size I can put on without affecting the suspension and wheel bearings? I was thinking 17/18 inch?

thanks

[alfaitalia]

I used this:

http://wheel-guide.com/makers/dodge/charger/1969-Dodge-Charger/

[zias66]

Thanks alfsitalia much appreciated. I've an oil leaking onto exhaust manifold and when hot it smokes. It's at back of engine towards bulkhead/firewall.  I think it may be inlet manifold seal??? Not sure as it only slightly drips when engine running. Is that what you suspect. Im taking on Monday to be put on ramp

[Fitz73Chrgr]

It took two and a half months to get the wheels on backorder, but got them in this weekend.  Weld S79 18x10 with 5.7 inch bs in the back wrapped in Nitto NT01 305/35 and 18x8 with 4.7 bs in the front in 245/30.  Will try and find a taller profile tire next time around, but for now I think dropping the suspension about an inch will get the gaps about right.

Those wheels look great.  I'm really digging your paint color as well!

[69chargerboy]

Thought I would show a pic of the new wheels. Year one 17" Magnums, 17x8 in front and 17x9 in rear.

[Dreamcar]

Thought I would show a pic of the new wheels. Year one 17" Magnums, 17x8 in front and 17x9 in rear.

Nice! What tire sizes are you running?

[69chargerboy]

Thought I would show a pic of the new wheels. Year one 17" Magnums, 17x8 in front and 17x9 in rear.

Nice! What tire sizes are you running?

Sorry, forgot to say. They are Nitto NT555 G2 all around. 245/45 in front and 255/50 in rear.
Thanks.

[XS29L9B2]

very nice

[69chargerboy]

very nice

Thank you.

[AKcharger]

After a long search for some slots and days getting them polished back to life I finally got to temp install them and immediately found I have problems. I think slots are PERFECT for a 3rd Gen but it's not gonna work so new plan is leave cragars on '72 and put slots on '70, but need help. The Axle to wheel flange is 6 1/2 inches, the wheel had 6 inches of "front space" so I only have  room for 1/2 and inch of sidewall "bulge"


Im thinking a 24560 15 would give me the least amount of "bulge" and still be somewhat tall...what do you guys think?
pic 1 - plum bob set up on '70
pic 2 - distance axle to fender (6.5 inch)
pic 3 wheel mount padto wheel lip (6 inches)
pic 4 - '72 set up and wheel measure. interestingly enough the '72 has 5.5 inches axle to fender and the '70 6.5...I thought they'd be the same? Also the 275/60/15's on the '72 "bulge" 1 inch past the wheel lip

[Troy]

After a long search for some slots and days getting them polished back to life I finally got to temp install them and immediately found I have problems. I think slots are PERFECT for a 3rd Gen but it's not gonna work so new plan is leave cragars on '72 and put slots on '70, but need help. The Axle to wheel flange is 6 1/2 inches, the wheel had 6 inches of "front space" so I only have  room for 1/2 and inch of sidewall "bulge"


Im thinking a 24560 15 would give me the least amount of "bulge" and still be somewhat tall...what do you guys think?
pic 1 - plum bob set up on '70
pic 2 - distance axle to fender (6.5 inch)
pic 3 wheel mount padto wheel lip (6 inches)
pic 4 - '72 set up and wheel measure. interestingly enough the '72 has 5.5 inches axle to fender and the '70 6.5...I thought they'd be the same? Also the 275/60/15's on the '72 "bulge" 1 inch past the wheel lip

You left out the most important part: How wide are the wheels? Many slots I've seen have 3.75" backspacing. On an 8" wheel (9" edge to edge) that would be 5.25" from the pad to the outer edge of the front. In general, you could run tires with a tread width less than the rim width and they likely won't bulge - but may look funky and may not be safe (check with the manufacturer for recommended rim widths). Manufacturers and model will vary but, basically, 235 mm = 9.25", 245 mm = 9.6", 255 mm = 10" and 275 mm = almost 11" in tread width. Obviously the sidewall will be wider - but it's dependent on how wide the rim is. A wide tire on a skinny rim will have the widest part near the tread and the center of the tire will be raised. A skinny tire on a wide rim will have the widest part at the mounting surface and the center of the tire may be caved in. When it's "just right" (somewhere within the recommended combination) there will be a sidewall bulge about midway between the rim and tread and the tread will be flat across. The sweet spot will be about where the tread and rim widths match (the listed width which is mounting surface NOT outside edges).

Having said all that... your tire won't "ride" with the sidewall at the same level as the wheel well lip. When your suspension compresses it "usually" in an arc so the tire is moving toward the inside as it moves up and will miss the lip. For example, in a turn to the right the outer (left side) suspension compresses and the body leans to the left while the axles stays mostly flat. The left side tire is now stuffed into the wheel well but leaning in with regards to the body. The right side tire is now outside the body so, even though it is leaning out in relation to the body it still clears everything. I have seen many cases where a tire is basically sitting even or slightly outside the wheel well lip at rest that never hits under normal driving conditions. Try cycling the suspension and measuring again (may be easier to see the difference with your old wheels and tires mounted).

And having said all that, the front is a completely different animal because the wheels also turn and there's more stuff for them to run into (fender brace, control arms, strut rods, etc.). Even with a perfect wheel/tire combination I'm not sure you can fit anything much wider than a 255. A 235 on an 8" rim is about normal. A rim with a small backspace is going to shove the tire right into the fender (ask me how I know).

Troy

[AKcharger]

... your tire won't "ride" with the sidewall at the same level as the wheel well lip. When your suspension compresses it "usually" in an arc so the tire is moving toward the inside as it moves up and will miss the lip.

Troy

good news, that should give me some more wiggle room. I went with 245/60 15s and using the "plum bob method" I have 9/64 of an inch clearance on the drivers side (more room on pax) so I'm gonna install and drive around to make sure it really works then order up the front. Nothing funky there.

[ikbrown]

Hi all, first off thanks to everyone who has contributed to this thread! It was a great resource when I was looking into my wheel and tire setup and researching different options. Just installed my wheels and tires recently so I’m excited to be able to post my setup for posterity and hopefully help someone in the process!

I wanted to go for a poser stock-car look so I went with some Wheel Vintiques 63 series steelies mounted on ‘Goodyear Radial T/As’  (put Goodyear tire stickers on the blackwall side of some BFGs). Very happy w/ the look overall and fitment of the setup but not very happy with Wheel Vintiques – I’ll get to that in a sec.

But first, the specs!
Front: 15x8 (4" bs) on 245/60/15
Rear: 15x10 (5.25" bs) on 295/50/15

I ordered custom backspacing for the rear since the standard backspacing of 5.5” put the tires too far inward so it was rubbing on the inside fender. 5.25” centers it just perfectly for mine and I have no rubbing issues front or rear, even with 3 people in the car.

As far as Wheel Vintiques, I wasn’t pleased with the custom backspacing wait time and the finish of the wheels. When I put in the custom backspacing order I was quoted 4-6 weeks and it took 8. The finish on the custom order wheels did not match the standard backspacing wheels I got for the front and the finish on the wheel edges was damaged pretty badly. Since I didn’t want to deal with waiting another 8 weeks for replacements I just took them to a local powdercoater and had them repowdercoated to match the fronts. Came out looking great but in hindsight I would’ve pursued buying them through Pete Paulsen Motorsports (recommended by the powdercoater) or Stockton Wheel.

Onto the pictures!

[BIGBLCK11]

  Looks great!  Thanks for posting.  My plan was also to custom order 5.25bs on 15x10, after reading all the posts here.  It seems to be the sweet spot and you have confirmed it. 

[Finn]

Looks great!

[alfaitalia]

Agreed! Difficult to tell from that photo angle....but it looks like you could get the tyres even closer to the fenders for even more of a race car look...still looks great though.

[ikbrown]

Thanks Finn and Bigblck11! Yea the 5.25 backspacing centers the rear wheels pretty perfectly - just make sure you measure first to confirm that would be the case on yours as well.

Agreed! Difficult to tell from that photo angle....but it looks like you could get the tyres even closer to the fenders for even more of a race car look...still looks great though.

Yea the front wheels/tires have room to come out some more - could've gotten away with a more aggressive backspacing there. The rears wouldn't have much room to come out at all w/o modifying the fenders

[4spEd]

New Wheels,

American Racing 500 15x7  3.5" Backspace and 15x10  5.25" Backspace with 225/60R15 and 295/50R15 BF Goodrich T/A Radials.

[ikbrown]

Looks great! 

[rollo1504]

Hi all, first off thanks to everyone who has contributed to this thread! It was a great resource when I was looking into my wheel and tire setup and researching different options. Just installed my wheels and tires recently so I'm excited to be able to post my setup for posterity and hopefully help someone in the process!

I wanted to go for a poser stock-car look so I went with some Wheel Vintiques 63 series steelies mounted on 'Goodyear Radial T/As'   (put Goodyear tire stickers on the blackwall side of some BFGs). Very happy w/ the look overall and fitment of the setup but not very happy with Wheel Vintiques – I'll get to that in a sec.

But first, the specs!
Front: 15x8 (4" bs) on 245/60/15
Rear: 15x10 (5.25" bs) on 295/50/15

I ordered custom backspacing for the rear since the standard backspacing of 5.5" put the tires too far inward so it was rubbing on the inside fender. 5.25" centers it just perfectly for mine and I have no rubbing issues front or rear, even with 3 people in the car.

As far as Wheel Vintiques, I wasn't pleased with the custom backspacing wait time and the finish of the wheels. When I put in the custom backspacing order I was quoted 4-6 weeks and it took 8. The finish on the custom order wheels did not match the standard backspacing wheels I got for the front and the finish on the wheel edges was damaged pretty badly. Since I didn't want to deal with waiting another 8 weeks for replacements I just took them to a local powdercoater and had them repowdercoated to match the fronts. Came out looking great but in hindsight I would've pursued buying them through Pete Paulsen Motorsports (recommended by the powdercoater) or Stockton Wheel.

Onto the pictures!

DAMN! That looks BADASS!  

Where did you order those rims with customized backspace?

I have this rims -> Wheel, Chrysler O.E. Style, Steel, Black, 15 in. x 10 in., 5 x 4.5 in. Bolt Circle, 5.5 in. Backspace Summit Nr: WVI-63-5012052
Wrapped in this tyres -> 295/50/R15   Summit Nr: BFG-16225

And I think I have this problem you mentioned with the 5.5 in backspace that the tyres touching the inner fender when 2 persons in the back of the car.... :-(

On the front I am running on 15x7 rims with 245/60/15 but there is too much space to the outer fender.

I definitely need to go with 15x8 rims on the front as you do but maybe with juuust a little different backspace to come closer to the outer fender....

What do you think about 3" backspace?

Regards

Roland