American Racing's amazing wisdom about General Lee wheels

[Mike DC]

American Racing has finally put the Vector (General Lee) wheels back into limited production.  They decide to do them in just two sizes, 15x7" and 15x8.5" rims.  The 15x7" ones are fine.  Just like the old ones in appearance, made only in a 4" backspacing, etc.

But for the wider 15x8.5" rims, AR takes it upon themselves to make the new wheels only in a 5" backspacing.  This means they don't clear the balljoint & UCA on B-bodies in front. 

Are you getting the implication of this?

THIS MEANS AMERICAN RACING HAS JUST PRODUCED HALF THEIR NEW "GENERAL LEE" WHEELS IN A SIZE THAT DOESN'T ACTUALLY FIT ON '69 CHARGERS!

[miamivice]

 

guess its good i found a old style set

[The Ghoul]

Well, its eather that or more stress on the increasingly old barrings.
But, hey, if your dead nuts set on the 8.5's shim it and have fun.

[Charger1973]

The rears fit fine though, right? 

Im thinking of putting a set of these on a 3rd gen (1973) Charger, 15x7 in front and 15x8.5 out back.  I dont think I will have any clearance issues there, will I?

[TylerCharger69]

Actually...a lot of General Lees  during the T.V. series used 14" rims on some cars.   Some were also actually  Buick Grand National versions with the unilug setup.  From a distance...one can't tell the difference.  They say the Buicks weren't used...but I spoke with a guy in Arizona whose job was to pick up these cars nation wide for Warner Bros.  told me about the Grand National rims.   The jump scene at the opening credits of the t.v. series (Lee 1) shows the car with 14" rims on it...Not too many  but a few were like that.   However...thanks for the heads up on the rim clearance on the re-issues...I'm ordering some  and I guess a shim kit will be in order

[MoparMotel]

I just went through that! Bought a set of 15x8.5.........got them.........went to put them on the car and they dont fit so now i am sending them back and have a set of 15x7 on the way........Anyone know what kind of meat you can get on the 15x7?.....255/60/15?

[Daytona R/T SE]

Did they ever get the raised lip around the outside bead put back on like it's supposed to be, or did they insist on screwing that up too?   I just don't understand why these companies, equipped with modern technology can't make an EXACT copy of a part that was designed with pencil, paper and a slide rule 30-40 years ago

[Charger Aficionado]

  Wow...  Did you see their ad in MCG?  heh...

[The Ghoul]

would you guys put the 8.5's up front even if they fit perfectly?
I wouldn't run any thing wider than 7" unless it was lower profile.
Especially seeing how as I will have manual steering onece the cars back on the road.
Theres just a point where your going to end up loosing more traction from side wall roll than youd ever make up for out of 1.5" more contact area.
I can see how they would end up doing this.
It prolly went down like this;
lets re-issue those genral lee rims
Yeah, especially with the movie comming out those have got to be getting harder to find.
yep.. but how do we get people to buy them that already have a decent set for there car
hummmm.....whats the size are the origionals?
15X7
sounds pritty narrow to me. lets take the orrigional and keep the same proportion between the tread with and offset to keep em ballanced. This way we can sell em on the with... most of those guys are prolly running modified drive trains any way and could use the extra grip off the line
and sence putting them on the market and getting feed back from test vict... um.. customers is way cheaper than tracking down a stock dummy thats how they were relieced.

[Mike DC]

Actually, the majority of the cars in the old TV series were running 14x7" Vectors on all four corners.

All the Georgia cars were 14x7" rims.  Later in the show they started buying other sizes too, and usually ran 14x7" on the fronts and 15x7" or 15x8.5" on the rear wheels.  (The stunt guys said the cars handled a little better with slightly larger wheels on the back end.)
Occasionally they'd use larger wheels on all four corners.

I think the size variations may have started when they bought several sets of 15x8.5" rims just for the show where they made the General Lee into an off-roader in season 2.  The larger wheels started showing up after that.

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The new 2005 movie ran 15x7" rims on all cars, on all corners.

           

[TylerCharger69]

yessir...you are correct....I wasn't sure how many actually used the 14"s  but I knew there were some that did

[brianosaurus]

I think the size variations may have started when they bought several sets of 15x8.5" rims just for the show where they made the General Lee into an off-roader in season 2.       

Whew!  Offtopic, but man its nice to have some confirmation that such an episode existed!  I remember them doing that conversion when the show originally aired, but I've never caught it in reruns, and all my friends look at me like I'm nuts when I mention it.

[greenpigs]

Well couldn't you just use a full set of 15X7'S?

In the show the General didn't have a set of bigger tires on the rear, so in a way the 15X8's are incorrect.

[Mike DC]

Oh, we COULD just use the 15x7" rims.  No problem there.  It's more of a preference issue. 

A lot of fans like the 15x8.5" rims on the back ends of their cars.  (Doesn't everyone like their musclecar with slightly wider rear wheels?)  When AR announced a 15x8.5" reproduction along with the 15x7" ones, and we all got excited about the idea of having both sizes.  Now it's a bit of a letdown, that's all. 

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And the General Lee really did show up with the (stock-offset) 15x8.5" rims in the back end on the TV show from time to time:

[greenpigs]

And the General Lee really did show up with the (stock-offset) 15x8.5" rims in the back end on the TV show from time to time:

I guess so, for the most part the car was shown with the same width tires, exceptions will happen.

[Khyron]

o.k. just to conferm.

I'm buying the 15x7 for the front and 15x8.5 for the back, then I will have no problems correct?

[Mike DC]

           
MoparMotel has a set of the new 15x8.5" rims, and he didn't say there was any problem on the rear end of the car.  Just the major issues with fitting them on the front end.