Wheel and tire size

[bwilde86]

Is there a sweet spot for wheel and tire size on these old trucks? I am building a 58 gmc with a twin turbo lq4 for street and want to try some pro touring track courses when it's complete. I love the steelies and whitewall look on these trucks. I've seen them in sizes from 15 all the way to 22 with varying widths. Planning on going no limit suspension if that's an issue. Is their a "too small" or "too big" of a wheel? Has anyon built a truck that performs well on "steelies" and whitewall tires?

[Dr G]

I too love the look of smoothies with whitewalls on an old truck. Initially I pursued this vision. Wheels were 17" x 8" up front and 17" x 9.5" out back. Tire outer diameters were around 30".

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2016/04/DGF10020Feb2020122028229L-1.jpg

It looked ok but rode poorly. And the tire sizes I chose offered nothing in a performance option. Now one could get 19" billet smoothies and then have a set of lower sidewall performance tires converted to whitewalls. But I felt this might be trying too hard. I finally punted and went with a more performance oriented look, using 19" x 10" wheels and 285/35-19 tires on all four corners. It rides and corners much better than before. It's not the look I originally wanted, but I still like it:

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2016/04/022520162028329-1.jpg

In my opinion an outer tire diameter of 27 inches might be about right for a pro touring truck.

Gustave

[bwilde86]

What made I not perform with the original set? Was it that the tire was taller or that the wheel was smaller? Was it that it wasn't a high performance tire? Just curious.

I know places hat sell steelie wheels in 18 and 20" sets. Apparently they are Making low profile tires with thin white walls as well.

[Dr G]

What made I not perform with the original set? Was it that the tire was taller or that the wheel was smaller? Was it that it wasn't a high performance tire? Just curious.

I know places hat sell steelie wheels in 18 and 20" sets. Apparently they are Making low profile tires with thin white walls as well.I would have to say that the over riding issue was the tire quality. They were performance SUV type tires, if there is such a thing (made in Taiwan). They also had very tall 60-series sidewalls, which obviously did not help. The wheels were pretty lightweight at about 20-22 lbs each. But the tires were very heavy. And the large OD made it so I could not get the truck as low as I wanted, and event then I had bad rubbing problems up front when parking etc.

I think you can have pretty much any tire transformed into a whitewall. I was talking with Diamond Back about doing that back in the day.

Actual steel smoothie type wheels are extremely heavy in larger diameters. I would steer away from those. But they make perfect replicas out of aluminum these days.

[bwilde86]

What places sell aluminum ones? I know coy wheels but the rest I see are steel.

[Dr G]

What places sell aluminum ones? I know coy wheels but the rest I see are steel.I bought mine from "The Wheelsmith".
http://www.thewheelsmith.net