I've been looking around for while on this site and found most people running wheels on their vans use ranger/exploder wheels and seem to have no issues. But I have never heard mentioned the center bore gap. I mocked up a set of 15x6 wagon wheels the other day that my dad said I could have if the Aero wheels would fit his trailer, but the space around the hub has me worried. Pics below:







Would hubcentric rings be necessary? I love the way these fit, and I would still like to stay somewhat narrow for mileage.

What would the proper dimensions be for a 15x7 and what size tire to stay the same height and bring out to the very edge of the fender/bumper line?

It looks like I won't be getting these exact wheels b/c the centerbore on the Aero wheels won't fit over the trailer hub...but the questions still stand.

 

I think ring is necessary. Driving at highways your whells/wheel lugs are no sterssfully laden, but going over hard bump you may have lug broken, so use rings.... IMO

 

The rings are available in plastic or aluminum. All they do is help you mount the wheel on the hub. I have 15" Explorer wheels with oversize bores and no rings and they run down the road fine.

 

At least one of the Explorer wheels have deeply chamfered (or counter-sunk) holes that match the lug nuts with almost spherical shoulders. Once you cinch down those nuts into the holes in the wheel, they will automatically center the wheel, spacer ring or no. Just make sure that when you salvage the wheels from the Explorer, take the nuts as well.

As for keeping the diameter the same as stock, the largest tire installed on the Aerostar from the factory was 215/75/14. You can go with a 215/70/15 or 225/65/15 o a 15x7 wheel, and probably not have any problems with them rubbing on any fender parts.

 

I'm running 16" wheels from a '94 Mustang on mine. The Mustang hub bore is larger that the Aerostar, so it doesn't center on the hub. As long as you draw up the lug nuts properly, it'll be centered regardless.

The wheels aren't really hubcentric anyway - it's more of a guiding feature to help with installing the wheel. It isn't real practical from a manufacturing standpoint to make both the lugs and the hub act as centering features. The tolerances required to keep them truly concentric on both parts would very tight and cost prohibitive.

If the wheel actually used the hub for centering, chances are that the lug nuts would have a flat shoulder instead of a taper. My father's F-250 is that way. Incidentally, any Explorer I've worked on (4 different ones, all pre-'02) have had normal conical lug seats on all wheels.

 

What about '02 Ranger 15" rims? What tires of what size to use to have no rubberng?