Just found a set of white spoked 8 lug wheels for my '78 F250 I am restoring (were very hard to find). I still have to pick them up some weekend. The wheels are 16".

What is the width of the wheel and how wide of a tire can I fit on them?

Thanks

 

The width would be a question for whoever you're buying them from. Then you can come back on here and someone can probably tell you about the suggested tire size.

 

If those wheels don't have tires on them, measure closely yourself and make sure he didn't measure wrong. A 15" wheel will measure 16" if measured out at the lip instead of the bead seat and I've seen a few "good ole boys" whom didn't know the difference.

A lot of F-250s were shod with aftermarket 8 spoke wagon wheels in the 15x8 and 15x10 sizes by owners years ago. They were deeper offset usually to clear the calipers on the front (those for a F-150 being shallower).

My FIL had a '78 F-250 when I met his daughter in 1979, he bought it near new from the Ford dealer next to her DMV office, and even then at less than a year old it already had 15x10s with some really gnarley 11.00-15 tires. He later put 32/11.50-15 Dunlops on it.

 

They are coming off of an E250 so I'm going to guess they are 8" wide? The guy regularly drove this thing and knows his stuff about these trucks he said they are 16" wheels, but I'll double check. Hoping to get a tire around 12-15in wide. (Not quite as wide as my last ones....18.5in wide ha)

 

If you are wanting to go that wide you might want a wider wheel. 10-12" wide wheels would be at most as wide as I would run on a 8" wide rim. If you are wanting 12-15" wide tires I would go with a 10" wide rim. But that is just me and my opinion. I have a set of 38.5x14.5 swampers on a 15x10" rim.

 

Oh, I wasn't saying he didn't .... but I didn't know the background. They made 16" wagon wheels, but there are an awful lot of 15" ones out there is all.

It does make for less "wandering", a more "stable" set up.

I was just thinking, I have two sets of 15x8 wheels for my '77 now, plus a couple stockers for spares. ..... but when I got it it had white spoke wagon wheels and 31/10.50-15 "Sidewinder LT" rubber. I assumed they were 8" wide as the tires looked so good on them.

Later I installed some odd size 31/11.50-15 "Cooper Radial LT" tires on them, those things looked great, lot's of bulge which made them look wider as you just assumed the rim was 8" wide. Never got them 1/2 wore out as they were constantly out of balance, necver could get right.

Sold them cheap and got new Sears "TreadLoc Roadhandler A-T" tires then, 31/10.50-15 .... smooth tire, great handling, wore even enough .... just wore too fast. Got maybe 25-30K on them.

Then I installed new Sears Roadhandlers made by Michelin, same 31/10.50-15 tires and they did well. I never measured the rims. Then in 2004, the tires weren't wore out but were old and showing some stress and one threw a tread so I bought some new tires and new 15x8 wheels. I was goingf to be using it to pull a trailer full of furniture to Muscadine, Al.

Was swapping them around and then I removed the old tires to toss them, but I was planning on keeping the wheels. Having just mounted and balanced 4 new tires on 4 new wheels, I thought the old sheel looked narrow so I measured it ..... those wheels I thought were 15x8 from 1986-2004 were in fact 15x7. I suspect that maybe led to the balance problems with those 31/11.50-15 tires back in the late '80s?

Anyway .... I gave the 15x7s away then .... though I'll have to say they worked OK all those years I thought they were 8" wide as long as I used 31/10.50-15 tires.

 

Thanks that helps guys. I sure hope I can fit a little wider than 10.5 wide tire on them without them being out of balance all the time. Maybe I'll be surprised and they will be 10" wide rims. I doubt it though. As I said these orginals were hard to find around here without someone wanting an arm and leg. I'm gettin a great deal on these and I guess can't be too picky on the width of the rim.
The ideal tire size I want is 37/(12-15)/16. My truck having approx. 5 1/2in of lift wouldn't look as good without a little wider tire. 39/18.5 tires were just a little too wide ha.