Hey guys and gals,

I'm planning on running some 15 X 10 " wheels and tires on the rear of my 55. Before I go through all the trouble of measuring the bed/fenders, just thought I'd ask the obvious question "Has anyone figured this one out yet.."

A friend of mine is selling some pretty sweet Cragar SST's. 15X10 rears and 15X7 fronts. One of the front wheels is peeling pretty bad, but the price is right, even if I wind up getting it re-plated (not cheap BTW).

 

Jeff, check the wheel offset measurement and measure everything before you buy them. The offset of a wheel is the distance from its hub mounting surface to the centerline of the wheel and they are usually measured in milimeters. The offset can be one of three types.

Zero offset - the hub mounting surface is even with the centerline of the wheel.

Positive offset - the hub mounting surface is toward the front or wheel side of the wheel.

Negative offset - the hub mounting surface is toward the back or brake side of the wheels centerline.

Wheel manufacturers usually give you the bolt circle specs, the offset, and the backspacing of a wheel, (which is the distance from the hub mounting surface to the rear outer most edge of the wheel).
I bought a used set of 15" rims I plan on mounting up this spring and they have a bolt pattern of 5-4.750" (popular GM bolt pattern since I have a GM driveline), a negative offset of 18mm (which is about .750" in inches) and a backspace of 3.750" (which won't pose a problem since they're in closer than what I already have). So I had to measure my current tires that are on the truck (they're on a set of wheels that have a zero offset) and see if they stick out another .750" if they will hit or rub.
Most tire suppliers will give you the tire specs based on the tire size (check out tirerack.com).

Keep in mind the rims are going to measure 1" wider than the actually size (ie. 15" x 10" is really 11" wide).

HERE's a well explained article on wheel offsets.

Good luck,

Wally

1951 F1 "Lucille"

 

I believe the total distance in the fender well is 11 1/2" I went with a 255x70 tire ( which is 10" in width)with a 15x8 rim this give me 3/4 " on each side of the tire. To gain space there are two main ways to go. A wider fender or tub into the bed or even maybe both.Most of the wider fenders come 3" wider. Depends a lot on the rear end width you have.

 

I did both tub and 3 in wider fenders..

a good tire size calc is here
Tire Dimensions Made Simple - Discount Tire

and a good doc to do the measurements is here
http://www.billetspecialties.com/assets/pdf/1106.pdf

Sam

 

Jeff,

my rear axle is 5.5" shortened. using 15x 10s with 295x60.15s which are 12.5" tread width... I'm also using 3" wider fenders as Sam is...

they have a 2.5" backspace. they won't fit without tubbing... I'm about 1.5" inside bed...

here's a pic of mine... there is a bad picture (from a distance) of my truck with the back fenders on... but it's hard to see anything really look down a ways in the middle frame

John Niolon's 1953 F-100 Ford Truck Page
john