Its time to replace the roller wheels on the 52. I have been trying to hold off until I got the exact wheels I wanted and replace the 15" ones I have now. well After searching for over a year, looking high and low for a set of oem 16x4.5 wheels at a decent price, I bit the bullet and bought a really cool set of after market wheels on ebay. I the very next day I came across these on Craigslist for $200.00. One is a little bit corroded but solid. the other 3 are in almost perfect shape.This guys lives literally 1000 yards from my house and has had them sitting in his shop for over 20 year... so now I gotta figure out what tires I want to put on them. can I run a tubeless tire? I have heard they might leak around the rivets. I was also thinking about running a LT215/85/R16 tire. what are you all thoughts?

 

here are the other wheels I got on ebay. These are going to look awesome...

 

That one wheel looks a bit far gone to seal a tubeless tire against. I don't think I'd trust it, personally. There's a lot of people who have run tubeless tires on old rims, and your 215-85R16 choice is about as close to stock as you're going to get.

 

Compare the bead area of the old vs new. The new ones have a safety bead retaining bulge about 1/2" inboard of the vertical bead surface. Those are specifically for tubeless tires. They keep the tire on the rim if you lose air pressure. I wouldn't run the old wheels tubeless for that reason, just because they hold air doesn't mean they are safe. Your new wheels look great, anyway! and you'll have more choices for tires.

 

I ended up buying both sets .... guess It will just depend on what mood I am in that week.. I was cleaning them up today that one isn't really all that bad under there. its on the back of the rims too so maybe i can get a shop to reinforce it for me, and found the stamp 16x4.00.... so I guess they are not the 4.5, oowell... so what are my options? could I get a set of standard LT215/85/R16 and just put tubes in them?

 

The 16" x 4" is the one with pin strips, isn't it? It's a 40s era car wheel. Looks like there might be a pin strip on the one on the end too. You probably should put a tape measure on them all. If you run tubes, make sure they are radial tubes. Stu

 

laying them beside each other, I can tell they are all the same size. two of them have pin stripes on them, the other two could have been at one time or another. I was told they came off a old woodie he parted out.

 

So they are all 4"? Stu

 

yep, I can still see some of the pin strip on the other two. just hard to make out

 

The 4" are desirable to the hot-rodders.

 

I'm running the same tires on some 16x5 late 50's wheels with no tubes.

 

Dropped the rusty one off with my old man yesterday to get her welded up. I am pretty sure I will be running tubes in them no matter what tire I decide on. I Think I am just going to clean these up, slap some primer on them, and store them for now. I would like to save up for a nice set of vintage looking tires from a place like Coker. After getting these o.e.m wheels here Ill have to admit, I think I am going to like the red wheels better, but at least I have a original set of wheels to go with the truck. Now I just got to decide what size tire to put on the red ones...

 

Well looks like fedex lost one of my wheels somewhere in AZ on the 18th. I made a boo boo too looks like. I guess I fell in love with these wheels so much I misread the lug pattern. They are a 5x4.5 or 5x4.75 pattern. If fedex ever gets the last one here they will be for sale. Anybody interested?

 

That's a bummer on the bolt pattern. Can you return them?

 

he marked them non refundable .... they are a popular pattern. I bet they would look awesome on a ranger...