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Bought a set of Cummins 4th gen 17" wheels off Craigslist. Came with Cooper 35x12.5x17 tires with a few 1000 miles left on them. Paid $300. Thought I had a good deal. Mounted them this morning. Backed out of the driveway and when I cut the wheel to the right the left front tire started rubbing on the upper ball joint.
Tore the boot of the ball joint. I can turn past 1/2 way, so it is driveable. But I'll need to be a little particular about where I park.
These are the 16.5" wheels I took off. 35x12.5x16.5 tires. I measure 5" of backspace. The new wheels have 6"-ish.
What are my options for addressing this issue? Thought I was good to go since I was getting 17" wheels and not 16s. I was going to replace the steering pump and parts someday anyway. Is this the only fix?
Most guys will use a wheel spacer to avoid the ball joint. Wheel spacers tend to have a bad reputation as they can shear lug studs off and cause wheel bearings to fail quicker. If you go this route, spend the money on quality spacers, not ebay junk. They'll run you a few hundred dollars. Spidertrax seem to be the best out there. Locktite for the spacer nuts and triple checking your torque settings regularly is extremely important. Many guys have run them for tens of thousands of hard abusive miles with no issues, others have had them fail within a few hundred miles (cheap ones). One of those parts you definitely don't want to cheap out on.
My only personal experience is a good friend had 1.5 inch spacers on his '03 Ram 2500 Cummins with a 6" lift and 37's. He ran his spacers for over 50k miles, never once checked torque settings or anything and never had a single issue. He was 95% on road, very mild off road.
Unfortunately it sounds like it is the 1" additional amount of backspace causing you issues. About the only fix, like the stated above, is to run a quality spacers. That is a very good deal on those rims and tires, if you want to flip sale them I can make a road trip your way. Lol
If you go this route, spend the money on quality spacers, not ebay junk. They'll run you a few hundred dollars.
Thanks for the info. Ordered some Titans yesterday. Went with 1.5” just to be sure. Felt pretty stupid for not knowing about the wheel spacer option. And for not measuring.... Won’t happen again.
And thanks, Rich. You’re welcome to come this way. I drove up to the mountains Sunday and the smoke from the fires is noticeable but not nearly as bad as down on the Front Range. It’s awful down there.
And thanks, Rich. You’re welcome to come this way. I drove up to the mountains Sunday and the smoke from the fires is noticeable but not nearly as bad as down on the Front Range. It’s awful down there.
Only if those spacers do not work, because I'd hate for a fellow FTE member to get stuck with "such a good deal" on those tires and wheels. Lol When you get'm on and spaced out, how about a pic, a report of quality on the spacers and a tech write up on the install of them. Yea I know I am SO needy.
Yes you did post a pic, but who know what they were actually on. Dodge, Chebby Edsel, Studebaker. It was not an overall shot so as far as them rims not fitting.... OVERALL TRUCK
And even post a pic right now of the whole truck and how they look. Looks to me like a fantastic looking wheel for our Fords.
Paul
You got it.
Would appreciate some suggestions on hub covers/sleeves. The front doesn't look too bad, but I'd really like to get something for the rear to cover those hubs. 121 mm bore.
Funny you mention covers. I finally got tired of them in general, and much prefer the look of a stock full-floater hub as long as it's clean and painted black.
My problem was they never had just the right cover for our Fords. Seems they were either too short or too long by half. The long ones looked awful and the short ones, well they didn't fit!
The fronts being open are not as bad, but again the manufacturers took their sweet time about getting a properly sized open cover for Ford hubs.
That was mostly a problem with newer Fords of course ('80 and newer) but I ran into the same thing with my F350.
Good luck. In the meantime just keep the hubs painted and it'll look sweet.
Love the wheels!
Just a side thought, did you ck the rim face lug nut area and the lug nut face to match up correct? Just put some fresh black paint on the front hub (inner metal part that is not painted) and the rear hub and drive it.
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