Found some interesting wheels to fit my car, and personality.

A coworker friend once told me, as he looked at my old cars, If I had those cars I'd drive them down to the river and drive in!
We lived a few miles from the Illinois river and the main highway ended at the river front.
He was still my friend. He just didn't get it!

 

Amen Denny...Amen! and sadly they never will, you either are or you aren't a car guy.

 

I have friends who live and breath fishing, hunting, or sports. Sometimes I wonder---------------------------what if? :banghead3: They have dead animals around the house, guns or fishing equipment on the walls, or posters of their favorite sport. All I have are license plates on the walls and rusty car parts in the corner of the living room.

 

Who wants a dead deer staring you down every time you try to sit in your favorite chair and relax? I have no problem with hunting, for food, but sport hunting just doesn't make sense to me.

Personally, I have a simple set of interests, they are all expensive, but, I don't care for finer things, so I'll spend my saved money on redneck finer things. Cars, guns, my love of old stereo equipment. I currently have a Yamaha Natural Sound R7 2ch stereo receiver from December of 1985 with some Technics floor stander speakers I occasionally annoy my family with.

So yeah, I have a simple taste in things, a secluded house out in Roanoke County, where I was born, raised, and will likely spend the rest of my life, that ole' wagon in the driveway parked next too a no more fuel efficient G body Cutlass, and enough room that I can take whatever appliance in my house disobeys me outback and shoot it. I have done that to a couple of appliances with the Savage 12 gauge I use to have. It's fun to watch a coffee pot that took forever, and burned you so many times fly into pieces, while the lid seems to deify gravity for a brief moment like a Wiley Coyote did so many times.

Best not to question your decisions, just think on what they have done for your life, some advice from the young to the old.

 

Do what makes you happy - if you like it, go for it. I like the wheels - never seen that style before. My wagon wasn't built for everyone's enjoyment, just mine. Those that get it will always like it; those that don't get it will never like it. There's lots of things I don't get, like that Nova wagon with green wheels, but hey - somebody's smiling when they walk out to their ride. At least I hope they are - I hope they didn't do all that and then hate the results!

Cars are rolling art work to me - I see some pieces that I want to hang on my wall and I see some that I wouldn't keep if you paid me to keep it. So fix up your ride the way you like, and have a big smile on your face when you walk out to your garage and stare at your wagon - I do! Doesn't everyone go out in their garage and stare at their wagon? I daydream about what to do next...

 

You're talking about unsprung weight here. You might want to find out how much those weigh and a comparable tire would weigh. Those things look like they weigh a ton. Less unsprung weight will do nothing but help in the handling department. Excessive unsprung weight is bad. Take notice of a "donk" driving around for an extreme example of way too much unsprung weight. The suspension cannot control all of that weight and it shows when the cars goes over bumps. I can't imagine what those things are like to drive.

 

I'm aware of this, I saw a Caprice nearly flip because of it's 22's once, was hilarious, thing was literally on two wheels! Saw it for sale for $5,500 later that week, it had a mostly stock 350, a goofy candy red paint job that didn't go into the door jams, and a pretty niec stock interior, if it ahd been a wagon I would've offered $1,500 and told 'em to keep the wheels, I can find some steelies to roll it home on.

Problem is I don't have a garage, another reason I don't want shiny paint. But yeah, the best idea's come when you spend time with your car, my thing is late night drives when I have insomnia.

 

When it comes to a 40 series tire on a 4,000 pound car, the only thing I have to say is to read the sidewall carefully. The max weight rating is there for a reason, and it is NOT the static weight. It is the maximum rating under any circumstance. It is possible to have very significant weight shift, especially in an emergency, and that is the very last time you want to find out that the tire manufacturer really meant that number as a hard upper limit. Ignore that and you can find yourself with aerodynamic rearrangement that will take some serious massaging to fix.

 

Weight rating of those tires is 1,653lbs a piece, total of 6,612lbs for all four, so yeah, I could see weighing down the car and having issues, so I may look at different tires, but either way, I'm not too concerned.

EDIT: decided to go with 255/60R17's, 'cause they are the same height as a 235/75R15 (On my car in my signature), BUT, they are a full 10.04" wide, whereas the 235's are only 9.25", might as well take advantage of those 9" wide wheels right?

Link to the tire size calculator I used:

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/tirecalc.php?tires=235-75r15-255-60r17

And to the tires:

http://www.tirebuyer.com/tires/general/altimax-hp/p/tv121000203

They have a 106 load rating, which is a bit over 2,000lbs, so each tire can handle half the weight of the car, just over 8,000lbs load rating, great for a street rated tire. That tread pattern is pretty aggressive too, which I like.

Also, best part, which will confuse some people I'm sure, but those tires are 1" taller than 235/75R15's, so, I only lose 1" of sidewall height to the larger tire, and I lose no ground clearance.

 

^^ Yeah, I was playing around with one of those tire size calculators the other day - wrote down the specs for comparable height tires. I'm not really sure what size wheel I'm going to end up with. Most probably I'll be sticking with 15's. If so, I'll need to go to at least a 65 aspect ratio to get the width I want. Also want to decrease the overall diameter just a bit, since I think the 225/75's fill the wheel well a bit too much, and a bit better off-the-line acceleration wouldn't hurt, either.

 

We've always ran 235/75R15's on the wagon, seen in the photo above, and this one aswell, I think they look good. But as I said, the 255/60R17's are 1" taller than the 235/75R15's, so I only lose an inch of sidewall, technically.

This is how 235/75R15's look on my car:

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g139/Dead-Reckon/1986%20oldsmobile%20custom%20cruiser%202012/100_2337.jpg

Aren't those back tires a laugh? They where free though, 235/75R15 M+S, here's a closeup of 'em. I hate the things, they're loud! I need new tires soon, gonna get a set of used 15's again probably. I refuse to upgrade wheels when there is soooo much other stuff that needs to be done.

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g139/Dead-Reckon/1986 oldsmobile custom cruiser 2012/100_2338.jpg

I plan to use General Altimax HP 255/70R15, $131 piece, still affordable.

Also, this is how they fill the wheel wells on a 1989 F150:

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii230/tbonemcniel/Lightning/2-10-08/Attheshop003.jpg

And on a 1971 Chevy pickup

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/attachment.php?attachmentid=761748&d=1308247776

I could, and would go with something thinner, if I could find it with a load rating of more than 1,600lbs, as it stands these tires have a load rating of just over 2,000lbs, which means they could almost handle my car with it's self stacked on top.

Also, if you want to know a couple of places to look for affordable tires, I can link ya' Krash. I'm not cheap when it comes to thinks, but I will haggle or find someone who'll sell it cheaper, I get that from my father.

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Krash Kadillak
Also want to decrease the overall diameter just a bit, since I think the 225/75's fill the wheel well a bit too much, and a bit better off-the-line acceleration wouldn't hurt, either.



And I thought that size left to much wheel well.......

I'm running 235/75R15's on my Buick, Goodyear Wranglers/LT truck tire Because I needed new tires and had them laying around. Yeas they have an aggressive tread on them but who cares. They fit and I'm ready for any road condition, they also are a very quiet tire. Like your decision about wheels, I have the same with tires. Not spending $ on fancy smancy tires for the good set of aluminum wheels I have when $ can be spent wisely else where. ....... the only reason my Olds has mags on it with the radial T/A's is the same reason..... had the tires/mags, no $ for a set of new white walls

 

The only new tires my car has seen in recent years are the ones on the front, which where bought about 8-10 years ago, Mastercraft tires, they need replacing baaaad, my alignment is out and I think my ball joints have started gnawing on them. Inner lip of the tire is chewed bald, could (and hopefully) is just the alignment, but my ball joints do have in excess of 400,000 miles on them, though they have been greased liberally often, I doubt they or my bushings have much life left. What's the point of putting on new tires that cost just over $130 a pop when my suspension is going to chew them up?

Hell, with the shape my front shocks are in, I can barely clear a 235 in the wheel well, I'm pretty sure they knew when they designed this car it would be driven with horridly overused suspension and left enough room in the well.