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Okay... I'm thinking about joining the crowd and getting TTII rims. Is anyone running 16" TTII rims? I like to see a little more rubber on the sides. This is for a '69 bb with vansteel offset trailing arms. I asked vansteel what is the widest wheel that would fit with their offset trailing arms and he said 9" wide with 6" backspace, however I'm not seeing that size offered in TTIIs. They jump from 8" to 9.5". Can I sneak a 9.5" in or will it rub?
Last edited by Engraver; Jun 15, 2005 at 08:58 PM.
You will run into spirng problems. I had 5 inch backspacing and the spring needed shortening. If it is steel it is easy to do at home. The trailing arms are not the problem with excess backspacing. The problem is the frame right around the trialing arm pocket. If it hits there a little grinding quickly opens up some clearance. I am running 10 inch with help in this area and it fits nicely inside the wheel well.
Forgot actually sometimes a bigger rim fits better then the smaller size. I personally would go to at least 17 inches. I went all the way to 18 inch and it offers alot of extra clearance.
You will run into spirng problems. I had 5 inch backspacing and the spring needed shortening. If it is steel it is easy to do at home. The trailing arms are not the problem with excess backspacing. The problem is the frame right around the trialing arm pocket. If it hits there a little grinding quickly opens up some clearance. I am running 10 inch with help in this area and it fits nicely inside the wheel well.
Norval, I'm using Vansteel's 360lb composite spring. Help me understand backspacing. Is it the distance from the mounting surface of the wheel to the outer most plane if you were to run a straight edge across the backside of the rim? So that a 5" backspace wheel would be setting 1" further out than a 6" backspace wheel that had the same width... Correct?
Last edited by Engraver; Jun 15, 2005 at 10:49 PM.
I have a set of TT D's and still can't decide on which tire to run. They all leave too much gap in the fender well. Plus I don't want an "asian" brand, aka Kumho etc. Any advice?
[QUOTE=Engraver]Norval, I'm using Vansteel's 360lb composite spring. Help me understand backspacing. Is it the distance from the mounting surface of the wheel to the outer most plane if you were to run a straight edge across the backside of the rim? So that a 5" backspace wheel would be setting 1" further out than a 6" backspace wheel that had the same width... Correct?[/QUOTE
That's right. YOu place a straight edge across the back of the rim lip and measure down to the mounting surface. Even with 5 inch backspacing I found the spring getting very close to the tire sidewall.
You will find that by going to the 17 inch rim sometimes the spring falls inside the rim and is not a problem.
With a little work the 6 inch backspacing should work, by work I mean offset trailing arms which you have and a little grinding around the trailing arm pocket.
If you do run into problems you can fine tune with wheel spacers, not adaptors, spacers. I don't feel a 3/8th spacer would hurt anything and it gives you some tuning room.]
Norval, With your 10" wheel and 5" backspace how close is the wheel from being outside of the fender?
PS... talked to Vansteel again today. He thought a 9 1/2" with 5" should clear. Also he mentioned that if my new spring I received from them was hitting or too close, I could send it back and he would replace it with a shorter one. Vansteel is sure super to deal with!!!
Norval, With your 10" wheel and 5" backspace how close is the wheel from being outside of the fender?
PS... talked to Vansteel again today. He thought a 9 1/2" with 5" should clear. Also he mentioned that if my new spring I received from them was hitting or too close, I could send it back and he would replace it with a shorter one. Vansteel is sure super to deal with!!!
My 10 inch wheels are not 5 inch backspaced. I had 5 inch backspacing at one time and ran into the spring problem. My present 10 inch rims have 6 1/2 inches of backspacing but I run coilovers and have frame modifications. I tried test fitting a 10 inch rim with 5 inch backspacing and it really stuck out the side.
I'm running the same setup as Len....16X8 w/4-inch backspace, and 255/50-16's. I've run my car pretty hard through they canyons here (Mullholland, Decker, etc.), and I haven't encountered any tire rubbing, although I heard someone else had some very slight rubbing like Len....maybe I've just been lucky!! I'm not sure how wide you can go with the offset trailing arms.....maybe the supplier could make some suggestions??
I have to agree that there is a greater selection of 17-inch performance tires, than 16-inch. When I got the 16's, the number of choices were about the same, but the 17-inch rubber was much more expensive.
Mark