right backspacing?

[exit34rocker1017]

just wondering if 2.5in backspacing on a 16x8 wheel is too low. i like a wide stance but i dont want it to stick out TOO much. what would be my better bet? 16x8 with 2.5in backspacing or 4in backspacing? i cannot find ANY 16x8 black steel wheels with 3.75 backspacing out there. any advice would be appreciated thanks !

[OldSlowReliable]

That sounds pretty wide to me.....that would mean that 5.5" of wheel is sticking on the outside of the hub surface....whereas with neutral bs of about 4" splits the wheel about evenly in half from the mounting surface...

 

Considering your running these on an r50, which limits your lift amount, I think 2.5" bs would give you alot of rubbing.....

 

 

I do know that r50s are kinda weird with tire sizes and backspacing, and that backspacing of X amount with Y set of tires, works great, but with X backspacing and Z tires, it fails miserably. But I may be an idiot.

 

 

Where is GPG? He did alot of work with bs

[01silvapathy]

Check out 4wheelparts.com I know they have a bunch of steelies that are 16's with 3.75in backspacing. You just have to look around. And I WOULD NOT go with 2.5 backspace!

[FUELER]

old slow is right. the 4 in backspacing is a good neutral #.... 4.25 tucks in like stock and 3.5-3.75 is wide stance.

 

any less than 3.5" is too little

[GoPathyGo]

2.5" is really low. When I was ordering mine, I think the only way they could get down that low was to do a "Reverse wheel" which they said can often cause problems with the brake hardware. Apart from that, with 2.5" of bs most of the weight of the wheel and associated tire is going to be essentially "hanging off" the hub quite a bit. In general, the lower the backspacing (or the wider the spacer) the more you're effectively altering the geometry from stock. That's fine up to a point. I just don't know where that point is. Finally, as OSR pointed out (dude, really, we need a new name ), you could run into some rubbing problems when turning. The rub would (my guess) be on the plastic bumper cover/plastic splash guards up front and the plastic/sheetmetal at back. Why ? Because the wheel is now far out enough that you're turning "into" the wheel well as much as turning "inside" the wheel well.

 

These are more educated guesses than anything else. Would have to see it. I currently have 32s on 16x7s with 3" bs and they stick out 1-1.5 inches. (The actual tire may be wider than the advertised tread width since a lot of them "bulge".)

 

US Wheel and Cragar make black steelies that you can order with custom backspacing via summitracing.com (Go to "Custom Order and Dropship wheels".) The 16x8 size runs $90 for US Wheel (unpainted so you'd have to rattle-can or powder coat it) and $100 for Cragar (black). If you're going to spend that much, I would highly recommend the Mickey Thompson Classic II wheel. They make a variant with 3.625" backspacing. I have them and they're made really really well. 3100 lb load capacity to boot. They run $120-$130 apiece. Summit has a nominal shipping charge on those. 4wheelonline.com also stocks them. But they're aluminum so may not be the look you want.

[180sx]

Double post!

 

I have 15x10's (not on, but i have them) with 3.75" BS. They stick out quite a bit (2" extra will do that I guess) and I know when I get my tires mounted (32x11.50) they will rub, no matter what. So a 15x8 with 2.5" of BS may only be about a 1" less out, but it will still rub like no tomorrow.

 

Just be careful...