16" wheel tire dilemma....

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Dirtslinger

Member
Well I purchased a set of 16" wheels for my 49 Tudor. They came with tires but unfortunately I need a new set and don't want to spend $250 a tire on Coker or Firestones. Wheels are 5.5" wide, what size can I go with? It seems most tires that are 28" tall are either commercial or snow tires!
 
All tires have gotten incredibly stupid expensive. I recently punched a hole in the side wall of my daily driver pickup and had to order a new tire for it. I searched the internet and had one delivered to the house. I have a tire machine and wheel balancer out in the garage so at least that part of it was cheap but I still bitched about the price of the tire. I remember when four tires cost the price of that one tire I bought. I'd mount yours tires for free if you lived closed by.
 
No general location in your avatar, so no local people can help. If you need the "look" of original tires, bite the bullet. If not so fussy, I'd go with a 215 85 r 16 radial from walmart or power king. the ride is greatly improved with a radial
 
I don't see why not.I put 215X715X 75 on a 4" wide rim.Here is a pic
 

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Dirtslinger said:
Well I purchased a set of 16" wheels for my 49 Tudor. They came with tires but unfortunately I need a new set and don't want to spend $250 a tire on Coker or Firestones. Wheels are 5.5" wide, what size can I go with? It seems most tires that are 28" tall are either commercial or snow tires!
Click to expand...

on my '37 with riveted artillary wide five wheels which are 41/2"wide i put 22575R16 modern tubeless radials 3 yrs ago.small tire shop here mounted not balanced, sealed brushed on all rivets have not leaked but 1 or 2 psi each winter. black walls,which most of these cars were born with. Tom.
 
General Info: My '47 Ford came with 15 inch Mercury 15" rims. I don't know what year the Mec rims are from.
 
Merc 15" rims have two types of lug nut seats- innies [pre war, or outies post war ] The lug studs were shorter pre war. and so watch your lug nut for a good/ poor fit. 49 up is a different animal. Newc
 
I found a good resource to be tirerack.com. You can do a search by wheel diameter from their drop-down menu and get all the detail specs on various tire sizes and brands they carry. They give minimum wheel widths but generally you can go 1" narrower with no problem. Most 85 series tires are LT rated. You can order from them or select the tires you want and go to a local tire store. Make sure you are measuring your rim width correctly (not the outer width)
 
The taller the sidewall the more tolerant the tire will be to fitting narrower rims. I've used 7.50:16s and 235-85:16s on 4" rims. Still do.

Mart.
 
Some will probably scoff at the idea but I have accumulated enough good second hand 16 inch modern tires to put under my 39 Ford if I ever get it back on the road. Can't recall the exact size but the 16 inch diameter was all I was looking for. Depending on the type of driving you do a good used tire is plenty adequate and the price is right.
 
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