16.5" wheels, Bad or not?

[FLATBEDFORD]

What's the story on 16.5" wheels? I've read that the tires have different beads, that the are bad. How bad? Give me your opinions.

[Blue Cloud]

As far as I know the 16.5 wheels and tires are good if you haul alot of weight, thats why they were used on Camper Specials. Just be careful and don't try to mount a 16 inch tire on a 16.5 inch wheel, bad things happen!

[72hiboy4x4]

the 16.5 wheels don't have what is called a safety bead to hold the tire in place in an under-inflated condition. Most all other sizes do have this safety bead.
There is nothing wrong with a 16.5 wheel, other than a somewhat limited variety of tires made for them.
Just keep them inflated to the rated pressures, and you will be fine. I run them on a lot of trucks and have never had a real problem with them.

[montana_hiboy]

theres nothing wrong with them, you'll just find more size availability in a 16" size is all

[FLATBEDFORD]

Thanks. The parts truck came with 2 16" and 5 16.5" one piece dually wheels. I was afraid that I may have brought home 5 useless wheels. I'll use the 16.5's in back and 16's in front. Hopefully I can find sizes that look OK together. My truck has 7.5 16 LT ( I think) bias ply's on it now. They look about the same size as 235/85 R16. I'll have to find the 16.5 equivelent, if there is one.

[ToughOldFord]

I did the same thing with my '79. I had white spoke all the way around with 16"s in the front and 16.5"s in the rear. The rear's were wider than stock too. I ran 10-16.5 tires, they fit the rims better than 9.50-16.5 and the 12-16.5s looked way to large, IMO.

[FLATBEDFORD]

Tire sizing baffles me. Does anybody know of a website that explains and shows tire sizes in inch and metric?

[ToughOldFord]

http://www.nationaltire.com/basics/default.asp

[CA180]

http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

[FLATBEDFORD]

16.5 sizes are pretty limited.

[71 LONG BED]

I'll talk to my buddy and see what he may have. He buys and sell cars and trucks all the time. He parts a lot out, so he may come accross good 16.5 tires.

[FLATBEDFORD]

The tires that are on the rims are not as tall as the 16's I have now. They look pretty wimpy for a 1 ton truck.

[71 LONG BED]

You know what, I was up getting my wifes leaky tires fixed (valve stems)and the place I go has a lot of used tires that still have tread. I saw a stack of the old school bias snow tires. Nice and thin for duallys. I could call and see how much and if they are 16.5's. If they weren't, they prolly have others in the rack. Maybe I'll call just for sh**s and giggles.

[FLATBEDFORD]

Check it out. THey don't have to be that good. There are 4 of them and I don't go very fast. Of course the truck already has good 16" tires on the split rims so I don't have to do anything now.

[ToughOldFord]

The tires that are on the rims are not as tall as the 16's I have now. They look pretty wimpy for a 1 ton truck.

Then you probably have 8.00x16.5
9.50x16.5s would be better, I think 10s and higher would be too wide for duels.