16x4 spare tire wheels...safe to run?

i've searched this and have read other people asking about running spare tire wheels but havent seen anyone saying it's safe. i would say the tire is the weak link but before i go get some free or real cheap wheels i'd rather hear from people using them. i see the aftermarket guys are getting between $100 and $130 a wheel. just looking to save a few bucks for now as long as there ok to run. thanks

 

also if anyone knows if you can run hubcaps or any other wheel trim please let me know or show pics if you have them. thanks again

 

I'd like to know about this too, since you can get some nice narrow 18 inch steelies in some light duty SUVs that would look right at home on a speedster....

 

Yes, there have been threads on this before. I'm using four 16" X 4" Mopar spares for my bias ply tires. Unfortunately, I haven't driven the car to verify anything, but I personally feel that they will be fine. I was going to use an old set of shoebox wheels, but they seemed to have some bad runout on them. The spares seem to be very true when you spin them. The old timer that mounted & balanced them for me didn't freak out when I asked him to do it. I asked him if he ever heard of a spare wheel failing & he said he never did (& he had a very busy tire place for his whole life). There were some responses where guys urged reinforcing the welds, but others said they had no problems. In my opinion, it's the tire that raises red flags & should never be used for any extended period of time. That being said, I saw one spare tire in a salvage yard that looked like it had 50 K on it. Go figure. Also, I never heard of any sort of problem or recall that had anything to do with the integrity of these wheels. Again, this is just my opinion.

 

What's the bolt pattern on the 16 x 4 Mopar wheels you're talking about? Got any pictures?

 

They're designed with weight savings in mind, so I suspect that they'll be OK if the vehicle they're going on is a lot lighter than the vehicle they're designed for.

 

On the Landspeed site this question has come up several times. OEM enginers have always come back with the answer that the wheels are made to the same standards as installed road wheels. Only the tire is limited. On this answer I believe BNI/SCTA accept these wheels in competion

 

I used to hang around a bunch of rail buggy guys. They all used them on the front end of their rails. Of course, there's no weight up there, but they'd run 70 down the highway all day, every day and I never heard of a problem. Those guys were running the donut tires, too. I think that on a light car, you shouldn't have a problem. Then again, I'm no structural engineer, either.

 

great info thanks guys. i'm not worried about the safety now but i would like to see or hear from people that have put any kind of wheel trim (hubcap, etc.) on these wheels. i have found a few that were real smooth without any holes that looked neat. but not sure if any trim would fit because of the backspacing or just the design of these wheels. again thanks for the safety info.

 

I don't have a picture, I think the newer ones have 10 or so 1-1/2 holes
in them. I think they look kinda neat.
I noticed when I had to put the spare on my daily. (05 300C)

The 16x4's will be easier to come across in junk yard because more mid
size sedans Stratus, Sebring, 300m run 16's as the std wheel.
If you want 18's look for the 300C's. I went to my Local Chrysler dealer,
and a new spare tire for an '05 300c (18x4) was 120.00.

I think the bolt pattern was around 120mm or 130mm BC
120mm is just under 4-3/4 and 130mm is just under 5-1/8

Jeff

 

They are 4 1/2" bolt spacing. The wheels are very clean looking & were all brand new out of the the junked vehicles...no painting needed.

 

Well never mind my ramblings about the 120mm-130mm BC
I must have had a brain fart

Jeff

 

I would have to think they would be made to the same standard as a normal use wheel as well.

 

Back in the early 90s I got 2 16" spares, sanded the writing on the sidewalls with a DA and ran them on my fenderless roadster..looked like motorcycle tires with 16" Moon discs...steered like powersteering.....can't say I put a ton of miles on them, don't remember,but never had a problem......saw full size cars flying down the freeway with them for miles so figured they gotta be safe....wonder if they aren't radials with nylon cord instead of steel?? never cut one apart..

 

hey dave i've been searching the web and ebay just to see which ford pattern wheels i want and then i'm gonna hit the junk yard. just do a search for chevy spare tires and you should get a bunch of hits. just watch the trucks i'm pretty sure the newer ones are 5x5 not 5x4 3/4. theres gotta be a web site to give you that info.

 

S10 family is supposed to have them. Havent' found any myself yet, mainly because our pick-n-pull welds two of the temp spare wheels together to make vehicle jack stands under all their cars. Haven't looked too hard anywhere else yet.

 

The s-10 trucks with the zq8 option or the xtreme pkg have 16 inch and a small chevy pattern plain black spare. I dont know the wheel width,but it looks narrow.

 

I used to carry a pair of 16 x 4 spare tire wheels with the dual bolt pattern on the back of my wrecker. They had the small and large GM bolt patterns . Pretty handy when picking up junk cars because they would fit a lot of stuff. I ran them until the tires that came on them were completely worn out and then put some 6:00 x 16 tires on them. I pulled some pretty heavy stuff with these wheels such as mid '70's Olds, Caddies, Chevy Pickups etc. never had any trouble with them.
V/8

 

Beware those who use old tires! Nothing against the rims, but slap some new treads on those things. Tires age, and not the friendly old grandpa kind of way. Odds are if it's in a junk yard, the spare is old enough to be dangerous, even if it has no mileage. The last thing you want to skimp on is the safety of your ride and that of your passengers. I've ran around on dryrotted bald antiques too (I think we all have) but i've also seen vehicles and lives ruined by failed tires. Just do a search on here and you'll know what I mean.

 

hey fleetside they look good on your car. i'm gonna need a hubcap or a full cover on the 35. maybe spyders?? any one have any pics with covers on there spare wheels?

 

what kind of car(s) do these wheels come on ?

 

not that it matters but back in my punk kid snowboarding years i put easily 10 or 20 k on a spare doughnut tire and hit close to 100 mph pretty often. i'm sure you will be fine.

 

If you are going to put full covers on them, why not just use regular wheels and not risk the shitty welds on a spare blowing??? Am I crazy?

 

Have you seen shitty welds??????

I haven't looked to be honest....but it seems unlikely that the OEM's would risk putting something out thats not up to the task.
Liability sucks!

Besides...it takes just as much effort to do a shitty weld as it does to do a good one. Why do it bad on purpose???

 

I just put the calipers on the same Mopar 16x4 wheel described above, and examined it thoroughly.

I have found that they have the same thickness in the center and the rim as the regular wheels on Jeep that it came from. Additionally, it is fully welded wherever the center meets the rim, and it bears the DOT stamp. The welds are of decent quality.

So, unless they are made out of some low-grade steel and welded with coat hangers, they they ARE just the same and any other wheel.

Oh, and I AM an engineer, and I say so. You might be crazy, but I am not qualified to answer in that area.

 

Astrovan. Rocky,Tuck and I played around with a couple of them. There are several threads. Josh Shaw used the Dodge ones to make cool wheels. The info is on here somewhere but I missed it in my last search. T

 

They are well built. Hell if they can run em for years on the Rez they will hold up to our shenanigans!

 

im running s-10 spare wheels 15 inch but similar to the 16s your asking about on the front of my 53 chevy (nova clip) because they had a deep offsett also they took a hub cap with no problem. the only drawback to running a cap on these wheels is the center of the wheel sticks out pretty far so i had to put a ring on my old cap to make it spaced out farther to clear the center of the wheel. also the cap was a 14 inch and the wheels are 15 so the spacer made up that difference.

 

I run the wheels on my HA/GR with motorcycle tires and have run right at 100mph with no problems.
My son is running a set of the wheels on his Model A coupster with motorcycle tires and has not had a problem.
I have run one of these spares for about 150 miles at 70 mph on my 48 Chevy coupe, it is still in the trunk ready to be used again if needed.
I think the problem lies with the tires as the wheels seem to be put together as good as any I have seen.
I would not run the spare tires, just break them down and put motorcycle tires with a good speed rating on them.
Robert

 

I like these... smooth and no holes, eh? Gary