Technical max width tire on 4.5" wheels

Hi everyone,

I posted a question yesterday about radial/bias ply tires on old bias wheels and got some great answers.

I'd like to ask what people have successful run in terms of width on 4.5" wide wheels?

My wheels are 16"x4.5" steel artillery from a 30-40's Dodge. would 700/16 or 750/16 be safe for the rears?

Thanks a lot in advance

Adrian

 

Plenty on here have said that they have done it, ( even on the 4” wide rim with both size tyres - not much difference in them) and are happy with results.
Personally I would go to a min of 5” rim which is what I am doing.
Professionally, - the answer is go with the tyre manufacturer’s recommendation/specifications.
Read this, also been a few other threads on this if you need more info.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/rear-tire-size-question.335238/.

 

probably your headline should say tire instead of wheel

 

Title edit on aisle three please!

 

So, max width tire on 4.5” tire ?

 

Technically, it should be what maximum width tire in mm will fit on a 4.5” rim.

 

Ohhhhhhhh

 

7.00 is only 1½ past the rim edge at the widest point. I have 5" commercials and 7.00s, close to 1" over the edge of the wheel lip. For modern, you need to convert width from metric.

 

Yeah , that is really just plain wrong

 

I've run 1000's of miles on 7.0 16's and 7.50 16's on 4.5 inch wheel No complaints here. The thing to remember is that you just don't have that much tread on the ground. with a 7.0 16 and a 7.50 tire the tread is only about 5 to 5.5 inches. Compare that to a 4.5 inch wide wheel, its no different that shoving a 255 60 onto a 7 inch Chevy rally on the back of a Camaro. The recommended rim widths for both size tires is 4.5 to 5.5 inches wide for the 7.0 and 5.0 to 6.0 wide for the 7.50. You will be fine. with those dodge rims.

 

Sorry guys about the whacko job on the title. Thanks for rewording it.
I'm trying to stay away from rebarreling a set of wheels, but may depend on tire contact patch as Nailhead Jason mentioned.

 

7.50 16 on 4-1/2" wheel

 

Yes it’ll be fine. 7.50 16 on a 4.5” rim on this one

 

I have run 8.45-15 Firestone drag tire on a 15x4 wheel, on the front of a 3600 pound B-Body Plymouth with no problem. Gene.