Ouch , money pains

Martin

Well-Known Member
On my 52 Merc pickup I have odd wheels and tires so I thought I'd look for replacements. I went to 5 different auto wreckers looking for 5x5.5 bolt pattern on either 16 or 15 inch rims.
On the 15" rims side of things, Seems for $100 you get 4 rusty rims without tires, stuff you probably couldn't give away at a garage sale but $100 none the less.
One place seemed less than impressed that I was looking for something cheapish as opposed to spending loads and then became a little less than helpfull.
I did find a set of F150 mags that would have probably looked ok but they were $300, needed a good buffing and then the tires priced out getting close to $900, yoiks.
Then found some older white (ish) 16" wheels that looked more in keeping with original style for $120 but again a set of light truck tires still ran in a $650. What I really didn't get was the $28 per wheel to balance them.
I guess I'm just really out of touch with prices, I thought that $400 ish would get me a set of nice ish wheels with half decent, rubber, oops I guess not
 
Did you check out you local "pick n pull"? I bought a complete set of mag wheels with tires for our daily driver volvo V-70 for about $230 that I used for mounting our winter tires.

Russ
 
5 on 51/2 bolt patterns are becoming a rarity. I ordered a set of custom axles yesterday for a 9" ford and there was an extra charge for the above bolt pattern.You may be able to buy axles with a smaller bolt pattern to fit your ride and have more available wheels tires etc.
 
Not really all that rare..................5 on 5.5" bolt circle is on every 1500 Dodge and they are 16" 17" and 20"......and there is a bizzillion of them trucks out there. Also skinny Suzuki Samari 15 and 16 and gm Tracker are also the same. Also all full sized Ford trucks up to 1995 and Econoline vans right to date all have the desired bolt pattern.

It is all relevent to what a person is really looking to run. On some wheels you may have to bore the pilot hole. I would suggest going to a ma and pa type tire shop and ask them if it would be all right to rummage through the scrap wheel pile (they all have em) and just take cash and make offers...scrap steel aint worth that much.
 
You could also try craigslist or kijiji . 5.5" could also be listed as 139.7 . Some days its tough to be cheap. :)
 
Martin

Tires is the last thing you should be "frugal" on. Used, dated tires might look good, but in reality UV rays and other elements can damage them.
Your young daughter is undoubtedly going to ride in the pickup......don't
cheap out on a very important safety aspect.
If you find used rims, get them checked for runout.....before you pay for them.
Stay away from those white spoke truck rims. Lots of safety issues with them.
 
....I was made aware that all tires have a shelf life. There is a complex/secret code on each tire to say when it was produced, as I understand it....
 
....I was made aware that all tires have a shelf life. There is a complex/secret code on each tire to say when it was produced, as I understand it....

And only the tire store knows how to read the "secret" code.

Most times, when buying brand new, the tires are already close to or past this code.
 
Morning Martin, I just picked up a set of 4 on Monday from Vernon Auto wreckers to bring my 28 A home. Sounded like a common size when I asked for them??
 
Here is the NOT SO SECRET tire production date code cipher:

From Tirerack

Tires Manufactured Since 2000

Since 2000, the week and year the tire was produced has been provided by the last four digits of the Tire Identification Number with the 2 digits being used to identify the week immediately preceding the 2 digits used to identify the year.
 
Too bad you live so far away,...I have a set of "Smoothies", with that bolt pattern with a Like NEW set of P-275-60 R 15 tire
modelAframe.jpg
s ( Generals ) on them,...looking for $300.00
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Mmm, waddabout if ya put helium in the tires instead:D

Thanks anyway, I don't think you'll have a problem getting shot of them at that price.