Wheels & Tires

[DaBurner87]

Since there is no dedicated wheels and tires section I decided to post here as braking and good tires kinda go hand in hand.

Long story short I'm looking to upgrade my 1994 C3500 wheels and tires. From what I can tell stock size is 16x6.5 sporting a 245/75R16 tire. I would definitely like something wider and a bigger wheel. I was thinking 17x8. This is a 2WD single rear wheel setup with an 8 lug pattern, and I do get snow so the wider . Where do you guys look for wheels and tires online? When I go to TireRack they don't list my truck. Assuming it's the same sizing as the K3500 they still don't offer many options.

I want wider, bigger wheels, to give this stock truck a good meaty stance, while not being too aggressive. This is not an offroad build at all.

 

[b454rat]

Well if you want an all season tire or something to use for snow then you don't want wide. Being a 1 ton it sits up higher, so can run a bigger tire. I had a buddy with a 1 ton crew cab running 275/70/16s on 8" wheels and looked good. I think a 305/65/17 is the same diameter, that is wider yet. Check out tiresize/comparison.com and start punching numbers in.

 

[Schurkey]

Yep. If you're dealing with snow, wider tires are a disadvantage. They tend to "float" on top of the snow instead of settling down into the snow, compacting it into the tread or pushing it to the side.

Very much like "hydroplaning" on snow.

Be sure whatever wheels you buy are rated for the big GVW of a 3500.

 

[boy&hisdogs]

You should start shopping by tire size and not by vehicle. You get a lot better results that way. I went all the way up to 305/70/16 (33x12.50) on my 1500 before I lifted it. I bet you could do that just fine on a 3500, so long as you don't go crazy wide on the wheels. I had them on 16x8 wheels with 5" backspacing. I also had 285/75/16 which was like a 33x11 or something along those lines. That's what I would do for a truck that sees snow. Or whatever the 17" wheel equivalent is.

 

[Frank Enstein]

Yep. If you're dealing with snow, wider tires are a disadvantage. They tend to "float" on top of the snow instead of settling down into the snow, compacting it into the tread or pushing it to the side.

Very much like "hydroplaning" on snow.

Be sure whatever wheels you buy are rated for the big GVW of a 3500.

What he said!

 

[sweetk30]

What he said!

X2 . 43 years of playing / working / moving the stuff . . . And TRUE snow tires are the big ticket .

 

[RichLo]

Whenever possible I get 2 sets, 1 dedicated for winter (real snow tires not all-seasons with that winter mountain) and 1 for summer.

And yea, tall and skinny for winter and fat for summer/offroad

 

[Schurkey]

Since there is no dedicated wheels and tires section I decided to post here as braking and good tires kinda go hand in hand.

Tagging onto this thread, and suggesting that a "Wheels and Tires" section be added.

From what I can tell stock size is 16x6.5 sporting a 245/75R16 tire.

Are later-model 8-lug wheels suitable for GMT400 bolt circle diameter and offset/backspacing?

I'm thinking that at some point, GM went from 6.5" circle to some almost-equivalent metric sizing--but I don't know when or even if this changed for sure.

Given the substantial difference in the 8-lug front brakes (rotors slide over lug studs, instead of being near-permanently attached to hubs) maybe the backspacing/offset was changed and is no longer compatible with GMT400 geometry.

There's a couple sets of 8-lug aluminum wheels "near" me (less than one day's drive); and I'd kinda like to have a spare set of wheels so I can put chains on my OEM "steelies" for winter, and non-chained "summer" tires on the other set. All the 8-lug wheels I see are for GMT800 trucks, though.

 

[1952Chevy]

Hummer H2 wheels fit our trucks, and look pretty good. They are 17x8 I believe. I have a set of 285/70R17s on my truck with H2 wheels, no rubbing. I do have a 4wd though so YMMV. For some reason my pictures won't load this morning. But if you search on the forum you will find quite a few pictures.

 

[HotWheelsBurban]

Seems like I've read on here that 2011 and newer wheels for the 8 lugs are a different pattern. Not sure about the offset, but apparently the pattern is different enough to require adapters to use the newest wheels on our era trucks. I think @Dravec may have more info on this, seems like he's been through this on his 2500 Burb.
The 800 series PY0 wheels fit our trucks fine and look good, but they're 16x6.5 so no help there if you want bigger/wider.....