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New Wheels for Lifted Trac

mjenk430

Active Member
Joined
March 19, 2011
Messages
59
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1
City, State
Orange Co, VA
Year, Model & Trim Level
'02 Lifted Sport Trac
I have a lifted Trac with LT375/60/R18 (36x15.50 R18) Mickey Thompson Radial MTZ on the M/T 18x10 Classic II's. I have been researching doing a SAS on my Trac which would take me from the 5x4.5 bolt pattern to a 5x5.5 bolt pattern. Once done with the SAS, I would like to keep my same tires (have less than 5000 miles on them and they were helluva expensive).

My problem is I cannot find any wheels with a width greater than 9". Mickey Thompson doesn't make a 18x10 wheel in any bolt pattern anymore and apparently neither does any other company.

Has anyone seen a 15.50 wide tire on a 9" wide wheel? Is it going to look ridiculous? Or does anyone know where I can get a 18" wheel greater than 9" wide?

Thanks in advance for any help to this newbie to the forums.
 



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I'm guessing you have a 2wd with lift spindles on the front, a body lift, TT, and a SOA to even be able to fit that size tire?? How are you running that wide and tall of a tire without a SAS lift without rubbing and be able to turn the front tires??? Gotta see some pictures of this an what kind of lift are you running now to fit those?
 






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Untitled by mjenk430, on Flickr

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Untitled by mjenk430, on Flickr

The current lift is 4" Superlift, TT, Rear Shackles, 3" Body Lift

And there are 1" wheel spacers so the tires would clear the upper control arms. Had to do some significant trimming to clear, and there is still some rubbing.
 






I just Fell in Love!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! INCREDIBLE
 






Nice Trac, some rubbing, damn man can you even turn the front lock to lock? LOL.

I can see why you wana do a SAS, you gotta be going thru hub bearins and ball joints like crazy with those wheels/tires. Really good looking Trac man.

My buudy's got a '88 F-150 with a 8" lift and 20x?? with the 5x5.5 bolt pattern,, I'll have to ask him where he got them and what the width is.
 






I did some more searching for wheels and came up with about a dozen different options for a 18x10. These 3 are at the top of my list. What do you guys think? I'm leaning towards the Eagle 064.

Not too worried about deciding now. I've got a lot more important stuff than the wheels to work through with the SAS. I just wanted to make sure that I had options for my current tires before proceeding any further.

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Eagle Alloy 064 Chrome 18x10 by mjenk430, on Flickr

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Moto Metal 959 Chrome 18x10 by mjenk430, on Flickr

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Eagle Alloy 140 Chrome 18x10 by mjenk430, on Flickr
 






Nice Trac, some rubbing, damn man can you even turn the front lock to lock? LOL.

I can see why you wana do a SAS, you gotta be going thru hub bearins and ball joints like crazy with those wheels/tires. Really good looking Trac man.

LOL, yeah it turns lock to lock. It only rubs when its turned all the way and flex the suspension. Of course with the TT it doesn't do a whole lot of flexing :)

And YES, gone through multiple hub bearings and ball joints. Thats my main reason for wanting to do the SAS. Plus, a few more inches of lift won't hurt either. :)
 






I like the first wheel.

I'm gonna be jealous if you get the SAS done before me. I was hoping to be the only Estate Green solid axle ST. Now, I guess I can be excited that there will be a matching. I'll probably not go above 35s, though. Your truck looks amazing. Keep up the good work.

And if you do go through the solid axle process, please, please, please document it as well as you have time for. What kind of time frame are you looking at? Probably going to be 2012 for me, so maybe I can have a little more inspiration.

Here's where I'm starting.

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By the way, what are your plans for the current wheels?
 






And if you do go through the solid axle process, please, please, please document it as well as you have time for. What kind of time frame are you looking at? Probably going to be 2012 for me, so maybe I can have a little more inspiration.

I will most definitely document the process on here while doing the SAS. I think I'm almost looking forward to that process as much as doing the SAS. It will probably be necessary anyways, as I am sure I will have a million questions. Right now, I am just researching and trying to put my shopping list together. I hope to get out to the junkyard(s) this weekend to start the search for my Wagoneer axle. If I get lucky and find one, I might start piecing the axle together a little at a time. But it's probably going to be until the Fall until I can start dropping the serious coin it's going to take to get the project done. I had no idea the amount of parts from different places/vehicles it would take to do the SAS, until getting on this forum a reading through the process others have gone through. In my mind, I guess I thought, "weld some perches on the frame, find an axle and slap it under the truck with some leaf springs". Boy was I wrong. (axle, gears, flattop knuckles, hi-steer, 5x5.5 conversion kit, springs, wheels, steering box, etc..etc...etc..)

Sorry to steal your thunder with the Estate Green SAS Trac. Who knows, maybe we'll end up doing it around the same time and we can help eah other out on the forums.

Here's where I'm starting.

You have a nice looking truck as well. But maybe I'm a little biased. :) I really like the black cladding and brush guard. Was painting the cladding a PITA? Do you have any pics of your brush guard mounts with the body lift?
 






By the way, what are your plans for the current wheels?

I'm sure they will go up for sale at some point after the swap is done. Although, they are not in the best of shape. I haven't kept them clean the way I should have. (This will be my last set of polished aluminum wheels, chrome is so much easier to take care of)

Here's a quote from Mickey Thompson's website, "In areas where salt or sand is used on the roads in the winter, the wheels should be removed and stored until winter ends." Who the heck is going to do that????
 






You have a nice looking truck as well. But maybe I'm a little biased. I really like the black cladding and brush guard. Was painting the cladding a PITA? Do you have any pics of your brush guard mounts with the body lift?

Thanks. Just did the cladding last week. I wish I had done it the week I bought it. It's really pretty simple, especially if you have a sander. I used a Black & Decker Mouse and it went by quick.

Also finished up the brackets and Westin install last week. I was also able to get the tow hooks back on by cutting the plastic. That's part of the reason it became necessary to paint black. You really can't see the cuts now.
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Oh, but I should mention, if you don't want the tow hooks back on, cutting the plastic isn't necessary.
 






Nice welds! ;)
 






You also need to make sure your manual hubs will fit through the wheel. I ordered MOTO metal wheels and the hubs did not fit. Most of the new wheels are made for IFS trucks that don't have manual hubs.
 






Nice welds!

Could have been prettier but the base wasn't cut at a perfect 90 degree angle, so when it was put up to the angle iron I had to fill in the gap. Making perfect cuts through 3/8" steel isn't easy with a sawzall. I work with what I got. Tube bender and drill press have since been added to the tool assortment. Gonna be a while before a plasma cutter is in the shop. Before too long, I'll be fabricating all kinds of ugly stuff.
 






You also need to make sure your manual hubs will fit through the wheel. I ordered MOTO metal wheels and the hubs did not fit. Most of the new wheels are made for IFS trucks that don't have manual hubs.

Ahhhh, good lookin out Chad, I hadn't considered that. Don't you have Eagle Alloy wheels now? Did you have to do anything special to get those to work with your manual hubs? The wheel I'm leaning towards is also Eagle Alloy, I wonder if there wheel centers are all the same size? Are the Warn heavy duty hubs larger in outside diameter than the standard Warn hub? I wonder if the Moto Metals would have worked with the standard Warn hubs?
 






Thanks. Just did the cladding last week. I wish I had done it the week I bought it. It's really pretty simple, especially if you have a sander. I used a Black & Decker Mouse and it went by quick.

Also finished up the brackets and Westin install last week. I was also able to get the tow hooks back on by cutting the plastic. That's part of the reason it became necessary to paint black. You really can't see the cuts now.

Thanks for the pics of the brush guard brackets. I may have to add that to my want list for my truck. I can get a brush guard, paint the cladding black, and when we both do the SAS we can have twin trucks. :rolleyes:

I have often thought about painting the cladding estate green to match the rest of the truck, but was always afraid it wouldn't match exactly. I never thought about black, but now that I see it, I really like it. What type of paint did you use? Was there any particular resource you used (like another thread on here :) ) when deciding on how to go about doing it? Did you remove the cladding before painting or paint it with it still on the truck?
 



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Matching the Estate Green would be difficult I think. I've even read that the paint from Ford doesn't match Estate Green very well. Probably well enough to do small touch ups, but for that large of an area I was afraid it would be too different. And to pay someone to do it and it not match would have made me mad.

I just taped off and wrapped in plastic what I didn't want sprayed. Removing the front wouldn't really help much since it is one piece with the top portion of the grill so you still would have to tape and mask it off. The sides have a tendency to break the plastic screws when removed, making it difficult (and expensive) to put back on. So, I just went the easy route. I used Rustoleum Universal All Surface flat black. Many people like Krylon Fusion but I used what I have lying around. I have A LOT of flat black on hand.

The great thing about using flat black spray paint is when it needs touched up, just lightly sand, protect the surrounding area and give it a new coat. Cheap and easy!

I used some threads on here and another forum. Here's a link to what I did.
http://mysporttrac.com/shared/msgboard9e.asp?BOARDNAME=MSG&VIEW=1283234&REPLYCOUNT=15&sitename=mysporttrac
 






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