wheel woes... ground hubs vs bored wheels

[davidfre21]

I picked up an 89 extended cab ram50, been trying to buy the truck from a co-worker for years and he finally let her go. It sat for 4 years and the tires have began to rot. I can get a set of 14" tires for the same price as 17/18" tires.

I would like some titan steelies or even some other aftermarket choices. After searching I've found a bunch on boring wheels but nothing on grinding hubs other than people say it isn't that bad to do. So I'm searching for some more info and hopefully pictures?

Thanks

[noahwins]

Hubcentric wheels. Don't grind the hubs down, that's beyond ghetto and dangerous. Don't hog out the bores with a drill. Take the wheels to a machine shop to get them bored out. Titans are 100mm, ours are 108mm. Just few bucks and minutes at the machine shop and the ride quality will be smooth and you won't be forever chasing weird shakes and vibrations if you Dremeled it.

Titan steelies are awesome and you have a nice truck. Do it right, do it safe.

[davidfre21]

Thanks, took quite a bit of cleaning. It sat under a tree all those years collecting junk all over it. But I can't complain, only paid $100 for it.

20150421_133541.jpg

Looks like I'll be going the bore route, picked up some gmc 17s today. Might try it myself with a router. Then just need to order some tires. Thinking 215/45r17s

[noahwins]

Nice score for $100.

[camoit]

The wheels are stud piloted, not hub piloted. That means the wheel is centered by the lug nuts not the hub. If you look at the lug nuts they have a point that is what centers the wheel or pilots them. A car that has the big flat lug nuts are hub piloted.




RWC-Wheel-Diagrams.jpg





Hub pilot below.

Hub-Pilot-Wheel-nuts.jpg

[ragragtimetime]

if possible (same thread style) use the same nuts that came with the "new" rims. some nuts don't "seat" correctly & will cause wobble...just fixed that issue on the 1983 that had aftermarket rims (yeah they only "look" stock) by using the aftermarket nuts from the 1986

[davidfre21]

I didn't get the lugs with the wheels, but I'll pretty sure they would be the wrong thread pitch anyways. I'll order some bulge acorns and hope they work.

[noahwins]

The wheels are stud piloted, not hub piloted.

I don't know about the GMs and I didn't think the old MM were hubcentric but my understanding was all of the new Titan wheels are hubcentric. Even the steel wheels.

[Rahtid]

nice looking truck, keep the pictures coming,