Newb Question Regarding Tires and Rims

[raynman]

Hello all,

I need to replace my tires and am having some trouble tracking down the answers to my questions. My '53 M37 has 900-16 military tires of unknown vintage and mounted on what I assume are the original rims.

When I am ready to replace the rubber, I believe that I can put some modern BFG radials on my stock rims as long as I get radial innertubes and related part(s). Am I correct in this understanding?

Next, with the split ring design of the rims, is there any merit to getting the rims cleaned up and powder coated or will this just get all messed up when they are put back together at the tire shop? Sounds like it is not an easy process and may involve some beating and banging.

 

[gungearz]

Welcome to steel soldiers... Its your truck. The possibilities are endless. Powder coat would look bad a$$. Its a lot of work to get them cleaned up the way you want. It might be less of a headache getting sandblasted then powdercoated but your right about that beating and banging if you do it yourself...

 

[Tanner]

BFG won't have tires available in a matching height as a replacement to the 9.00x16 NDT tires.
Tires choices will be limited due to the 6.5" rim width. Wallace Wade, Coker Tire, and others offer 9.00x16 tires/flaps/tubes.

You'll need radial tubes with radial tires, and radial tubes can also be used with bias-ply tires. But do not use bias-ply tubes in radial tires.

As for the rims, sandblast them and paint them, as they will be easier to touch up the damaged areas with paint when mounting/demounting tires.

Welcome!

'Tanner'

 

[Tanner]

There are a number of posts about M37 tires in Search feature.

'Tanner'

 

[JGBallew]

If you don't clean up those wheels when they're dismounted, you're just shooting yourself in the foot.

Seen loads of split rims where the guy was too lazy or cheap to get the scaly rust off, and suffered the death of a million cuts via weekly flat repairs.

It's also a safety measure. You want that locking lip and groove as clean and easily inspected as possible.

 

[cosmic339]

back to this topic , i wanted to ask for anyone who has changed there axles to a dana 60 front and 14 bolt rear, What Tire and Rim combonitation did you use? i found one combination using h1 rims backspaced modified. but i dont think the tires avalible for style rim is good for gas mileage, thinking of going with 38, or 39 tires. I guess what im looking for possibly a narrower, and lighter tire since im going to use this truck as a daily driver ,highway etc.