Wheel Size for 70 B Body

[70ACBEE]

Hi Gang,

Any suggestions on offsets and widths for front wheels on a 1970 super bee?

The car is street driven about 2k miles a year max. It has drums all the way around. I have no plans for it running down a strip, but I do enjoy "cleaning the carbon out" once in a while, while "merging."

 

[beeguy]

I['ve been looking at options for some time for a '70 Bee myself. What I've decided on is repop 15x7 ralley wheels up front with 245/60's and 15X8's in the rear with 295/50's .

That gives a wide look without looking punky, the other route that seems very popular is the same wheels with 235/60's in front and 255/60's in back if you want a moremild look.

 

[prhousejr]

I['ve been looking at options for some time for a '70 Bee myself. What I've decided on is repop 15x7 ralley wheels up front with 245/60's and 15X8's in the rear with 295/50's .

That gives a wide look without looking punky, the other route that seems very popular is the same wheels with 235/60's in front and 255/60's in back if you want a moremild look.

what backspace on the 15 x 8's?

 

[dbowperson]

Would the sizes work the same for a 69 Bee? We're looking at getting a set of AR Torque Thrust D's, 15x7 front and 15x8 rear.

 

[69 Runner]

I ran the "ramcharger" 15x8" on the back of my 69 Bee with no problem. I believe they are a 4" backspace. Ran a 275/60 Pro Trac on them

 

[dbowperson]

Cool. That's the same size tire we will be putting on.

 

[69 Runner]

You're local, so you may well have seen my Bee back in the 90s. I used to run it at Mopars at the Motorplex, do the Dallas and Ft.Worth club's shows etc.

 

[beeguy]

The 275/60 is a little tall in my opinion, the 295/50 is maybe too wide but it fits fine, and not as tall and I prefer that.

I think all 68-70 B bodies have the same tire and wheel clearance but I'm not positive of that, if it fits one it should fit the other.


The mopar rallye 15x8 has a 4 1/2" backspace, so any wheel with that should work fine.

 

[69 Runner]

The Pro Tracs were 27" tall....not that tall when you think about it, and worked well with the 3.91s I had in the rear. Coulda stood a 4.56 for racing tho cause I was hittin the stripe @ about 5700 on a 7000 rpm motor

 

[dbowperson]

You're local, so you may well have seen my Bee back in the 90s. I used to run it at Mopars at the Motorplex, do the Dallas and Ft.Worth club's shows etc.

I moved out here in 2000 and didn't get involved with the Mopar Club until several years ago. Do you still make it out this way?

 

[69 Runner]

I do, but the Bee has been living up north for some time. Six Pack Challenger went to Florida then Massachusetts, M code runner went to Florida. But with any luck I'll have the Duster all sorted in time for the Dallas show. Still won't be cosmetically super, but it will be sorted and super.

 

[70ACBEE]

Thanks beeguy and everyone else for the input!

On your recommendations,

FRONT: 245/60 on 15x7 weld draglite wheels w/ 4.5" offset.
BACK: 295/50 on 15X8's w/ 4.5" offset.

Just wanted to double check, you meant what you said with 60 series up front and 50 series in the back?

Small glitch is that BF Goodrich has the Radial T/A 295/50/15 on backorder while they retool. According to TireRack.com they should be back in production in september and available for retail by 10/15/09

 

[beeguy]

Those are about as wide as you can go, the 295's fill up the fender well pretty good width wise but aren't over tall as long as you like the look it should be OK. if you want to play it safe 235's up front and 255's or 275's in the rear seem to be more common.

Yes 50 is correct, the 295/50's are 26.7" tall, the 245/60 is 26.6" so they're perfect for each other. the 255/60 is 26.8 and the 275/60 is 28". it's all in the aspect ratio since the 50's are wider they're taller than what you'd think in a 50 series. to me the 255's look a little narrow and the 275's are awful tall, the 295's are almost too wide but they fit so we're about out of choices in 15". just my opinion.

I checked with Summit racing a few weeks ago and they said they had the 295/50's in stock on their website. if you're in a hurry you might check them out, I'm not even painted yet so I've got time but I've been looking at every 68-70 B body I've seen for the last year to get tire size ideas.

 

[dbowperson]

Personally I think your best bet for tires will be 235/60-15 front and 275/60-15 rear. That will give the rear a decent amount of rake. If you want a little less, then I would go with a 255/60-15 on the rear. With what you are looking at, I think the 295/50 will have too short of a sidewall to go with the 60 series up front from a visual perspective.

Another question I have that I do not know about is if the 4.5" BS on the front tire is too much? I was thinking more like 3.5" with a 7" wide wheel. The reason I ask this is because that is what I have on our 73 Challenger.

 

[beeguy]

15x7 mopar rally wheels are 4 1/4' backspace. I have them on my challenger and I've seen them on B Body cars so I know that works, not sure what else you could get away with.

295.50's are 1/10" taller than 245/60 tires and would be even more than that with 235/60's. it's the overall hight that matters when you look at the car not what the number says on the sidewall.


295's look great I've seen several, the width from the rear looks a little high school kid like though that's my only gripe.

 

[c3ntral_scrutiniz3r]

Is there a formula to calculate tire height/ effect on gear ratio? And, how does this affect speedometer cable/gear selection?

I have 235/60R14 on 14" magnums all around on a 70 RR, with 4 wheel drum brakes. Im not happy with the performance, and looking for the disc brake upgrade. Will probably just steal the A-body setup I bought, but never installed, for my 69 Barracuda. I had the 11.75" rotors, and know that requires a 15" rim. So I was hoping to go 235/60R15 in front and 275/60R15 in rear.

 

[dbowperson]

Here is a gear selection chart based rear gear and tire size

http://www.mymopar.com/speedometer.htm

Here is a tire size calc site

http://www.1010tires.com/tiresizecalculator.asp

And here is an RPM calc site based on gear rations and tire size

http://www.csgnetwork.com/multirpmcalc.html

As you can probably tell, I have been doing a lot of this myself.

 

[c3ntral_scrutiniz3r]

Thank you for the links. I'll check it out and see what works.

 

[70ACBEE]

I'm goin' for this stance but with the weld draglite wheels.

 

[68383]

I had 15x7s on the front of my 68 Charger and 15x8s on the rear. The rears looked great. To me, the fronts looked too wide.

I'm planning to go with either stock 15s on my 69 Bee or or go as wide as 15x8 again on the rear. I'll most likely go all stock and get an extra set of wide rims for slicks at the track.