How wide are stock wheels? Thoughts on running wider ones?

texas pinzgauer · Post by **texas pinzgauer** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 8:42 pm

You may have noticed that Jim Lagardia (in the General Chat section) has found a source for wider steel wheels and is soliciting others to see if folks would be interested in purchasing some. I was wondering if someone can tell me how wide the stock wheels are?

I'd also like to get some feed back from folks related to their experiences running wider wheels.

Thanks!

lindenengineering · Post by **lindenengineering** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 10:52 pm

In certain circumstances we have seen accelerated wear in wheel bearings and hub seals. Also there has been a CAUTIOUS note of outer axle pin locator wear distress and locator hole elongation that MIGHT be contributed to that observation.
Dennis

Erik712m · Post by **Erik712m** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 9:48 am

The factory rims i think are 6.5". I have 8" wide rims, the plus to them is that there are more tire options. they do throw more mud on the side of the truck but if i make wider rub rails it should help with that problem. I belive the newer pinzgauers have wider rims. to me it looks like Jim's rims are a good value. I payed $260 a rim.

Profpinz · Post by **Profpinz** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 3:05 pm

I belive the newer pinzgauers have wider rims

From memory the original 716/718 runs a 7 inch rim, as opposed to the 710/712's, 6.5 inch.

David Dunn · Post by **David Dunn** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 4:07 pm

Profpinz wrote:
I belive the newer pinzgauers have wider rims
From memory the original 716/718 runs a 7 inch rim, as opposed to the 710/712's, 6.5 inch.

Buzzz.. wrong answer.. original 716/18 stock rims were 6" ...optional rims were 7"

The 716s have a different lug pattern and offset.

Though I don't have my manual handy, TDs for the Austrian army were fitted with 17.5" rims instead of 16"

Dave Dunn

Erik712m · Post by **Erik712m** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 4:30 pm

How did they fit a 285 tire on a 6" rim?

Profpinz · Post by **Profpinz** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 5:40 pm

Daves right!...I just checked the original P85 brochures and the standard wheel was a 6J X 16 H2 with 235/85 R16 tyres.
A 225/75 R17.5 tyre was an "option"

The 7J x 16 H2 became standard fitment on "most" later 716 Pinny's (with the exception of the 716 Short on which it was an option) HOWEVER the 718 remained listed as having 6J x 16 H2 fitted as standard.

springhill · Post by **springhill** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 6:06 pm

I sent my rims to CWR and had the wider rim put on the original centers. The rims are 8" and I am running a 285/75/16 Interco TRXUS. I have put about 20,000 Km (all off hiway) and have had no complaints or problems.
I think they have a 2 inch offset towards the outside. It has been a couple of years and I can't remember the details. It seem like it cost some where around $200 per rim,,,,,well worth it because I needed the extra offset to fit in the pasture roads.

john

David Dunn · Post by **David Dunn** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 6:09 pm

Howdy Peter
The info I have comes from owners manual for a RHD Pinz...but gives tires as Genreal Tire Ameri Grip 235/85x16 ( yes, that is the actual spelling in the manual). In my factory manual ( not handy at the moment), it list 4 or 5 different tires, including the 8,25x16 Michelin XZL for the British Military and the 17.5" rims and Semperit tires for the Austrian Army....I would like to know how my Swedish Pinz ended up with an Austrian spare?

Dave

Profpinz · Post by **Profpinz** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 8:36 pm

G'Day Dave,

In the 1989 TD Spare Parts Manual, they list the Ameri-Grip LT as you mentioned, but they also list a Michelin 7.50 X R16 XCL PR 8 and a Semperit M235 7.50 X R16 PR 8.

In regards to the aircooled Pinny's, I have a list somewhere of all the tyres approved by SDP for fitment to the 710/712 .... I dont think the Simex ET 35 X 10.5-16 is listed!

mjnims · Post by **mjnims** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 6:58 pm

like wise I have been running the 8" widened rims from CWR on my 712. I have well over 65K miles with no known ill effects. Considering the use of my truck I would think any possible wear issues would have shown up by now.
I for one am looking forward to 8" rims on my 710. One large consideration is that they do make turning a little more difficult. If you think it is border line now than another option should be considered.
A large benefit from any of the aftermarket rims is the internal bead. Even though this is jsut a safety bead it sure helps keep the tire on when aired down. I have not seen any tire option problems but I have only run two different types of tires, the Trxxs Mt and currently Mickey Thompson MTZ's Both tires have worked well for me except the MTZ's had one sidewall failure, something I did not see in the Trxxs.

Erik712m · Post by **Erik712m** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 8:31 pm

Well i think with the hard miles that both John and Mike put on there pinz they would have seen a problem by now. Some may see problems do to the poor servicing, or poor repairs preformed. Jim's been around and worked on pinzgauers for some time now. I don't think he would try and sell some thing that was going to harm your pinz or his. I imagine he posted becausehe plans on puttingthe rims on his own pinz. I'm some what suprized he has not responded by now.

lindenengineering · Post by **lindenengineering** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 10:49 pm

Eric
There is an expression in the Anglo Saxon World 'A swallow doesn't make a summer".

Most who contribute to this forum own ONE Pinzgauer including you. They are not involved in repairing them in repair shop. We have seen hordes of them over the last nine years in fact ever since CWRI starting peddling them in Colorado. For your information I have been involved in fixing these trucks since 1974.

Over the past nine years I have noted a propensity to see hub and seal failures due to people installing wider wheels and big fat tyres on these trucks. When observed more closely I see a wider occurance of wear when Koyo bearings are used, but not confined to that brand. The problem is that those that have these wider wheels are often engaged in some form of mud plugging, the ingress of which can often attack the seal causing leakage & contingent bearing distress. Hence it is difficult to correlate the failures to any one factor. The same goes for pin location failure and axle tube damage. I could in several instances pin that down to wheel contact on the superstructure.

I had one customer who lost two (left then right) axle arrangements due to pin failure using ridiculously wide rims and Mickey Thompson tyres. One following the other in quick succession. Once he reverted to more usual size of rim, the problem went away. These same problem I have observed with other customers trucks in my shop.

As for the quote "hard miles". What in your terminology is hard miles?
100,000, 250,000??? I suggest most have a problem racking up 15,000/year. In fact my records show most doing 3 to 5000 KMS/year on average. When these failures occur we note them and try to correlate the failures and report them for the benefit of the forum at large.
Dennis

Jim LaGuardia · Post by **Jim LaGuardia** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 11:06 pm

Ive been busy fixin trucks

I will post a picture of the prototype rim tommorrow.

mjnims · Post by **mjnims** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 9:50 am

Dennis is onto the point which has been mentioned before in wear related issues and mods to the trucks. I would venture to guess that most of us that put the wider rims, or other mods to help the truck perform better offroad use our trucks more vigorously offroad than the rest. While I have only owned two trucks both easily clear 15k miles a year, more like 20K miles (not kilometers). I would be more willing to jump to the
conclusion that the wear comes from the more aggressive driving styles of those with wide rims but hey opinions are like elbows everybody has a couple.
I don't know the others maintenance practices but I would be willing to bet that the ones who are not experiencing problems are those who take a little better care of their trucks. We have seen many post from the pinz service people about neglect or continued operation of the trucks when little things have been wrong, these leading to major problems later. When I was part of the jeep crowd it was considered normal to spend one hour repairing the truck for every hour of offroad operation. I don't even come close to that with the pinz. I guess when and if I loose a wheel bearing I will just have to deal with it.
I can not imagine that the designers of the Pinzgauers would have ever considered they would be used as I for one use mine. These were after all built as utility trucks for the military. They would have been in convoys following much larger trucks and equipment on "rough roads" not the type of trails that we use them on.