Hoping to understand some (very!) basic things Re. changing my wheels&tires (to a new set - hopefully w/ spacers!))

Forum for Nissan wheel fitment, tire selection, suspension setup and brake discussions.
Heart.My.95.Hardbody
Posts: 9
Joined: Wed Oct 31, 2018 8:14 am
Car: 1995 D21 Hardbody 4 cylinder automatic

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['95 Hardbody/D21]


Hello Nico.club!!!

I know this is going to sound really silly but in the next ~year I plan to do a lot of upgrades to my 95 Hardbody and one of the bigger ones I want to tackle is swapping-out the stock 14" wheels!! However, I really don't want to be approaching things from a form > function mindset so I only want to do what's acceptable and I'd presume the OEM 14"'s are optimal or at least close-to...but jeebus I really dislike their look, in fact I've been browsing Craigslist for wheel-sets from other vehicles (not just other, larger Nissan wheels but Jeep and others like that), I'm hoping to achieve:

- a wider 'stance' where my wheels/tires protrude further out from the body than they currently do (I'm in FL so no vehicle inspections here, I know wider wheel bases are restricted in some areas (though maybe that's just England, though I'd swear it's a thing in MA too!) I figure wider rims/tires and/or those aftermarket wheel-spacers should achieve this pretty well but no idea what concerns I should have about their usage!

- wheels/tires that better-fill my wheel-wells, so regardless of the R rating the overall height of the tire needs to be a bit bigger, though I do want a higher R rating (more wheel / less tire for any given height) if possible, though I'd be fine with some stock Nissan 16"'s w/ stock tires if they had the overall dimensions excepting the R ration



I like the idea of doing this but truly I'm worried about issues, for instance the wheel-spacers may throw things out of whack insofar as the camber/alignment.....or that the extra rotating-mass weight could be an issue or otherwise undesirable....or that, if I just got one pair of tires to put on the rear (I like the idea of some increased rake, aesthetically, though if it's bad on the suspension I imagine my "just get bigger rear wheels" idea wouldn't be wise!)

Any & all thoughts on this would be hugely appreciated, I want to work with this vehicle for a very very long time and don't want to risk doing things that, 6mo later, I'll be kicking myself for having done (like that time when, with my first car, I just dropped it w/o regard for camber - my expensive new racing tires' inside-edges wore out so fast it was insane, such a waste!!)

Thanks a ton everyone!!! :)


Heart.My.95.Hardbody
Posts: 9
Joined: Wed Oct 31, 2018 8:14 am
Car: 1995 D21 Hardbody 4 cylinder automatic

Post

This set of 17" rims from an '18 Wrangler look nice for my old-styled truck I think, would love grabbing these...just have no idea if/what issues are caused or potentially caused by diverging from OEM, whether the extra weight makes me slower-from-start or the extra rotating-mass slows me down (though I rarely drive over 40, typically local-only 30mph and under), my intent would be to get thinner-height tires (I think that means I'd have tires w/ a higher R value) so that, on the 3" taller rims, the *total* wheel+tire height wasn't that much taller than stock (I *do* want the tops of the tires to be a lil bit higher than OEM but not that much, maybe 2-3" or thereabouts?)

*Any* help on this would be hugely appreciated!! Thank you! :)

The Wrangler wheels-in-question: https://tampa.craigslist.org/hil/wto/d/ ... 32388.html
(Note- I know those specific wheels wouldn't work as they've got wrong # of holes for my (hubs?) but they're just such a close example of what I'm hunting for in hopes of finding it's OK for the truck to do this!)


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