New Subscriber with tire questions on W200

[69powerwagon]

Hello All, I recently purchased a local 1969 Power Wagon that was owned by the second owner since 1975. He purchased the truck from the Dept. of Defense and it had originally been in service at Fort Hood, Texas. It has 75,200 miles on it and he kept a log, sales receipts and he also had a ton of parts that he had gathered over the years to maintain the truck. I am going through the truck and repairing what needs to be repaired mechanically and I am planning a repaint. I intend to keep it as a sometimes driver on the back roads and possibly an occasional highway use. I will likely take up to my wife's parent's land occasionally.

I wanted to ask about tires. The truck has manual steering and a 4 speed. It has a 400 C.I. that was installed in 1984 when it had 63000 miles. It has 4.10 in the rear and 4.09 I believe in the front. I have 16.5" solid rims that I recently powder coated and I ordered some of the STAs 9.50s but they are only 29" tall, even though it says they are 31".

I do not like the look of the Super Traxion in that small a height, but love the tire if it were taller. I would like something taller and think I need to keep it fairly narrow for steering? I found some Super Swampers that are 34"x9.5x16.5". Does anyone have experience with these tires? Will they fit under a truck that has basically a 2.5-3" lift (I had new spring bushings, frame shackle bushings and the springs arched to bring it up) and clear.

Everything else I see in the 16.5" is wide and these are stock rims of 6" or 6.5". With manual steering would I be able to steer the truck from park? Will 10.5 to 12.00" tires even mount on a stock rim? I like the old rims and have some money invested in them now. I would like to use them if possible and the Super Swamper in that size does not appear to be too far out of the question, but I am wondering if any of you have experience with them on these trucks. Any help would be appreciated. I will post some images soon. Thanks

[Gordon Maney]

A decent truck tire shop should be able to advise you regarding size, and be willing to mount something to check the fit.

Welcome to the group!

[Aaron S]

With your stock rims you should be good up to about an 11 inch wide tire, lots of folks run 11 x 16 Michelines with no problems. An inch or so difference in width shouldn't make much of a difference in steering effort as long as everything is in good shape and properly lubricated. I find that radial tires seem to drive a little easier, but in my experience the real trick with manual steering is getting the air pressure just right regardless of the type or size of tire.

[74w300uteline]

Manual steering

My m880 does not have power steering. The novelty of being low tech old school wares off fast. I got rid of the wide , soft modern rubber tires. Tim Haulaway hooked me up with some tall skinny , hard as a rock rubber tires. Now the m880 is a pleasure to drive again.

[Hobcobble]

The 16.5" tire is not all that easy to come by these
days. If you can locate a set of 9.00 x 16.5s, they
might get you the look and performance you're after.
If you strike out on 16.5" tires, you might have to
get a set of 16" Dodge wheels, which LT235/85/16
tires mounted up look good on a Sweptline.
John
http://www.powerwagonadvertiser.com/...ad.php?t=11967

[69powerwagon]

Thank you all for the expert advice. I knew you all would know. I have had an extremely hard time trying to locate something that will work using these 16.5 rims. STA has some Super Traxions that are 12-16.5 and they have it in D and E ply. They are listed as 32.8 in height and I want to check measurement to make sure they are not off 2" like their 9.5 x 16.5 tire. If the 11 will work on my stock rims, will 12s mount Okay? Thanks again.

[rxinhed]

Coker tires sells a 9-16 Super Traxion type tire...36" tall

http://www.cokertire.com/popular-tir...ly-900-16.html

[PowerMan]

Make sure you get a radial tire or you will regret it. A friend bought a new set of those Superlugs 9.00 16's and could never get them to balance correctly. We also have a set of some Deestone (Cheap korean tires) tires on the W300 and they will barely balance and even now they can hardly stay on the road past 45 mph. Keep an eye on your local craigslist. I have found a bunch of good used tire/wheels sets for decent prices. 16.5s are just about impossible to find new tires for as I'm sure you have already found out.

[demulsion]

I think the 34" Swampers should clear fine if you have a couple inch lift. I had some 33" all terrains on a '68 W200 (no lift), and just barely cleared the front corner of the front fender.

[Paul Cook]

16 is not 16.5

Both these rim sizes are discussed in the posts in this thread.

The original tire size for a 1969 W200 was 7 x 17.5 tubeless, six ply. Optional for the W200 was 8 x 19.5 tubeless eight ply. (A "_.5 tire size was used to identify tubeless tires.) Adding to the confusion was that W100 and W200 both had 8 stud wheels standard.

Fort Hood is 15 miles from me. Another thing adding to tire size confusion is that trucks in the vicinity of Fort Hood - and other military bases - may have been fitted with the 16.5 tires that were available surplus from the earlier HMMWV, either while owned by the military or after being sold surplus. Add the M880's with 16.5 inch wheels and tires into the mix.

A 9.00 x 16 10 ply tire on 6 stud rims was an option for the W300.

And let's not end the confusion here. Many 8 stud wheels from a Chevrolet won't fit on the 8 stud Dodge and Ford.

[69powerwagon]

I appreciate all the help here on the tire thread. Thankfully I was able to sell the 16.5" rims and the new STA Super Traxions that measure 29" when they were advertised as 31". I lost some money, but I learned a valuable lesson.

On the positive side, I purchased a nice set of Dodge 8 lug standard heavy duty steel rims that were on a nice Texas '93 3/4 ton Dodge truck and I had them powder coated. After reviewing all of your answers and doing more research I settled on the BFG Mud Terrain KM2s in 255/85r16" with the black wall out. These are 10 ply radials and should be fairly heavy duty all around tires. I will be on pavement with it most of the time, so they seemed like a logical choice. They measure 33.3" and are still fairly narrow, so I believe they should be manageable with Armstrong steering.