Thread Summary

Summarized on:
Original Member Title: 17x10 wheels, going to try on Roadtrek 210
This AI-generated summary may contain inaccuracies. Please refer to the full thread for complete details.
A member bought a very inexpensive set of American Eagle 17x10 8-lug aluminum wheels with a -24mm offset and considered fitting them to a Roadtrek 210, while noting they could also be used on an older Dodge truck if they did not work. The wheels were rated at 3420 lb but marked 60 psi max, and the first test fit showed the bare wheel cleared the brakes and sensors but stuck out much farther than the stock 16-inch setup. The member was considering used test tires, likely around LT265/65R17...
More...

TWX

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 14, 2012
Posts
200
Location
Tempe
To preface, I'm aware that there's a chance that these wheels won't work on this vehicle. Bear in mind how little I paid for them and that I also have an old D-series Dodge crew cab that they could go onto if they don't work on the Roadtrek 210...


While we were thrift shopping today I found a set four 8 lug aluminum wheels that were in surprisingly good shape for being in a thrift store. They turned out to be American Eagle 143-series, 17x10, with -24mm (that's right, negative) offset. The price being asked was so low that I couldn't go wrong even if they wouldn't fit.

As they came home:
full

We hadn't expected to find anything like this, and suffice it to say it was lucky that they fit into my wife's Jeep Renegade without much fuss beyond folding the seat down.

On getting them home and unloaded:
full


Detail:
full


Fairly attractive look, with an obvious concern of a fairly deep negative offset at -24mm.

Sticker had enough visible information to confirm wheel bolt pattern and other information, even being a bit blemished from the wheel being used:
full


And the information is also found in the castings on the rear side:
full

full

full

full

3420lb rating, model "143", with the only real concern being that they're labeled for 60PSI MAX. Depending on the tire that may or may not be a problem, in addition to the obvious fitment.

Even had all four center caps:
full

They're not perfect, there are minor dings and scratches, and the inside of the center caps has rust from where they probably sat outside collecting water. But they're at least all there.

Now for price...

This was the sticker:
full

They were just put out today. $25 for all four.

I should mention, as we approached the checkout counter, a crazy person attacked the store manager when the store manager tried to call the police on him, my wife helped one of the other clerks hide to call 911 from comparative safety. After the original brawl said crazy person started threatening with a baseball bat from the store inventory. Once the police and paramedics took care of the situation we finally got to actually check out, and the clerk gave us the 25% student/military discount, so out the door the $24.99 wheels were $18.74. Given the situation in the store these are the most expensive $18.74 wheels in history.



So next steps, I've already started cleaning up the wheels, still have some more work simply to be willing to handle them. The visible faces were okay, but the backsides were caked in brake dust. I've cleaned two, have a couple more to do.

The wheels with their -24mm offset stick out a lot further than the +28mm stock offset on the factory 16" steel wheels, and going from 6.5" width to 10" wide, the new wheels would end up sticking out around three and a half inches further than the steelies. I'll obviously need new tires to go with the new wheels, and there are some tires with higher load ratings than what are available for 16" wheels. The 16" top out at "120", while there are "121" and "123" rated tires in 17".

For actual tire size, there are some various 265, 275, and 285mm-wide tires in 65 and 70 ratio for the 17" that might work. The 265s might be a little too narrow for the 10" width, but will have to see. The stock 245/75/16 are 30.5" tall, which would closely correspond to a 265/65/17 at 30.6", and would be acceptable enough with a 285/65/17 at 31.6" if that tire could clear.

Once I have a chance to test-fit just a wheel, if I proceed I'll probably get some used takeoffs mounted in various sizes to test-fit and to see what trimming might be required on the front. I'm not completely unwilling to trim on the Roadtrek body kit, but would want to keep it within reason on the trailing side of the wheel opening. On the front there are some aftermarket front bumper covers available that are interesting, and there are even some wheel lip moldings available for a tire that sticks out past the sheet metal if necessary.

And of course if they don't fit in any way, I spent less on these four wheels than I spent on the lunch my wife and I had afterward. And they'll probably fit my Dodge D350 regardless. I'll probably have to buy lugnuts with the correct shape for the wheels, those will cost more than the wheels, and the hubcentric rings for chevy will also cost more than the wheels.

Will keep this updated as I proceed.
 
Wow, that's pretty cheap. Theres probably $18 of scrap aluminum there.

I do hope it works, but I'm a little concerned that it won't fit without major trimming. I'd also be concerned with major stress on the bearing assemblies with the weight being moved out a couple inches.

Let us know how it works out
 
  • Like
Reactions: TWX
I wish you luck, but I don't think I would try to use them. The huge negative offset would be enough to stop me as the pivot radius and scrub radius are going to get very large compared to stock so bump/puddle type pulling or brake pulling will be greatly amplified, as will grooved road pulls.

I looked to see what the factories are using on 3500 model pickups and Chevy uses a 285, I think 60 ratio, 3415# rated tire on them. But that would be at 80 psi so 60 psi would probably give you very low capacity. The tires are also 34" diameter so certainly will hit the fender wells especially with the increased wheel movement radius moving them fore and aft more. The 10" wide rims are also above width range for them.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TWX
Went ahead and test-fit the bare wheel on the van this morning.

For reference, this is the stock wheel with LT245/75/16 tire when looking from the front:
full

Neither the tire nor the wheel stick out.

With the 17x10 -24mm offset, just the bare wheel, installed:
full

full

full


I did not have a practical way to measure stick-out. Also only later did I realize that I had the steering turned ever so slightly to the right, hence why the wheel looks a little funny in the third shot.

While I had it up in the air I turned the steering to measure the wheel at the closest point to the rest of the vehicle for the sweep of the steering:
full

full


So around 5-1/4" to 5-1/2" of sidewall from the tire bead to the tread, if the tire cross section was a rigid rectangle. Since it's not a rigid rectangle I might still be able to make this work, will come back to that later.

Couple of additional pictures taken while test fitting the front:
full

full


I did confirm that with those two lugnuts snug and the wheel fully against the hub face, there was no interference in rotating with respect to the brakes, the wheelspin sensors, or anything else. This was with the suspension mostly at ride-height as I supported the weight of the vehicle with the control arm as close to the wheel as I could.



While the rear isn't nearly as critical, still test-fit it there to make sure that it clears the brakes:

full

full

full

full

full


As expected it isn't buried as deeply into the rear wheel well as the stock steelies are, nor does it look like there's interference with the brakes or anything else.



Realistically a tire much larger in diameter than stock isn't in the cards if I don't want to make a lot of changes. This basically limits me to LT265/65R17, which are basically available as load range E, 120, same as the 16" tires that I'm currently running. Plugging the stock and aftermarket setups into an online wheel fitment calculator I get the following:

full


The 265 section width is technically a "stretch", because 265 tires are recommended for up to 9.5" wide wheels, not 10". That said I am not especially concerned, and since the tire is narrower at the tread than its maximum section width, I expect that only minimal trimming may be required at the Roadtrek body kit, if at all.

Given the changes in how the wheel bearings and balljoints are loaded in this possible change I am not yet prepared to go all-in on doing this, but we have a lot of used tire shops around here and if I can get a screaming deal on a used LT265/65/17 I will have one mounted to test. The diameter is almost identical to 245/75/16, so I could just keep using my stock spare, and likewise I can test-drive on that used tire to see how it clears. If it clears easily then I might even look at other sizes, but likely only 265/70/17 or 275/70/17 would be options because anything 285 would simply have too large a diameter for both clearance and the van's drivetrain gearing.

@booster I hear you on your concerns, I'm not ignoring them outright. I've seen a lot of vehicles run with mild, moderate, and severe wheel offset changes compared to stock with varying degrees of issues. I actually found reference to a stock-ish Express or Savana with 17x10 -24mm where they stretched 245s onto the wheels, tires that were pretty aggressive all-terrains. It isn't a look that I'm going for, but it also didn't actually look awful. Testing with one or two used tires will tell me a lot about how it'll work, and given how I have just my time and the cost of a meal for-two invested I'm not all that concerned. If it doesn't pan out it doesn't pan out.
 
Be sure to allow that you can only go to 60psi, so stock rated tires won't get there as they are rated at 80 psi. The 60psi limit is going to really limit your choices of anything that will fit and carry the van weight adequately.

210s are heavy in the rear with many approaching the 6080# axle limit weight. You appear to have the Dana Super 60, 60s that is rated right at the 6080 also and is a semi floater so big offset is much worse for them than if it was a Super 70, 70s that is a full floater so the axle shafts don't have to carry the weight and only do torque to turn the wheels.

Almost all that have tried to get more load capacity by going to 265/75/16 on steelie 7" correct offset wheels, or going to 265/70/17 on 7.5" aluminum GM pickup truck wheels of the stock offset for 2000-2010 pickups. Both combos are about 1" larger diameter than stock and do fit the wheel wells in almost all that have tried them, including us who have had both ways. The load capacity of the tires increases about 370# per tire which is good insurance and a tail heavy 210 that may be running with no headroom on tire rating.
 
Be sure to allow that you can only go to 60psi, so stock rated tires won't get there as they are rated at 80 psi. The 60psi limit is going to really limit your choices of anything that will fit and carry the van weight adequately.

210s are heavy in the rear with many approaching the 6080# axle limit weight. You appear to have the Dana Super 60, 60s that is rated right at the 6080 also and is a semi floater so big offset is much worse for them than if it was a Super 70, 70s that is a full floater so the axle shafts don't have to carry the weight and only do torque to turn the wheels.

Almost all that have tried to get more load capacity by going to 265/75/16 on steelie 7" correct offset wheels, or going to 265/70/17 on 7.5" aluminum GM pickup truck wheels of the stock offset for 2000-2010 pickups. Both combos are about 1" larger diameter than stock and do fit the wheel wells in almost all that have tried them, including us who have had both ways. The load capacity of the tires increases about 370# per tire which is good insurance and a tail heavy 210 that may be running with no headroom on tire rating.

Yeah, the RPO code indicates I should have a 4.10 rear end, the tag on this one says 3.73, so there's a good chance that it's not the original axle.

I've been looking at potential options for other rear ends, I'm not thrilled with this particular axle. Unfortunately the nomenclature GM or their enthusiast fanbase have gone with doesn't help, as "fourteen bolt" is what they settled on, even though several different manufacturers created axles whose differential covers use fourteen bolts and have internals unrelated to each other. Normally this nomenclature is just for GM-produced axles, but sometimes it's used on Dana and AAM products incorrectly.

I was looking at the dually-truck full-floater axles for GMT-900 trucks 2007-2010 where they were still using 8 on 6.5, possibly reworking to use SRW disc brakes instead of the dually brakes and changing the shock mounts for the van-style instead of the truck style, but I haven't gotten that far yet. That axle would be wider to better fit the wider rear wheel wells on the 210, but I don't entirely trust the information on width. I've seen claims that the van axles are 70" hub-face to hub-face (or wheel mounting surface, "WMS") and that the dually trucks are 72", but I'm not finding good photos confirming the dimension claims.

Otherwise I've been combing the junkyard part listings on car-part dot com to see if I can find a proper Express/Savana full-floater axle, but most of the examples I'm finding are drum brakes. I'm also interested in going back to the supposedly stock 4.10 ratio for better performance going up steep grades, but that might require some computer work for the speedometer to read accurately.

Or I could just go crazy and see what weldtec can do to do a 4x4 conversion with lift and beefing everything up.... *laugh*
 
If you see rear axles for the Express vans that have drum brakes they are for the previous generation before 2003 vans. Also if it is 14 bolt it is a previous GM corporate, American Axle unit. The 70s Dana has 12 bolts with a cast cover instead of sheet metal and is what you need. Finding a 4.10 might be tough and if you want a G80 locker in it even more rare. Probably time and money ahead to find a 3.73 with a locker on not if you don't care and and change ring gear and pinion as I am quite sure they use the same carrier break so just bolt in and set preload lash and pattern. You are in the non salt area so should be able to find nice ones. Changing the gears isn't all that bad or expensive if you hire it done and any used axle should be opened and checked out anyway.

Here is a link to 10.5" full floaters for our vans in your area.

 
Last edited:
If you see rear axles for the Express vans that have drum brakes they are for the previous generation before 2003 vans. Also if it is 14 bolt it is a previous GM corporate, American Axle unit. The 70s Dana has 12 bolts with a cast cover instead of sheet metal and is what you need. Finding a 4.10 might be tough and if you want a G80 locker in it even more rare. Probably time and money ahead to find a 3.73 with a locker on not if you don't care and and change ring gear and pinion as I am quite sure they use the same carrier break so just bolt in and set preload lash and pattern. You are in the non salt area so should be able to find nice ones. Changing the gears isn't all that bad or expensive if you hire it done and any used axle should be opened and checked out anyway.

Here is a link to 10.5" full floaters for our vans in your area.


The link didn't share as you intended. What model year and equipment options did you pick?
 
I dont know where you are, but theres a couple full floater axles in a pick n pull yard in Appleton wisconsin. Didn't pay any attention to what years they were, but dont think they were 2003 or older.
 
I dont know where you are, but theres a couple full floater axles in a pick n pull yard in Appleton wisconsin. Didn't pay any attention to what years they were, but dont think they were 2003 or older.
Unfortunately that's quite far from the desert southwest.



While browsing the classifieds I might have located a set of the early GMT-900 Silverado 8 lug 17" factory wheels in 8 on 6.5...

2006 Silverado 17%22 factory wheels.jpg


They're the 5-spoke rather than the 6-spoke, but these might be the best choice for strength provided that they're the genuine article.

I've also found some listings for Dodge 17" wheels, which would require hubcentric rings but would be compatible with my old truck too. We'll see what I end up doing.
 
Those look to be the Chevy version of the 2000-2010 approx timeframe upsized aluminum wheel for the heavy pickups. The six spoke are the GMC version.

The should be +28 offset and have GM logos and part numbers. Many made in Hungary, some in USA, and some in Mexico, I think. They won't list a load capacity on the wheel as that is not required on purpose built OEM wheels. They were used on pickups up to a bit over the load capacity of our vans. The oversized 265-70-17 tires that have 370# per tire more capacity fit these wheels well and don't hit from what we and others have seen. Not all LT tires in that range get that much extra, but some good brands do. They will change most speedometers from reading about 1-2mph faster than actual to 1-2mph lower than usual.

My guess is that you won't find any Dodge wheels with the correct offset, I never did when I was looking at various options.
 

Try RV LIFE Pro Free for 7 Days

  • New Ad-Free experience on this RV LIFE Community.
  • Plan the best RV Safe travel with RV LIFE Trip Wizard.
  • Navigate with our RV Safe GPS mobile app.
  • and much more...
Try RV LIFE Pro Today
Back
Top