thinking about new rims

both sets of tires i run on my ranger need replaced, im thinking of retiring my alloys to trailer service (the tires on those rims have a really high load rating, still have good tread, they just dont get a good grip on wet pavement due to being old) and the '01 jeep wrangler rims hold water then freeze during the winter affecting the balance.(and those tires are 5years old at least, they have very poor wet traction, despite still having legal tread left) im thinking of going to these rims and just running them all year rather than doing the seasonal wheel swap. granted i'll need tires more often, but i havent bought new tires in 5 years anyways, now i would need to buy 2 whole sets, and thats quite alot for what tires are going for these days. heres the link, pretty common /cheap wheel, cragar "D" window rims, 15x7's, id prefer chrome, but since theyre going to have to live "year around", chrome wont work, i'll probly leave the center caps off during winter due to rust concerns.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/CRR-3425712/

 

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They'd look good on any truck. I've never seen em in chrome before though. And you'd be better off leaving the center caps on during the winter. Save from the axle nuts seizing up on your cv axles.

 

I say go for it man. I love Cragars!

 

ha ha, no c.v. axles here, its a '93. technically the fronts will be open caps for the lockout hubs. though i guess i could run caps on all 4 and lock the hubs when i rotate tires in the fall, but with a pinion seal thats been leaking some, i pretty much just lock 'em when its needed. if i didnt have salt/snow to worry about, id run the classic cragar s/s rims and just leave the front centers off. had a set on my '88 2wd back in the day.

 

Wait, do you have the lockouts? I thought you might've had the autolocks like I do. In that case, you'll be fine.

 

ive got the old style ttb axle, had the auto hubs std, but i swapped out to milemarkers about 5 years back.

 

Oh, okay lol I don't even think the center caps would even fit over em, correct me if I'm wrong. In that case, go for it haha

 

heres what it looks like now with stock alloys:

and this is the winter wheels that are currently on it:

and this was a picture i took with 2 old whitespoke trailer rims painted black, just to see if i liked the look of black rims. really not a big fan of these, but they were pretty ugly rims, and the tires on them were way too small. (225 60 15)

but its better than this, no rims! ha ha:

 

I think it would look great with the black rims Obviously bigger tires than the trailer rims lol

 

that last pic reminds me of the time....oh i think i shouldnt go there

 

that was pretty funny, left it on blocks all day, was open house at the trailer park, i thought it was appropriate. ha ha

 

whats up with the chain in the wheel well on the last pic?

 

well, youve no doubt heard of james duff brand traction bars? i figured id do the same thing but with chain. going forward its a "pull" force anyways, so a chain should do just as well in a axle-wrap situation. ive had the setup for about 2 years now and it does seem to be helpfull. granted it does nothing in reverse or while braking, but going forward its good to go. the forward bracket on them is normally the front spring hanger mount, i took a piece of angle iron, welded in a gusset and use the back 2 bolts to mount that bracket to the frame, the rear brackets is another piece of angle iron mounted on top the axle with one of the U-bolts. the chain itself is 3/8" log chain. its held up quite well. heres a few closer pictures of the setup.



i should get some better pictures of the setup, where it mounts to my forward bracket it uses a eye bolt with 1/2 threads, thats how i set the preload on it. basiclly i just take up the slack & add a little tension.

 

ahhh i see thats darn slick