Greetings all,
I am new to Chevelles ( the website, but not the vehicle!) and have already found a wealth of information about one of my favorite pasttimes. My question is about wheel/tire size for my 72 Monte Carlo. I know this is a Chevelle site, and I hope a question about the Chevelle's cousin won't get anyone flamed! Stock wheel on the Monte is the Chevy Rally 15x7, 10 bolt rear end.

I have three questions:

1. What is the maximum wheel size that will work on a 15x7 Cragar SS wheel (I'm so old we used to call them Rims!)?

2 Can the rear handle a 15x8 wheel without any body modification?

3. What maximum backspace the rear wheel can have?

Many thanks for any responses and Kudo's to a site well web done

Charlie

Earlier this year I put Wheel Vintiques 15x8 rally wheels on the back of my 70 Monte Carlo. I measured and went with 5 1/4" backspacing so 275/60/15s would fit. I think 5 or 5 1/8" bs would also have worked. The GM 15x8 Corvette rally wheels wouldn't work because of the negative offset putting the tire into the fender lip.

15x10 may or may not work due to interferrence with the lower shock mount. Mine would have made contact with the wheel, I checked. Some have raised the mount 1" to remedy the problem, others didn't have a problem. Guess it's a tolerance stack-up deal.

On my car I could see no advantage to the 10" wheel because I wouldn't try anything wider than a 275. There's less than 1 1/2" total clearance for the rubber.

Please don't take my word for it, since they don't like to give refunds for wheels if they've had tires mounted on them.

Hope this helps.

15x10 with 5.5 back space.........295/50 tire.........

blaauboer, is that on a Monte or a Chevelle? I know a lot of guys with Chevelles are running 295s on the rear.

Thanks Glenn1018 and Blaauboer,
That information does help me. I wasn't sure if all the information I have gathered about wheels, tires, backspacing and offset applies the same for the 70-72 Monte as it does for a 70-72 Chevelle. I was hoping to mount 295/50/15's on a Cragar SS 15x10. It seems like a about a 50/50 split between those that have success with that combo and those that have clearance issues (on a Chevelle anyway).
I have decided that the front will be a 235/60/15's on Cragar SS 15x7 wheels. It looks like to play it safe, I may have to downsize the rear to a 275/60/15's on a Cragar SS 15x8. I saw this setup on a 58 Impala today and it looked great. I'm sure that will look good on my Monte, but I was hoping to fill the well with as much meat as possible! Thanks again...
Charlie

I also had a 70 Monte for 15 years......Just sold it last month.........I had 15x10s with a 5.5 back space.......Tom.aka mc71454 also has the 15x10 with 5.5 on his 71 monte.....Good luck......

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http://hometown.aol.com/blaauboer/myhomepage/photo.html

'70 Chevelle ZZ502/600HP
Silverstone Metallic


1989 Corvette 350/240HP.
Artic White.

I have tried them all...

From my experience and trials and also mistakes:

Run a 215/70/15 on the front with a 295/50/15 on the back. better handling

with a 275/60/15 on the back run a 225/70/15 on the front.

As Scott (Blaauboer) had said I currently run a 295/50/15 on a 15x10 WELD/Cragar wheel with 5.5 BS. I had to do some clearancing on the wheel well lip, but there is enough room for the shock mount without modification.

If you clearance the lip and moulding and then put the moulding back you can't tell.

Please be advised that any additional BS over 5.5" is too close to the shocks.

15x8 Corvette ralleys (4" BS) fit with a little lip trimming with a 275/60/15 tire.

I have also used 15x8 ralleys (Wheel Vintiques) with a 5" BS and they fit the best on the back and will support a 295/50/15.

If there was a perfect BS it would be as Glenn had....5 1/4"


Any other questions?..fire away..

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'71 468 Street/Strip Monte Carlo 3950lbs, 9.8:1, 3.55's, 11.405 @ 117, 7.23 1/8 mile
1.601 60'

[This message has been edited by mc71454 (edited 09-17-2002).]

You might think about visiting our messageboard at www.fgmcc.com (http://www.fgmcc.com) ... http://www.chevelles.com/forum/smile.gif

I run 15x7 wheels with standard backspacing. Front is 225/70/15, rear is monster 255/70/15. Had to rasie the car with air bags in the rear to make the 255/70/15 clear the fender lip.

Thinking about upgrade to 17" wheels (Edelbrock 409, Torque Thrust II or Cragar SS) right now with 275/60/17 rear and 245/50/17 front tires.... http://www.chevelles.com/forum/smile.gif

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71 Monte 454 HO 5-Speed "FULMNTE", 100 HP Nitrous
www.71Monte.com (http://www.71Monte.com)

Thanks again for your responses. I didn't find the FGMMC site trough search engines for some reason. I did register on it today, and it looks like a ton more of info awaits for me to look through. mc71454 - Since you have tried most of the combos, I have a question about lip rolling of clearancing the lip for 15x10 Cragar SS's. What is the difference , and benefits of either method. I assume that rolling involves bending the lip in a circular fasion away from the tire toward the fender? How is this done? I am guessing that clearancing involves grinding and cutting away the lip toward the fender. Any suggestions or links on how to accomlish either of these methods would be greatly helpful and appreciated. Thanks again for welcoming me as a newbie to this site, all the members help and information is really great!
Charlie