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Posted by Clint Dixon on Tuesday, July 14, 2009 at 07:38:16 :
In Reply to: running 20 inch budd rims on a flatfender posted by dave on Monday, July 13, 2009 at 07:29:03 :
His was the only post below I read that directly answered your question based in whole upon his personal experience of actually doing what you ask. He reported that he was running 20" Michelin radials with good results.
My experience parallels his, but with a different tire and rim combination. I owned a truck for about 10 years that a previous owner (about 20 years before) had fit with modified Ford AA Budd wheels and 8.25x20 bias ply tires. The Ford wheels were dismantled, and the rims were moved outboard on the wheel centers by a couple of inches so they no longer could be dualed. These were wide Budd rims of about 6-7 inches and were later production AA Fords.
The larger diamater tires provided a 10% increase in road speed, or about half of what would be expected if changing from 5.83:1 gearing to 4.89:1. I regularly drove the truck 55 miles per hour. I never had any trouble stopping this truck what so ever with the stock drum brakes. I did not notice any loss of power from the stock engine turning the larger tire and wheel combinations. The tires cleared the fenders even with the truck fully loaded, and because of the modified offset, they did not rub the frame at full lock, right or left.
Other pros were an increase in ground clearance and a smoother ride.
Cons were that they were physically bigger, and slightly heavier, than the 9.00x16 NDTs on 6.5 Budd rims and, of course, were a little bit more work to wrestle around when changing.
FYI, brakes on a Power-Wagon require constant attention to always be in top notch working order, just like the rest of the truck. Be deligent in preventive maintenance and your truck can be expected to perform as designed. Be lax on maintenance and one may find themselves having to resort to alternative band-aide patches.
Junior