I realize most of the members on here add the biggest tires they can without worrying about the rapid wear it's doing to their trucks, but I'm not one of them. My grail truck had it's first wheel bearing replaced at 270,000, with OEM tires/wheels it's whole life.

Anyhow, I've got my eye on these 16X8 wheels with zero offset: http://www.buywheelstoday.com/produc...e+Black%29.bwt
and am wondering if anyone has a guess how they might accelerate wear if I stick with 245/75/16s? I'm not worried about the width, but that they won't be centered over the wheel bearings since the offset is less. Thanks for any ideas.

 

the offset is what is bad for wheel bearings, i am running stock 17" wheels at 265000 miles...i replaced the left wheel bearing early on( 80000 miles) because the wheel bearing nut backed off ,causing bearing damage ( nylon lock nut didn't lock, probably not torqued properly at the assembly plant in mexico............

 

The farther you move your tire centerline out from your wheel bearing the more perceived load the bearing has. Its all about leverage, think of how its much easier to break something loose with a swing arm then a ratchet

 

I've been trying to figure out this offset thing. Is zero offset meaning the hub flange is centered in the rim? So on an 8 inch rim it is technically 4" to each side? So are our stock rims negative offset or positive offset?

 

That's correct. Our trucks have positive offset, which moves the hub flange outboard, keeping more of the rim inboard (backspacing=the distance from the hub flange to the inside lip of the rim.)

I'm in agreement about the wear. I was hoping to here of some folks running aftermarket rims getting big mileage on bearings/tie-rods/etc to justify buying those rims, but maybe I'll just live with the looks of my steels.

 

Ok, thanks lazerhawk. I am about to go to a set of 8" Americans that have 0 offset. Which i guess will be 4" backspacing. So i know I'm gonna need flares but they sure look good. Not too worried about the bearing wear as I'm a fanatic on repacking them. Heck we used to run full reversed rims back in the '60's all the time!

 

I have 4.5" offset 10" rims with 33x12.50's on them. 3" lift in front, 2" in the back. I can tell you that this offset isnt doing the front end much good. The bearings dont get thrashed, so much as the steering components do.
Im looking at some helo HE821 rims that have a lot of offset to bring the wheels inboard a bit. Want to do this in combination with an axle mod that adds 3/4" per side length.

Anyone know what the stock rim width and offset is for the 16.5" steel rims that come with these older 2nd gens?

 

I also would like to know what the stock 16.5 offset is...But I think the dually offset maybe be different..