Tire sizes

[Hampshire]

Your solution sounds very good...

I went just a little bit wider - also, my tires are taller (29"). I had already mocked it up with 26-27" tall 15s but I thought they looked too small on my long bed (it's a 3600). I could have tried 255/70R15s for the back (closer to 29") but in the end I decided to use 16" rims because there were more tire choices in the height range I was looking at. There are also some decent options with steel wheels (the Wheelsmith).

After experimenting with 235/70R16 for the front and 255/65R16 for the back, I settled on 16 x7" rims with 4" backspace. I had hoped to use an 8" (4.5"backspace) rim on back, but I came up with 10.5" sidewall/sidewall with the 255/65R16. With the 60" axle, the sidewall was pressing against the bed. On a 7" rim The sidewall/sidewall measurement went down to 10". This gave me 1/4" clearance to the bed. I'm going bump that out a bit with a 1/2" spacer - i think that should be enough.

On the front, I use the same 7" rims (4" backspace) with 235/70R16 tires. My iFS is for a modest drop and has a 59" track. It is not what most people see - an early Jim Wiemer design that you can see on Gayle Richards site (Gayleco). Gayle worked with Jim in another era designing these & knows this design well. Gayle currently uses JWs parts for his IFS.

So, I now have what I want…. 7+" of tread on front and 8+" on back, some nice dish in the wheels and nothing looks like it is sticking out….Hope this helps…I know, pics would be better, but it is going in the shop later this week to finish the suspension work and put the new tires/rims on. I'll put up some photos then.