Wheel Options

[bearcrawl]

Do we have many? As best I can tell Defender and Disco Series 1 wheels share the same bolt pattern. I like the Factory look of the series wheels I just wish I could lessen the amount of back spacing. I know the rock crawler guys "re-center" their wheels (cut out the center and re-weld it with more or less back spacing). Has anyone here done that? Bottom line, I want to widen the stance and keep the same look.

[leafsprung]

Figure out what measurements you require in a wheel. Figure out what tire you want to run. With that in hand, pick a wheel to fit your needs. If no off the shelf rim exists which meet your needs, then you can look at custom rims.

[bearcrawl]

Looks like the factory wheels have about 4 3/4" of backspacing. I would like about 1 3/4" wider stance per side. So I guess what I am looking for is a wheel that looks like factory with about 3" of back spacing. I am fine with a tire size of 235 85. Color doesn't matter since I will have the p coated to match the limestone top.

[Paul Rossmann]

As best I can tell Defender and Disco Series 1 wheels share the same bolt pattern.

Can Defender wheels be fitted directly to a series?

[leafsprung]

I dont have any handy to measure, but if you can get the measurements from the defender 110 or 130 steel rims I think they would suit your needs just fine and be less expensive than custom rims.

[bearcrawl]

Sound like NATO or "Wolf" wheels would suite me well. I don't suppose anyone knows their back-spacing.

[leafsprung]

probably not the wolf wheels, they dont look like series rims and I recall them as having more backspacing than the NAS 110 rims or 130 rims

[vtsnowplow]

I have wolf nato wheels on my series and they look great.

[SafeAirOne]

I have wolf nato wheels on my series and they look great.

So do I. They DO look great. Plus, I can actually find decent tires that fit (not 700x16s). Plus, I don't need inner tubes anymore.

The only drawback that I have found to the NATO steel wheels is that the original wheel studs are a bit short due to the MUCH thicker steel of these rims. My studs are a few threads short of being flush with the nuts. Ideally, there should be a few threads sticking out BEYOND the nuts, not a few threads SHORT of flush.

This concerned me until I strained my neck trying to get the nuts off to remove the front wheels last month. Now I have no doubt that those nuts aren't going to fall off any time soon. My neck still hurts when I look down and to the right...

[SafeAirOne]

One more tidbit regarding wheel backspacing--When I first got my current Rover, it came with 6 wheels (4 under the Rover and 2 spares). When I went to get 6 new tires in preparation for a 3000 mile cross country trip, the tire guy told me that one of the spares was different from all the rest. All were 16" Rover wheels, but the backspacing was different on the one. I can't remember whether it was deeper or shallower now (I got rid of it), but it was different than the others. Note: All 5 similar tires were tube-type rims. I don't remember if the odd one was or not.

[SafeAirOne]

Sound like NATO or "Wolf" wheels would suite me well. I don't suppose anyone knows their back-spacing.

Wow--I could probably get out of low range on this one post alone!

The backspacing on my NATO steel wheels is ABOUT 5.5" from the inboard edge of the rim to the surface that mates against the brake drum. It is 3.0" from the outboard edge of the rim to the mating surface of the brake drum. Bear in mind that these are midnight measurements with the wheel still mounted on the Rover.

Here's a rather un-photogenic midnight picture of the wheels on a Series Rover: