Wheel offset

[Breyten]

Evening all

Just hunting for what the stock offset is for the 12x4.5" wheels?

To add some meat to the thread, what width wheels are you running with what offset? And what offset would you recommend with 5.5" width wheels? With or without pumping the guards out ?

[Brayden]

Standard offset is 38mm. What offset you need for 5.5" wheels depends mostly on overall diameter and tyre choice. Rule of thumb is that offset needs to increase with diameter.

Rolling the arches again depends on a few factors - ride height, tyre choice, suspension condition. I recommend doing it as a precaution anyway. Flaring the guards (or using attached flares) is only necessary if you choose wheels that are reduced offset and/or wider than 6".

[Breyten]

Standard offset is 38mm. What offset you need for 5.5" wheels depends mostly on overall diameter and tyre choice. Rule of thumb is that offset needs to increase with diameter.

this is the bit that confuses me. More the orientation of the language used. In my head, increasing the offset would be to go to 45,50,etc. which would actually push the inside edge closer to the centre of the car. Therefore changing to an offset of 32, 24, etc, (towards the negative) would be decreasing the offset. At least until zero.

Rolling the arches again depends on a few factors - ride height, tyre choice, suspension condition. I recommend doing it as a precaution anyway. Flaring the guards (or using attached flares) is only necessary if you choose wheels that are reduced offset and/or wider than 6".

agreed on rolling the arches. I am thinking of reducing the offset of the wheels, and would rather avoid the attached flare look on the MB. IMHO it is a stop gap measure only in road cars. Although I dont intend to slam it, I want to get this bit of bodywork done before it gets resprayed.

As for OD, i cut some board last night, just to see what 590mm would look like. Based this on what is fitted to modern small cars now.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... 86dda9f8f6
standard height. No front pic as the guards arent fitted. Didnt look like it would fit though. Maybe at 550-560mm though.

[Trav]

I'm putting 13x6 rims with +23. Needs lots of flare to fit those in.

I know what you mean as far as reading the offset though, took me a while to work it out. I guess if you look at it as +0 would be the inside of the rim, then any extra moves the hub further out, or moves the tyre closer to the diff. Clear?

[Brayden]

Increasing the offset (larger number) does push the wheel further inboard. FWD cars (and newer RWD cars) have high-offset wheels because the hubs are mounted close to the outside fo the car, so as you increase rim width you need to increase offset to ensure the wheels stay inside the arches.

Oldschool RWD cars were designed with the hubs mounted inboard, and used wheels with less offset (down around +0 to +20. To fill the arches you need to go wider, and reduce the offset, sometimes into the negative.

[Breyten]

Yeah, my old BMW had negative offset wheels.
I think I follow now.

What offset/width is the snot rocket running now Brayden?

[Brayden]

17x5.5 +40mm offset. Clearances are just about perfect with 165/30 tyres. Ride height is dropped about 60mm from standard.