Duster wheel size with mini tub

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Freighttrain

Freighttrain

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Anyone running 18x10 reads on their dusters / demons? Curious how wide of a tire I can run with offset springs and stock wheel well and with a mini tub if I need to go that route.

So far with my measurements I can get away with a 275 or 285 for sure but wondering if a 305-315 would fit with a mini tub. Is the spring location the issue or the inner wheel well to running the wider tires.
 
all you need is some air shocks ;)

tire.jpg
 
those are N50 tires on 14X10 wheels
i dont know the backspacing off hand, but i doubt it is more then 4 (they bolt onto a stock A body 8 3/4 no problem)

you do not need a mini tub for it, because they just hand well outside the fenders, and this is where the "problems" come in
first of all, if you dont use springs with extra lift to get the body up, but air shocks there is a danger of the shock failing and the fender dropping onto the the tire and shredding it

secondly, your state may have laws limiting how far a tire is allowed to be outside of the fender and this may get you in hot water with the local cops

those tires did pretty decent (just dont get caught in the rain with them) but the main reason, well, the only reason i shelved them is because i just can not find replacement tires for them

it is kinda like running 18 inch tires on these cars, some people love the look, others hate it...personally, i think it captured the soul of the hotrod
 
Richard McLaughlin said:
That looks so cool. I would love to do that on my 74.
What rim size is that and tire size and backspace?
No need to mini tub for this look?
Any disadvantage to this big a tire?
Thanks
Richard
Click to expand...

Richard to get a look like that you need to move your rear springs, it sounds easy but remember that your car is over 40 years old and if those springs have never had work done to them that can mean quite a few hours work...it can be a pain and then there is the mini tubs...if you don't do your own welding you can turn out spending more money that you want to. Basically it depends on the budget.
 
leblanc said:
Richard to get a look like that you need to move your rear springs, it sounds easy but remember that your car is over 40 years old and if those springs have never had work done to them that can mean quite a few hours work...it can be a pain and then there is the mini tubs...if you don't do your own welding you can turn out spending more money that you want to. Basically it depends on the budget.
Click to expand...


well, on the duster i posted the springs were in the stock location, it just had some gabriel skyjackers under it
but that is "do as i say, not as i do"
 
You can do whatever you want if you jack it up high enough to hang them outside of the wheel wells like those N50's are. No need to move anything except the tail end of the car 3-4" above the top of the tire.

If you actually want the tire to fit inside the wheel well that's a different story. With the springs in the stock locations and not cutting anything, the biggest you can go on a Duster/Demon/Dart Sport is a 275.

If you do a spring offset, either DoctorDiff's 1/2" offset hanger/shackles or the Mopar Performance 3/4" offset (which is really only a 1/2" offset on the hanger with a 1/4" of side loading/cross angling on the spring and 3/4" offset shackles), then you can run 285's comfortably. I run 295/35/18's with a 1/2" offset and another 1/2" cut off the lip on the rear quarters on my Duster, with the car fairly low and the tires inside the wheel tubs. That's the max for the stock wheel tubs, the springs aren't the limiting factor with a 1/2" offset, the tubs are.

If you're talking about a 3" spring relocation, without a mini-tub you're stuck with the same exact 285's or 295's with some trimming as the 1/2" offset. That's just all the stock wheel tub will take, so there's really no point in doing a full 3" spring relocation without doing a mini-tub. Just a lot of extra work for no gain. With a mini-tub, the sky's pretty much the limit. You can fit 335's on a Dart with a 3" relocation and mini-tub, a Duster will have an extra 1" of space compared to that. 355's probably. The quarter to mini-tub inside wheel tub will end up being about 15", so 14" of that can be tire with a 1/2" clearance on each side. That's a 355. You'd just have to work out the backspacing based on your axle width.
 
Just mini tub it, then do the spring relocate. I could really only find 355/30/19 tires when I did my Duster (Like what's on the ACR Viper). And they fit without issue after the mini tub and spring relocate. I really don't have much use for 14", 15", 16" diameter rims so I don't care what width's those come in anymore. And finding 12" wide rims that don't run $1000 each is half the battle. I just looked for 19x11 + 25 OS rims and had them widened by an inch to get +50 OS. None of this stuff was cheap to do and make the car have a stance I can live with. To me 295 width tires look too skinny out back, but it may be that's all you can afford so that's the way you should go. Some people will appreciate the work in it, some people won't. You really only have to make yourself happy.

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So $5000 Canadian is $4000 American... Eh!
That's ~$50 to $60 hr... Eh!
Hope that includes paint, undercoating, and complete out the door... Eh!!

First off , not sure what shop you are taking it too. If they have never done a mini tub and spring relocate they will probably screw it up, spend a lot of time discussing how much work it's going to take, complain and whine, blame you for bringing your car to them, complain Mopars are junk, complain and whine some more, then just stitch and tack weld it all together and shove it out their door...

Seriously, it should only take about 40 hours to do the spring relocate and 40 hours to do the mini tub if you've never done it before and have some welding skill. Just don't cut out the frame AND the tubs at the same time. Finish one then the other. I'd say if you've done it before you could do it in 40 hrs.

I would suggest just getting a welder and doing it yourself. Save the $5000 animal skins for something else on the car... Eh!

And, if you are going to have someone else do it, I suggest just getting the US Car Tool kit, copy all the pictures they have on their site of it actually being done, go over them with whoever will be doing it. Hold their hand despite them telling you how they know everything in the world about mini tubing and spring relocating.

Eh!
 
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