wheel/tire size/load rating
Sept 9, 2011 7:20:22 GMT -5
Post by sigmfsk on Sept 9, 2011 7:20:22 GMT -5
Here:
bluesmobiles.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=gotopost&board=information&thread=242&post=1308
Lord Vadus writes:
> Here's a picture of my Brougham's original wheels; they're the
> correct police-car width
and that got me thinking about wheels and tires, as I'd recently found something interesting about my tires.
1974 Monacos could come with two possible wheel sizes.
15x5.5 (standard)
15x6.5 (heavy duty)
I think "heavy duty wheels" simply means "wheels wide enough that one can mount heavy duty tires", and "heavy duty tires" means "tires with a greater load rating".
the "heavy duty" 15x6.5 wheels were always used on cop cars:
and on taxis:
and station wagons:
and at last one of the optional trailer packages:
I didn't know of another way to get the wheels, but Lord Vadus says that his 74 Brougham 4-door hardtop has them. The Brougham had different size tires as standard:
The AMA guide says that all Monacos with a 360 or 400 engine have G78 tires as standard - except for Broughams which will have HR78 tires as standard:
It refers to Broughams as "P series". This is the VIN code:
M = base
H = custom
P = brougham
and this is backed up by the regular brochure which says that radial tires are optional on Monaco and Custom, but standard on Brougham:
The Dodge Dealer Data Book also shows the standard tire sizes for brougham as different - but they still had the 15x5.5" wheels:
At least from what I see, if a non-police, non-taxi, non-station wagon, non-trailer package Monaco came with 15x6.5" wheels, then it was a Ma Mopar "mistake". But I can easily see that if they were running short on 15x5.5 wheels, that they'd put on 15x6.5 wheels. And it would be easiest on a Brougham because it would already have the wider tires. And maybe they even did it specifically on LV's car, based on all the other nice stuff it.
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Here's the thing I found recently about minimum load ratings on 74 Monacos with a 440. When I spoke with the Silver State Classic guys about what tires I could use at speed, they had some big book and said that 74 Monacos with a 440 originally came with H rated tires, and that was the minimum load rating that I would need to meet.
I couldn't dispute that claim, but my b-pillar has a sticker clearly showing a minimum size of G:
It seemed that it didn't really matter what my sticker said. The tech guy said "H" and that was that (at least without a lot of arguing). I thought my sticker was just wrong, as the car had H tires on it.
But I see in the police documentation that a 440 withOUT A/C had a minimum size of G. But a 440 with A/C had a minimum size of H.
And then I see this backed up in the civilian option pricing guide. If you had a 440, then you had G rated tires, unless you had A/C or the heavy trailer towing package - then you had H rated tires:
So maybe if I got my documentation act together, I might eventually convince them that my car had an original load rating based on G series tires. But it wouldn't seem to be worth the trouble, because I'm adding A/C back. And I've already found modern tires that meet the load (at speed) for H size tires.
your friend in "heavy duty" wheels and tires,
arthur
bluesmobiles.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=gotopost&board=information&thread=242&post=1308
Lord Vadus writes:
> Here's a picture of my Brougham's original wheels; they're the
> correct police-car width
and that got me thinking about wheels and tires, as I'd recently found something interesting about my tires.
1974 Monacos could come with two possible wheel sizes.
15x5.5 (standard)
15x6.5 (heavy duty)
I think "heavy duty wheels" simply means "wheels wide enough that one can mount heavy duty tires", and "heavy duty tires" means "tires with a greater load rating".
the "heavy duty" 15x6.5 wheels were always used on cop cars:
and on taxis:
and station wagons:
and at last one of the optional trailer packages:
I didn't know of another way to get the wheels, but Lord Vadus says that his 74 Brougham 4-door hardtop has them. The Brougham had different size tires as standard:
The AMA guide says that all Monacos with a 360 or 400 engine have G78 tires as standard - except for Broughams which will have HR78 tires as standard:
It refers to Broughams as "P series". This is the VIN code:
M = base
H = custom
P = brougham
and this is backed up by the regular brochure which says that radial tires are optional on Monaco and Custom, but standard on Brougham:
The Dodge Dealer Data Book also shows the standard tire sizes for brougham as different - but they still had the 15x5.5" wheels:
At least from what I see, if a non-police, non-taxi, non-station wagon, non-trailer package Monaco came with 15x6.5" wheels, then it was a Ma Mopar "mistake". But I can easily see that if they were running short on 15x5.5 wheels, that they'd put on 15x6.5 wheels. And it would be easiest on a Brougham because it would already have the wider tires. And maybe they even did it specifically on LV's car, based on all the other nice stuff it.
----------------
Here's the thing I found recently about minimum load ratings on 74 Monacos with a 440. When I spoke with the Silver State Classic guys about what tires I could use at speed, they had some big book and said that 74 Monacos with a 440 originally came with H rated tires, and that was the minimum load rating that I would need to meet.
I couldn't dispute that claim, but my b-pillar has a sticker clearly showing a minimum size of G:
It seemed that it didn't really matter what my sticker said. The tech guy said "H" and that was that (at least without a lot of arguing). I thought my sticker was just wrong, as the car had H tires on it.
But I see in the police documentation that a 440 withOUT A/C had a minimum size of G. But a 440 with A/C had a minimum size of H.
And then I see this backed up in the civilian option pricing guide. If you had a 440, then you had G rated tires, unless you had A/C or the heavy trailer towing package - then you had H rated tires:
So maybe if I got my documentation act together, I might eventually convince them that my car had an original load rating based on G series tires. But it wouldn't seem to be worth the trouble, because I'm adding A/C back. And I've already found modern tires that meet the load (at speed) for H size tires.
your friend in "heavy duty" wheels and tires,
arthur
