What are you doing for wheels?

Mine has the 16.5" super singles. I'm going to change to 16" and probably going to stick with singles and use Eagle Alloys wheels, 16x7 in the front, 16x10 in the back. Here's a page I put together of different wheels on the back of my coach.

http://www.hallgtc.com/hall_001_wheels.htm

And also a page where I documented my change to 16" wheels on my 1979 Brougham Travel-Van.

http://www.nicksgarage.com/brougham_wheels.htm

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Nick Taylor - Green & White 1974 Hall GTC.
www.NicksGarage.com == www.HallGTC.com == www.NicksTeardrop.com

I took some pictures of a flanged lug nut that is used with dual wheels on Dodges in the 70s and 80s. These flanged lug nuts go over the "coins" on the wheels to securely fix the wheels to the hub. These lug nuts require 325 ft. lbs. of torque so can be very hard to remove on the side of the road. I have a 3/4" drive breaker bar with an 1 1/8" impact socket and extension that I take with me on trips. I also have a wrench called a torque multiplier that makes it much easier to loosen and tighten these nuts. I carry AAA road service for motorhomes which includes wheel service. Regular AAA will not do you much good with motorhomes.

If you want to put dual rear wheels on your Hall GTC, these are the nuts you need. The standard lug nuts will work but they don't keep the wheels aligned properly which can damage the wheels and the hubs.

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Nick Taylor - Green & White 1974 Hall GTC.
www.NicksGarage.com == www.HallGTC.com == www.NicksTeardrop.com

So I took my Hall to les schwab (tire store) this weekend after getting the lights working.. (well not all the upper running light yet) I didn't want to deal with trying to jack up the Van to check brakes and the tires on the Hall were about 12 years old.

So basicly the brakes checked out ok.. (nothing made me concerned but better to be sure) .. However the tires where as old and cracked as I feared. They didn't flat out tell me they couldn't get 16.5 tires but were basicly saying it'd be a real pain to get them. So I got a quote for new wheels and tires in 16inch. Spendy but really worth it in the long run.. Not like we'll be having to replace them any time soon. My wheel studs were too short for duals and with our next camping trip coming up I didn't want to try sourcing them in that short a window so I went with the 16x10 wheels on the rear. Of course they didn't have any of this in stock so hopefully this wed I'll take it back down for new wheels and tires.

I'll post detailed info and pic's.

Are you getting steel wheels? Strange that the studs aren't long enough for duals, the ones on mine are although I didn't try an aluminum dual wheel on the rear. I think there was enough stud back there.

I'll be interested to see what size tire you end up with. And what about the fronts?

I'm probably still going to go with the Eagle Alloys. Rears from Amazon.com are $128 shipped (not including center cap and lug nuts).

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004FN ... B004FN2QQE

Summit Racing also has a good price on them.

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Nick Taylor - Green & White 1974 Hall GTC.
www.NicksGarage.com == www.HallGTC.com == www.NicksTeardrop.com

They quoted allied 887 steel wheels.

http://www.alliedwheel.com/wheel.php?name=Rock%20Crusher

They were under $150 with lug nuts and center caps.

16X10 on the rears.
16x8 on the front.

I don't remember the quoted front tire size but the Rears were 295/75/16

Thoes rear tires were the most expensive part! then again they are big wide tires.


Who knows what work was done before on my Van. The tire store seemed to keep wanting to go over kill. They kept saying I needed a 16x12 rear wheel.. I then reminded them 16.5x10 was stock so they relented. At least if the 16x8 rubs then they have to swap it out for x7's.. So maybe the lugs were long enough.. I just didn't want to deal with it on the Van.. So much work left to be done that its nice to let them take this one while I work on my passenger seats.

I am excited to no longer have hub caps that fall apart when looking at them wrong. I keep having people bump into the fake lugs and losing them.

Also between having AAA RV + and the Les Schwab warrenty I should be covered for any flat issue going forward.

Those look like aluminum wheels.

The coach only weighs 7000 pounds so those rear tires will hold it up just fine. And in an emergency your regular spare will work just fine. I was also looking at 17" rear wheels as there seems to be more tires available than 16s. Going to be a while before I get to that point.

The AAA RV coverage is good because they'll deal with the jacking and wheel change.

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Nick Taylor - Green & White 1974 Hall GTC.
www.NicksGarage.com == www.HallGTC.com == www.NicksTeardrop.com

Looking at the Eagle Alloys, the 16x10 wheel has a load rating of 3420 lbs.

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Nick Taylor - Green & White 1974 Hall GTC.
www.NicksGarage.com == www.HallGTC.com == www.NicksTeardrop.com

How about these tires. The rears are a little smaller than maybe optimal but they are the size that is on the example 16x10 aluminum wheel I tried out. But they are load range E. These are from www.TireRack.com

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Nick Taylor - Green & White 1974 Hall GTC.
www.NicksGarage.com == www.HallGTC.com == www.NicksTeardrop.com

Here is a picture showing the length of the rear studs on my GTC. The chrome lug nut is the kind I would use with the Eagle Alloys.

Keep in mind that the original lug nuts have a 90 degree bevel but most aluminum wheels (and newer steel wheels) need a 60 degree bevel. If you don't use ones that match the bevel of the lug nut holes, you're going to have serious problems.

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Nick Taylor - Green & White 1974 Hall GTC.
www.NicksGarage.com == www.HallGTC.com == www.NicksTeardrop.com

Good info... I took friday off work so hoping the wheels and tires are in before then and I can get them installed. I need to update my blog ( I blame the game Terraria..)but I got new rear brake lenses installed Mine were in bad shape.. $36 for a new pair. Better built then the orignals. Hopefully this weekend I can replace all the upper running lights, Finish the swivel boxes for the passenger seats and install the seat belts, build the rear deck for the cooler and Install the TV by the Bed.

Well looks like next Wed for wheels and tires. They messed up and they didn't get ordered

I would like to get those old rear wheels to replace the duals (at some point) that I replaced my mis-matched super singles with. By the way - the original P.O. for my GTC shows the rears being 12.00 X 16.5, 8 ply

Matt

Here I am replying to my own message. Haha.

I wanted to add that those lug bolts are the stock ones factory-suppled for both duals and the replacements put on by Hall. When I had the dualls installed there was still plenty of meat protruding past the lug nuts.

I'm also looking for wheel covers...

Matt, the wheelcovers that Eric has are available on ebay (some are plastic). I haven't run across any of the original style ones. I put dog dish ones on my front wheels and spare.

Sent from my HTC EVO via Tapatalk

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Nick Taylor - Green & White 1974 Hall GTC.
www.NicksGarage.com == www.HallGTC.com == www.NicksTeardrop.com

Oh yeah... I figured as much, but it never hurts to try.

Matt, if you really want to stay with the duals, I can get you used 16" ones. Shipping is the problem but could probably go reasonably on Greyhound.

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Nick Taylor - Green & White 1974 Hall GTC.
www.NicksGarage.com == www.HallGTC.com == www.NicksTeardrop.com

I actually like the idea of switching back to super singles. I think!

hmmm. I wonder then if I should have gotten 16x12's? I would think though that 16x10's should be ok if I'm not loading down the Van or towing something.

16x10 is fine. As long as they have the proper load rating. I don't even know what kind of tire you could get to fit a 16x12???

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Nick Taylor - Green & White 1974 Hall GTC.
www.NicksGarage.com == www.HallGTC.com == www.NicksTeardrop.com

BTW, you're only talking about holding up the rear half of the coach. The rear axle rating is only 5500 lbs and they put much bigger coaches on this chassis than the GTC.

I should take mine to the scales and have it weighed, front, rear and total.

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Nick Taylor - Green & White 1974 Hall GTC.
www.NicksGarage.com == www.HallGTC.com == www.NicksTeardrop.com

I suspect that there is a lot of weight on the front of these things, judging from the amount of steering component I've seen (on mine, anyhow). Also, when you've got a full set of tanks - 50 of gas, 50 (or 45) of water and perhaps another 30 in the black water tank - and then count the 250 lbs for the generator, another bit for a full propane tank and the contents of the water heater - all in all a lot of weight!

For my wife and I we typically don't take any fresh water in the tank with us and only use the gray/black tanks sparingly as most places we take the van have pretty nice bathrooms ect. Then we pretty much bring a few jugs of drinking water. There is a truck scale near my house. I'll have to take it there and see what it weighs in at. I bet it's heavy but not more the the axel is rated for. If the axel is only rated at 5,500 then that is more likely to be the weak link then the 16x10 wheels and 10 ply tires I'm getting I would think.

My plan for next spring is to redo all the bushings, steeringbox, tierod ends, shocks and look at adding Air springs in the rear. Mine drives pretty nice with only a little slop in the steering but there's always room for improvement.

I checked on a set of Eagle Alloys for mine, the 16x7 ones for the front are out of stock so the guy suggested 16x8s. Not sure there is enough room for those but that's the size you said you were getting. What size tire were you planning on for the front? I figured I would use 225/75-16 on the front like I did on my Brougham.

This GTC looks like it has extra wide front wheels or maybe it's just the offset. http://www.hallgtc.com/hall_005g.htm?load_img=1

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Nick Taylor - Green & White 1974 Hall GTC.
www.NicksGarage.com == www.HallGTC.com == www.NicksTeardrop.com

I keep forgetting to look at front tire size all the times I've been down at the tire place but I did get 16x8's on the front. Hopefully Wed night I can snap some pictures and post spec's and impressions. They did say they fitted the wheels and tires and said every thing looked good other then having the wrong lug nuts.

They probably got 9/16" ones instead of the 5/8" it needs. Ordering parts for these things can be confusing. I went through a lot to get the right brake parts and such for my Brougham. A lot of trips back and forth to the store.

I'd like to know the backspacing of those front wheels and if they rub when you do a full lock turn in either direction.

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Nick Taylor - Green & White 1974 Hall GTC.
www.NicksGarage.com == www.HallGTC.com == www.NicksTeardrop.com

The OEM wheels on pre-75 1 tons fit on a narrower axle than the later style with the long spiondle. Mine came with 10 X 16.5 as stock, but 9.50's fit way better.

I just looked at a late 80's Chinook with 235-85 16s. They look nice and beefy and would work on a Hall. These were on all 6 wheels, as it has dualls.

Eric, are you interested in selling me your takeoff rear wheels?

Matt

It's a good thing you said something I was just going to let the tire place have them and only keep a single front as my new spare.

You can have them for free I just don't know how I'd get them to you without it costing more $$ then they are worth. Would you want the tires on them or just the wheels?

I'll try to check on here before I head to the tire store in a few hours and see what you are thinking. It does seem like you'd be spending more then they are worth for shipping.

Shipping tires on the wheels would probably cost more than new tires. I am curious to see the actual width of the wheels.

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_________________
Nick Taylor - Green & White 1974 Hall GTC.
www.NicksGarage.com == www.HallGTC.com == www.NicksTeardrop.com