[briansansone]

I have a 2000 windstar thats in pretty good shape. We are going to use it for installation work for our window treatment business.

It looks pretty nice, but I want it to stand out a bit. To look like ,ore than an old well kept minivan.

I'd like to put some nice wheels/tires on it.

What do I need to look out for?
I'm sure I can go much larger, given the wheel well space.
But what about some 17" ford truck wheels, with bigger tires, but not as big as what you would normally have on 17" truck wheels.
So what about much larger wheels, but only slighly larger tires? Keeping the diameter somewhat close to specs.

Do I have to worry about extra stress on everything?
Speedometer ? I put bigger wheels and tires on my old C1500. It didnt seem to far off, as far as I could tell.
Dumb idea?

 

[ericnova72]

Doesn't the Windstar have the small 5 bolt pattern, the car pattern, 5 on 4.5"....and not the bigger 5 on 5.5" truck pattern?

I could be wrong, so check that fact....but I remember the late 80's and 90's Aerostar front brakes being an DIY junkyard upgrade for the 4 lug rotors on the 5.0 liter Mustangs and it was a 5 on 4.5" pattern.

 

[matt167]

It might even have that odd really small bolt pattern that some of the FWD car's got..

I know it's based loosely off the Taurus so 17" Taurus wheels from a later Taurus ( up to 2007 ) will work.. Never actually paid attention to the FWD bolt patterns

 

[joe_padavano]

What do I need to look out for?

The number one thing you need to look out for is wheel offset. The Windstar uses a wheel with a FWD-style positive offset - about 35-45 mm. Normal truck wheels won't work. Also, the Windstar wheel bolt pattern is 5 x 108mm. That's not even close to any real truck wheels.

 

[briansansone]

Yea I thought it was 5 on 5. I dont know why that was stuck in my head. Its 5 on 4.25. What a weird measurement. I probably wont be able to find anything cool.
Myboltpattern.com killer data base. For all wheel bolt patterns.
I read about having adapters made, a while ago, for one of my trucks. But I learned, just because it can me machined, doesnt mean its safe, or concentric.
I just wanted some bigger wheels. Nothing ridiculous. The van is sentimental to my wife, so I have resurrected it from the dead. Just a little up grade. Thats all.
Its looking like its not possible, without a bunch of money.

So if anyone knows of some cool wheels, 5 on 4.25, let me know!

I may be just tracking down some of the nice windstar alloys. Or some killer plastic hub caps from walmart.

 

[briansansone]

The number one thing you need to look out for is wheel offset. The Windstar uses a wheel with a FWD-style positive offset - about 35-45 mm. Normal truck wheels won't work. Also, the Windstar wheel bolt pattern is 5 x 108mm. That's not even close to any real truck wheels.

How can I find the off set specs? Or how can I measure that for myself?

 

[briansansone]

I just found some ford 16" wheels on ebay. It says they are from a Windstar. I havnt seen any Windstars with 16" wheels.
Of coarse most of them have long since been crushed. But that would stand out to me. I would want them.

 

[joe_padavano]

How can I find the off set specs? Or how can I measure that for myself?

Offset is backspacing (which is easy to measure) minus the thickness of the wheel lip (usually 1/4" to 1/2") minus half the rim width. As an example, a 7" wide wheel with 5.5" backspacing has 5.5 minus 0.5 minus 3.5 = 1.5" offset, which is about 38mm.

 

[curtis73]

Offset is backspacing (which is easy to measure) minus the thickness of the wheel lip (usually 1/4" to 1/2") minus half the rim width. As an example, a 7" wide wheel with 5.5" backspacing has 5.5 minus 0.5 minus 3.5 = 1.5" offset, which is about 38mm.

To expand on what Joe is saying...

Let's say you have a wheel that is 16 x 7 with a zero offset.... meaning, the mounting face is right in the middle of the wheel. This means there is the same amount of distance to the front side as there is the backside. So what is the backspacing of that wheel? Seems like it should be 3.5".... but it isn't. It's 4" or really close to it.

Wheel width is measured inside the lip where the bead of the tire seals. Backspacing is measured outside the lip to the actual furthest dimension of the wheel.

Subtle distinction, but it might be important. I don't want you to buy wheels and assume that offset and backspacing are the same thing. One thing you can do is to measure the backspacing of your current wheels (just lay a straight edge across the back of the wheel and use a tape measure to measure down to the mounting pad face.

The other thing you should probably consider is that increasing wheel size is pretty easy, and doesn't need a speedometer correction if you simply buy the right size tires. More wheel, less tire sidewall height = same overall diameter and no correction needed.

There are plenty of vehicles using the 5 x 108 pattern, some of them might work. Porsche, Jag, Volvo, Land Rover, and most of the FoMoCo wheels on FWD vehicles back to the 80s used that pattern. You should be able to find something that works.

Tire Rack dot com has a handy tool that automatically calculates a plus-1 sized wheel. You put in your vehicle, select plus 1 or 2 (depending on if you're going to 16" or 17") and it will automatically show you results for a tire size that will keep the same diameter.

 

[cerial]

Put a supercharged 3.8 out of a mustang in the old girl and the rims won't matter.

But seriously just measure your backspacing, hub diamiter, and lug spacing and you will be able to find several cheap(ish) aluminum universal rims. Then you can play with a image manipulating program to get an idea of the look before you buy/mount them.