Sadly who ever built the car originally used a narrowed Volvo axle in the rear, but really its a bit too narrow, there are already witness marks on the pick up bed from the current 4" wheels. They have around 3 1/2 - 4" of backspace which is a fair amount on a 4" narrow rim, whatever wheel and tire combination I settle on, there must be a maximum of 3" of wheel/tyre hanging off the back. Seeing as I am looking for 8+ inch in width its near impossible to find a wheel off the shelf with such a huge amount of negative offset.
Its looking like my only option is to make some custom wheels, which will probably end up at around 7" to negate the overly narrowed axle and tyre rubbing but should still significantly improve traction.
I realise that wheel terminology can be confusing at best this image clearly shows all of the jargon you need to understand to select the wheels for your rod.
Image from Xtreme Wheel Brokers
You will see offset stated as ET on most factory and after market wheels. The positive and negative ET are measured in mm. ET may seem a strange way to abbreviate offset, but it is actually an abbreviation of the German word, "Einpresstiefe" the literal modern day translation being offset, why a German abbreviation is used on wheels I do not know, though purely out of interest I may do some research and find out the reasoning behind this standardisation.
Similarly you will often see wheel width measured with the suffix J. J is not used to identify the measurement of width, it is informing you of the wheel cross section, the shape of the bead seat and is a global standardisation for tyres and rims to ensure that all tyres and rims of the correct sizing are both safe and compatible.
Should I come across any further information regarding wheels and this associated jargon, I'll add it to this post.
