62 Cj5 - Wheel Mods For Pasture Rescue?

Howdy!

I bought the subject Jeep a while back. It's time to bring it home. There are multiple flat tires and at least one tire is dilapidated / blown out and unable to hold air. The jeep is a couple of hours away from me, and I won't be able to check anything prior to needing to install.

I just need an adequate wheel/tire combo at all four corners to let me winch it onto / off of a trailer and roll it around by hand once unloaded.

I have a discarded boat trailer/tire wheel that at least still holds air. The lug pattern on it is 5-on-4.5". I think I can elongate the lug bolt holes in the wheel to suit the jeep pattern. My understanding is the jeep lug pattern is 5-on-5.5" (right?) - so nominally elongating each hole .50" radially. The mod wouldn't need to be pretty - cutting torch then grind smooth, or similar.

The center hub hole would need to be enlarged as well. Can someone let me know what the diameter of the hub is? A layout and pic of my hub is below.





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For a bolt pattern of 5x5.5, the hub bore is 108mm (4.25 inches)

 

You don't need the large index hole for the rear unless it is a full float. Just use the trailer wheel there. No place you can just borrow an old Jeep wheel/tire? Must be a couple dozen in my shed.

 

Thank you!

OK... good to know - Thanks! I'm not familiar with Jeeps at all, and the rear hubs are covered by center caps in my photos.

I'm working all angles LOL. I need to meet some "Jeep People". I've already been on the lookout for steel wheels because I like the way they look, and I would like to install some actual Jeep steel wheels as part of the do-over. They are not that easy to find. Looking at new ones from Kaiser-Willys etc. too - but that's way down the road

There are some pics in my intro thread if anyone is interested:
http://www.earlycj5.com/xf_cj5/index.php?threads/159921/

Thanks guys!

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Is there a U pull yard near you?
Older F150s and Dodge half tons would be potential wheel donors.

 

I would use a u-haul rental trailer with a winch or come-along and brute force it up and over the trailer. Deal with the rest at home after you drag it off.
Might also be worth while hiring a tow truck to deliver it.

 

Put it on 2x10 skids, crank hard.

 

This, easier to work on at home and with power

 

As someone said, "brute force". the '65 Mercury listed in my vehicles sat for 30 years w/o moving and nobody knew the left front wheel was locked up from rusted through brake springs. I have a 12,000 Harbor Freight winch on my car trailer, and we poured some water under that locked wheel for a little lubrication and drug it across the shop floor and onto the trailer. That HF winch never even grunted. A Jeep weighs half of hat big boat of a car, barely fit on a 20 foot trailer. Lucky for me my trailer is a tilt deck so we didn't have to deal with ramps.

 

I'm running 4 f150 steel rims that I picked out of a scrap pile. Cost $0

I got a 5th rim at the salvage yard for $10. It had an old tire on it but it holds air.

I drilled the centers a hole saw.

They are 15" instead of 16" but you probably don't care at this point

 

I'll be using a borrowed car hauler that belongs to a buddy. It has a hand-operated winch with cable that appears to have been sized based on the assumption that the vehicle to be towed could at least roll!

This is good to hear. I was literally looking at hole saws on-line at lunch. Should I go with 4-1/2" or 4-5/8" just to be sure the wheel hole clears the hub?

Yes - Not concerned about wheel size. The jeep has factory drums, and I would assume just about any wheel would clear them?

Thanks for the replies all!

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I used 4 1/4. There is not much meat between the center hole and the lug holes. I wanted to leave as much metal as possible, I run these on the road.

I used a smaller hole saw to cut a piece of wood that fit the too small original hole in the rim. That kept it fairly centered.

 

If you're going to hole saw the center, you need a big slow drill. I used my big angle drill that I usually use to drill studs in a house. I put it in low which is 300rpm.

I wouldn't have wanted it to spin any faster. I got a new hole saw so it was sharp and it punched right through.

 

Thanks - I misremembered drewsov's reply where he said the hubs were 4-1/4. My mind went to 4-1/2.

 

If it were me, I’d ask my buddy if he would allow me to fab up a winch mount for his trailer. Then mount my winch to the trailer and use brute force to pull the Jeep up. When the job is done, I remove my winch but buddy gets to keep the winch mount. It’s a win win.

 

That’s right up there with borrowing a trailer from your buddy then rewiring the lights to match your vehicle. A complete di#% move.
Op should just get some roller wheels which he already admitted in his first post he needs anyway. Most any tire shop and many tow companies have racks of used they love to sell.

 

I have used a second vehicle to drag the non-runner onto a trailer as well. You just slightly turn the tow vehicle and have at it.

 

Get some tube's. Take all four wheels to a shop and either have the tube's installed in your existing tire or get new or used tires and have the tube's installed in them.

 

I put new tires with tubes on my jeep. I checked with a few tire shops and they didn't want to do it. They were afraid of the tubes ! Plus , they wanted $25 apiece just to mount the tires to the wheels. I ended up putting them on myself. First one took about thirty mins and the last took about 10 mins. And I saved a hundred bucks !

 

I too have run into problems with morons in customer service. Apparently 15 inch tube's are no longer available because they are a serious danger to the community. Outlawtube's.
When tube's are outlawed only outlaws will have tubes. Your endangering the community. Shame on you!

Meanwhile I found another tire shop that went ahead and sold me a tube and mounted it too.

Tit's and *** did not sell me a tube today.
Service did.