WheelWork's Tire Mount Mate - The Perfect Fit

1a. We started assembling the tool by adjusting the bead clamps to the tire bead. A small Phillips head screwdriver is used to adjust each clamp tightly to the bead of the tire.

2. Next, we used the provided hex head 1/4-20 bolts and wing nuts to attach the horizontal extensions to the bead clamps. We adjusted the extensions until the edges reached the 10-inch mark, which is the proper dimension for the advertised width of our 9-inch-wide wheels.

3. Then, we grabbed the five-lug faceplate and vertical extensions and bolted them to the horizontal extensions on the Mount Mate. Each hole in the vertical extension represents 1 inch of wheel diameter. We went with the fourth hole away from the edge for our 17-inch diameter wheels.

4. Now it's time to set our baseline backspacing dimension. The vertical extensions of the tool will slide forward and backward on the tool to simulate different backspacing measurements. We simply loosened the lock nuts and moved the extensions until the back edge of the tool hit the number we were after. We started at 5-1/2 inches of backspacing, as indicated by the numbers engraved on the horizontal extensions, which lined up with the back edge of the vertical extension. This part is important: The faceplate of the tool is 1/2-inch thick, so you must subtract that number from your final backspacing measurement to know the true measurement of your wheels.

5. Here is a look at the Mount Mate assembled within the tire and ready to be bolted onto the hub of the truck.

1. With the chassis of the truck supported via jackstands, we bolted the Mount Mate onto the truck using the stock lug nuts.

2. We started checking the clearance with the coil springs still installed in the suspension, which forced the wheel down to full droop. We could get a ballpark idea of whether or not the tire and-wheel-combo might fit, but this is not the best way to find out.

3. The only way to be sure if our wheel-and-tire combo would fit would be to set the suspension at ride height and then check the clearances. So, we pulled the Mount Mate off the hub and then proceeded to remove the front coil springs.

4. This is how much oil-soaked crud came off our spindles and control arms when we unbolted the ball joints. The C10 has been ridden hard and put away wet for decades before we got her.

5a. Once the springs were out, we reassembled the suspension and jacked up the lower control arm until the tire was exactly where we wanted it: tucked about 3/4-inch inside of the front fender.

5b. Once it was there, we cycled the steering from left to right and checked to make sure the tire would clear the fender lip, inner fenderwell, and steering and suspension components (5b). We found that at this height, we'd have about 2 inches of upward suspension travel before the tire contacted the inner fenderwell, which could be increased by cutting out some of the sheetmetal. We also had over an inch of clearance between the tire sidewall and fender lip, so we adjusted the Mount Mate to move the tire outward, decreasing the amount of rim backspacing. We were able to determine that with our drop spindles, we needed 4-1/4 inches of backspacing for our 17x9 wheels and 275/50R17 Nitto NT450 tires to tuck with plenty of clearance. Checking the rear fitment was much easier since the wheel only moves up and down. In our case, the rear wheels would need the same amount of backspacing as well, which is good because that means we'll be able to easily rotate our tires and wheels for maximum tire life.