the best rim width for the street, to me, would be one which matched the tread width.

Yeah, but footprint can be adjusted with inflation pressure. If you match rim to tread width, you are going to run the risk of tearing the heck out of the rim on the trail. A little bulge and tire will help protect things.

Michael

I'm running 33x12.5/15s on 8" steelies. To me, the tire width vs. rim width seems about perfect - the rubber sticks out about only 2" per side of the wheel, and as folks said, when you lower air pressure it helps keep the tires on the wheels. Mine stick out past the fender about 2" or so, but as it's been said, that's not a bad thing (and you can always put on flares).

On low-profile tires (40/50/60 series), you definitely want to be much closer in rim width and tire width - but with offroad tires like these, with huge sidewalls and the way they're designed to fit/flex, I think you want a decent difference in rim width & tire width. (33" tires on 15" rims have more sidewall to them than the rim width!). 10" rims with 12.5" tires might have the sidewalls too vertical, yeilding not enough bulge/flex, and would make the ride harsher, IMHO.

HTH,
Tom

I have 33 12.5 timberlines ona 10 inch wheel and want a set of 8 inch wheels the ten inch wide wheel sticks out to far and rub when turning on my trooper and rub real bad on my rodeo. The rodeo has 31 10.5 on a 7 inch wheel and is a little to narrow but works.

BTW, I'm running a 37x13.5 on a 15x8 rim. Admittedly I dont do a lot of street driving, but I have done a bit and dont have any complaints. Offroad I regularly run 5-6psi without issues too.

Dallas