Hi All,

I've had several inquires asking how I put Viper SRT-10 wheels on my Dakota R/T, so I will explain how to do this in case others want to do the same.

Overview
The 2003-2008 Viper SRT-10 wheel is a high quality polished aluminum wheel that has the correct 6x4.5 bolt pattern for the 1997-2004 Dakota. It is lightweight, and comes in 18x10 front, and 19x13 rear. For the Dakota, I used four 18x10 front wheels all around. The factory 17inch R/T wheel is 9inch wide, with a 25mm offset. The Viper front wheel is 10inches wide, with a 25mm offset. The Viper front wheel will hit the control arms under full turns lock condition. Therefore, a workaround is required.

How to Install SRT-10 front wheels on a Dakota

1. H&R Spring's 30mm wheel adapters
Using an H&R Springs 30mm wheel adapter kit ($170/kit, 2 kits required/truck = $340) for Viper will place the wheel at the correct offset for full steering travel. These adapters are high quality and come with a product warranty (unlike a lot of stuff on ebay). Importantly, they are Hub-Centric, as factory, so the load on the wheel is translated to the wheel spindle through the hub versus the lug. Many aftermarket wheels, brake kits and wheel adapters are lug-centric. I can't comment on its safety, other than to say I would not run it on my truck or recommend lug-centric set-ups to anyone. As I understand, wheel studs are made for clamping, not sheer loads.

2. SRT-10 Viper wheel
Use only the front 18inch wheel. Try to find these either reconditioned with warranty. Street price as of 2008 is $900-1200/wheel including core charge. If you can choose to buy a set second hand, try to get a written guarantee the wheels are not warped. A lot of people won't give this to you because they are warped and they sell them as is, buyer beware. So beware - you may get burned on used sight unseen or ebay.

3. Lug Nuts
You can use either the factory Viper lug nuts, which are stainless steel capped lugs, or chrome aftermarket 1/2-20 x 1-1/4in long.

4. Center Caps
You can use the Viper center caps, but I didn't want to mix the branding up. I found that the 2008 Dodge Charger RT center cap works well if you remove the spring retainer clip internally, and pre-bend the tabs by hand to allow the caps to seat in by hand.

5. Tires
This is personal preference, but I am a stickler on rolling diameters not being undersized or too oversize, and the width not being too narrow causing ballooning, or too wide causing tire buldge. The stock tire was 255/55R17 with a 28.0inch rolling diameter. So, I selected 255/50R18 (28.0 dia) for the front, and 295/45R18 (28.4 dia) for the rear.
I used Toyo Proxes ST. It is affordable and has a nice tread pattern.

6. Price
So what does this all cost? I collected the wheels slowly over time, and kept the price under $600/wheel. But, expect this swap to cost:
wheels, reconditioned: $900 x 4 = $3600
tires, mounted: $150 x 4 = $600
lugs: $50 in chrome
center caps: $70
H&R wheel adapters: $340
shipping for all above: $200
Total = $4860 (too much for the wheels, in my opinion)

I have worked on a solution to get the same results for nearly half this price in a 20inch wheel to boot. If interested, PM me.

I am very pleased with the SRT-10 Viper wheel. It compliments the look of my truck perfectly and incorporated design ques of the SRT look into the classic '98-03 Dakota R/T body.