Was there a pattern for the use of rubber tired road wheels mixed with steel rims? Was there a time period for the wheel's patterns? I would like to do a VT-34 recovery vehicle with mixed road wheels. Since this was a post or very late war vehicle what wheels would have been most likely? Would using a late T-34-85 give the best base chassis?

Your best bet would be to check a copy of Mythical Weapon... it's got a big guide to all the typical wheel setups... someone could probably scan in the pages, but I don't have my copy with me, sorry.

The all-steel wheels were a mid-war phenomenon to save synthetic rubber. However, the harmonic vibrations of a full set of steel wheels was very harsh on the mechanical components, so a compromise solution was to mix rubber tired wheels on the first and (usually) the last wheel stations and use steel wheels in the three center positions. Rubber supplies improved later in the war, and there would be no reason to keep a steel wheel on a late war recovery vehicle, as rubber tired wheels were plentiful by then.