Just returning here from a seven year hiatus and saw this thread open up.
My '50 3600 spent it's life from day one in a small town in Iowa, with a population
of about 160. It was originally their town fire truck and was kept in the fire barn
till they acquired a real fire truck in the 80's. They pulled the water tank out of it
and then used it for chasing around on town business, bug spraying and such but still
it was kept in the fire barn.
When it was auctioned off around the turn of the century, I bought the truck and it
still had the original 15" split rims on it but the rubber was old split and worn out.
I dismounted the tires my self and the rims were still in good shape, nothing more
than surface rust. I bead blasted them, repainted and mounted a new set of
Power King Premium Super Highway 7.00-15 bias ply tires on her thinking I wanted to
keep the truck absolutely original. That lasted one season and although the truck looked
as it did when new, it also rode like it did when it was new....that is...like a truck.
I planned on driving the truck whenever the weather permitted and actually using it on
occasion for light hauling, like to the hardware or lumber yard which meant driving it on
the highway where I be running it at 55mph often, so I decided to put later Chevy tubeless
rims and Micheline radials on her.
So those 'original' 8 bolt 15" split rim wheels and brand new tires (about 3k miles on them) have
sat in a shelf in the barn for the last 15 or 20 years. Thought was to only us them if I was going to
show the truck but, never got the truck finished enough to take it to a show.
As far as mounting those tires, the dealer where I bought the tires, was a tractor/farm equipment/truck
tire shop and dealing with the split rims wasn't any problem. Seems they deal with those all the time.
Had thought recently that I might try selling those original style wheels/tires one day but.....if they
tain't worth anything as ya'll say, even to someone who is restoring an original 3600 or one ton then.....
Denny G
Sandwich, IL

Denny G
Sandwich, IL