The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts New truck has wrong wheels

I just wanted to ask the experts their opinion on a 'situation' I've got with a big bolt I recently bought. I dismounted the rear tires on this 1949 1.5 ton to have a look at the brakes and found out that the outboard dually wheels on both sides are from a later year with the larger wheel hub diameter. The inner wheels have the correct hub diameter. Am I in much risk of breaking anything driving in this condition? I've already loaded down this truck pretty well a few times, hauling a couple of yards of topsoil and moving several pianos at the same time. I've thought about just keeping the tire pressure a bit higher on the inner tires and running as is until I can locate some new wheels. Am I daft?

Without bushing the wheels to fit the hub snug you're asking the wheel studs to take the weight and not just clamp the wheels to the hub. This is not ideal partly because GM didn't want it done that way. Will it last? probably but I wouldn't advise running them like that.
Another concern is running true or not and being out of balance of not true. The fit on the studs is not as snug and precise as the intended fit on the hub, allowing for a little more runout.

Having driven a truck on the highway when all but one rear wheel stud broke off I can tell you it's no fun at all, and would be pretty terrible if they all break off.

Where in the PNW are you? I think there are a couple places south of Seattle that may have wheels that might fit (not sure what all years would interchange though)

You could just get a couple bushings lathed up, probably your cheapest option

I'm pretty sure that TEN 9/16" wheel studs with the nuts on them, tightened down will hold just about anything you can load on that truck and pull. C'mon guys....you know how much pressure a grade 8 9/16" bolt can withstand? A LOT. Let alone ten of them.

Yes, except the lug holes in the wheels working on the threaded portion of the studs will chew them up over time.


The difference here is the wheels were hub piloted and the newer wheels don't allow for it on the old hubs, the center bore is too large. Hub piloted wheels transfer the vehicle load/weight to the wheel between hub OD or pilot and the ID of the wheel.

So you're now asking the wheels with oversize center bores to be stud piloted wheels, except there is no chamfer/countersink/ball seat in the wheels to properly pilot and support them.
Stud piloted wheels are OK, and work well but only when you have the whole system; wheels intended for and lug nuts that fit the lug holes/seats in the wheels and center them.

Sure it might work but for how long and at what risk?
As a public forum we should give good advice and promote safe practices the best we can.

69Cuda, I'm about 45 minutes north of Seattle. If you have any ideas about where to get decent 3 piece wheels, I'm all ears!

Key Motors Auto wrecking in Molalla Oregon had a truck with 6-8.25x20 tires and rims and a 1946 with 4 7.00x20 rims on them Address: 29649 S Highway 213, Molalla, OR 97038
Phone: (503) 829-3800


I found 2 at Bob McCann tires in Hillsboro Oregon I bought.

Just letting you know. Do not have anything to do with either tire shop other than I've dealt with Bob for years. Very honest.

Trust Salvage in Auburn is one, (probably closest) and then Ron's Auto Wrecking in Purdy. I bought the tires/wheels that are on my 58 from Ron, I am not sure either one will have any but, that is where I would start. You might also call All American Classics in Vancouver. Wa. They are another wrecking yard full of old stuff.

Are the center holes in the AD rims smaller than the ones in the 10 lug TaskForce rims?

AD trucks with 7.25" bolt circle has 4.75" ID and everything later to present is 5.25"
Older than AD at some point had even smaller diameter hubs and wheel ID.

If the wheels with the larger bore are tubeless, might be worth keeping and having spacer sleeve made. More and more tire shops cannot or will not change split rims, no matter what kind.

Ed

You have to consider the shock-load on the studs from rough road. I would not muck around with spacers or requiring the studs to take the load.

Having run them this way for an unknown time, I would replace all 10 studs on both sides after you get the proper wheels.

I have had a set of duals come off, still bolted together, roll across the freeway and come to rest against a barbed wire fence a quarter mile beyond where I got the rig stopped -- not found till the next morning. All 10 studs had sheared off and the Budd nuts held the wheels together.
This after a particularly rough section of US 10 in Montana at spring breakup. It was about 3AM and there was no traffic. Lucky eh?

On the matter of mounting tires, disassembly and reassembly is not rocket science, it's just hard work. Big hammers are made for the purpose (or used to be). You can do it yourself. I do mine or if they're really stubborn coming apart, take them to the truck shop where I used to work and have the young guys do it. They still know how. Just make darn sure to inspect the wheels and lock rings carefully. Then have a clip-on air chuck with a remote air shut off to air up the tire. Three-piece wheels like GM used are safer than the two piece.

In days (make that years) gone by we changed tires on the road when occasionally necessary. Long ways between truck stops in Montana and N. Dakota. We'd air up the tires with the truck's compressor and put them under the trailer up side down just in case.

Back before OSHA, few truck stops had tire cages but I only saw one ever come loose. That was a 22.5" tire that had been mounted on a 20" rim by mistake. It blew the wheel about 30 feet in the air and came down on the metal roof of the tire shed. My partner bolted out of the sleeper thinking I'd been shot. Kept us both awake for the rest of the day.