The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk 1946 Chevy Pickup

Hi everyone. I'm new here.

I just inherited my family's old dairy farm work truck. It had been sitting in my Mom's garage for nearly 15 years. It drove in to the garage (we used it to help her move in), but hasn't even been started since then. I had it towed to a tire shop/garage to have new tires, fluids, belts and a battery put in. They are telling me that they can't work on it because some guy in the shop looked at it and said that it probably has "widowmaker" wheels. They don't know for sure and are hesitant to work on replacing the tires now as a result. They're saying that they are outlawed and they aren't allowed to work on them. I'm fairly certain that the wheels were never replaced, so it will have the stock wheels on it. Does anyone know if they are indeed widowmakers/split rim? If so, how do I go about getting new tires on it?

I think the old tires will inflate and COULD be ok, since the garage is heated...but I fear that they may be dry rotted. They aren't flat, but I'm sure that doesn't tell the story. I attached a picture, if you want to see it. Thanks for any help you might be!

Welcome to Stovebolt. Your problem is common with the pre 50s trucks. Your tire shop cannot be “forced” to work on the wheels. Call around to several shops specializing in truck tires (usually located around the truck stops) and see if you can find someone willing to look at them. Don’t tell them the wheels are “widowmakers “, just tell them they are split rims. Let them tell you what they are when they look at them. Some of the old timers have the equipment and knowledge to do it safely. It will take some research but you can find someone to do it. Your photo was a nice touch but doesn’t show enough detail for us to tell. A photo of the wheel close up might help.🛠

I guess I was wondering if anyone knew if the stock wheels were indeed the widow maker variety. Also, they are telling me that they can't put radial tires on split rim wheels. They'd have to go with the ply wheels. I'm obviously new to all of this. It's my first attempt at getting an antique vehicle back on the road.

Someone else will have to answer if the stock wheels on a ‘46 1/2 ton were the widow makers or not. 🛠

I appreciate your responses, man. Thank you

If the truck is a 1/2 Ton, split rims were not a stock, from the factory as delivered option; at least as shown in the Master Parts Catalog.

That's good news. Thank you! Can you shoot me a link to what you found or where I can find that info?

Okay. So it's a 41-46 "Art Deco" truck. Looks too long to be a 1/2-ton. I'm guessing 3/4-ton. And if so then it probably has 2-piece wheels. A steel wheel with one of the "rims" a separate locking ring. Also the hubcaps appear to be larger than 1/2-ton hubcaps. Go to this tech tip https://www.stovebolt.com/techtips/wheels/ and see if that helps. It's written mostly for Advance-Design (47-54) trucks but still useful information. Do you know the tire and wheel size? How many luck nuts hold the wheels on? Can you take a close-up picture of one of the wheels with hubcap off? Maybe someone else will come along who may be able to add more info.
Good luck.

The info provided earlier came from the 1929-1950 Master Parts Catalog. A later version of this catalog is available online at oldirononline.com. Look under the parts catalogs section. Copies of various editions are available from a variety of vendors, as reprints. They show up for sale occasionally on the auction sites and at swap meets as well.

I don't know what your plans are, but getting different tires is frequently one of the last choices; if they I'll hold some air, it might be worthwhile to do many other things.

Rear diff. ratio?
New rear axle?
Different braking system?
Wiring system?
Hydraulic brake system?
Bed wood?
Tin-nice name on the doors?
Grille?
Different wheels?

Ed

Find a tire shop that is in the country or still does farm equipment and they will have no qualms about either split ring or split rim wheels, they handle them everyday. I have one two miles from me that has a cage and remote fill and they do charge twice the amount ($7.50 vs $15) for patching the tube in a split type wheel. Just had one fixed for my forklift that did cost $20---big wheel. Rather than using a wedge hammer that is a back breaker they have a vibrating electric jack hammer type device that after first squirting some type lube around the bead it then releases almost instantly. The whole crew is from Guatemala and they work dawn to dusk seven days a week. The one that can speak pretty good English said he grew up doing these type wheels. If you choose to air up your existing tires and your wheels have holes in them I run a chain through the holes and around the tire in two places across from each other. Saved me once, my body but not my ear drums, on a 2 ton Dodge truck.The ring sure did make some sparks as it did the Watusi.

Yes, farm or heavy equipment. Aviation as well. Lots of those still have split rims and shops have cages or similar as mentioned above to deal with them

None of the light duty trucks such as yours used the Firestone R5 "widowmaker" wheel. There is a great difference between a multiple piece rim and a widowmaker rim. As others have stated, a little persistence will produce a tire shop that still knows how to handle multiple piece rims. Welcome to the site and good luck with your project.

Definitely not a light duty 46, likely a 3/4 ton with that long box. Probably has overload leafs as well. Split rims are still commonly used today and tire shops use a cage when inflating after dissasembly, no big deal. I would inflate them as is to check for leaks, just stand to the side and don't squat directly in front of the wheel (you never do that anyway with splits even if they are new). Depending on where and how often you plan to drive the old girl, sometimes those older multi-ply farm tires are tough as bedrock and may still have years of life left if they were not exposed to sunlight.