The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Old Split Rim pricing, Am I crazy?

Background: Was looking to replace the rims/tires on my truck since I found out that its sitting on 19.5" trailer tire rims. So I remembered I spoke to someone who had a truck for sale (Still does and a decent price too in Nashville) along with an extra set of tires/rims so I thought I would call him up.

So I remember seeing he had truck bed full of spare parts which included a spare 235 complete engine and all the misc components for it so I wanted to check in on the OE radiator that he had which also had the overflow line still in tact. I wanted to strike a deal for a full set of the 8 lug split rims and the radiator. MY thinking was $75 for the radiator and $50 for each rim that he had since they were in unknown condition so $275 for all. He wanted $200 per rim and $300 for the radiator....Obviously we couldn't come to an agreement on things but I was left wondering..... what are these items worth other than "They are worth whatever someone is willing to pay for them"

My local junk yard sells them for $50 a rim and $100 for the radiator but that’s Canadian so like $40 and $75 roughly USD.
Only catch is you got to pull the part yourself now, they used to do that for you.
They still offer pulling the part but they want a bit more if they have to do it.

Brake drums are also $50 no matter condition or wear.
-s

Depending on the type of split rims, a lot of tire shops won't work on them any more.
Something to keep in mind.

I'm 77 years old, and more than a little crippled up- - - - -but somebody would have to chase me a pretty good distance to GIVE me a split rim! Did the guy also have a good hand crank for starting the engine, an a tungsten carbide rig for generating acetylene for running the headlights? All those things are about the same degree of obsolete, and can be deadly dangerous. Whomever put those 19.5 inch tubeless rims on your truck has done you a huge favor!
Jerry

I agree with Jerry about the 19-inch tubeless wheels -- keep them!

If you already have the optimal, why go backwards?

Can't help you on the radiator, but to me, if they are truly RH-5 design split rims, they are truly scrap metal and should be priced as such. If they are used multi-piece wheels (with old tires still on them?), I would maybe give $10 ea for them, but only if I really needed them AND they appeared to be in really nice shape (no rust around where the locking ring mates with the rim). Most people have a hard time getting rid of them and will most times (in my experience, anyway) gladly give them to you just to get rid of them. If the tires have been demounted and you are looking at a pile of rims and lock rings (and you don't know which lock ring goes with which rim ...) then I would consider them scrap metal as well.

Good luck!

John

Correction: My rims are 16.5" not 19.5"

My grandfather had a service station, and he broke his arm repairing a split rim in the late 60's.
And he still had the original splits on his 65 Chevy 3/4T. After his passing in '98, we pulled those off and modernized. He would run those tires until bald. He wanted the originals. A Great Depression survivor.
I tried once. Too dangerous.

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

The Guru is back, and has spoken. Welcome.

I think I might have a set of split rims off a 3600 8 lug but I don't know what size. I wouldn't want any money for them but I'm in northern Indiana.

mick53,

Just a reminder that all offers to buy/sell/give away stuff need to be posted in the appropriate forum of the Swap Meet.

If you are offering these up (selling or as freebies???), please let me know and I can move your post to the correct forum.

Thanks,

Dan

And let's make sure we are all talking about the same thing here -- "split" rims are not the same as "multi-piece" rims. To me, "split" rims refer to the Firestone RH-5 design that splits the rim in the middle into two equal halves -- a deadly design and illegal now to even work on let alone run on the highway. "Multi-piece" rims are rims that have 2 or three pieces -- usual and main part of the rim with either a 1-piece ring that forms a bead seal, or a ring with a smaller locking ring. My 3804 has the latter. The larger trucks seem to have the former.

I may seem to be splitting hairs, but I really want to avoid anyone getting hurt because they got the wrong impression from reading these conversations that:

a. The true "Split" rim design (i.e., the RH-5) is ok (it is NOT!)
b. or that they should avoid a multi-piece rim (they shouldn't if they know what they are doing)

Imprecise language here is not trivial when there is a possibility that someone could get killed.

FOR THE RECORD -- Stovebolt.com's view is that "Split rims/wheels" (the RH-5 design) are LETHAL and are to be avoided at all costs. Do not even inflate them if flat. "Multi-piece rims/wheels" are fine as long as persons working on them knows what they are doing.

If you're running a 3/4 ton pickup, the 16.5's are still better than anything else you can use. They're a bit difficult to inflate, but most tire shops have a "cheetah" device, which is a small air tank with a big ball valve and a duck bill shaped nozzle that blows a big blast of air into the tire and seats the beads. I still use the old school method of bead-seating tubeless tires- - - -starting fluid or acetylene and a match.
Jerry

Jerry, it may please you to know that I am the only one at our shop who can seat the bead on a 12R22.5 tire on 1st blast with the cheetah.