The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts lock ring wheels pictures, widow makers added

There have been several questions about split wheels vs split lock ring wheels. these pictures are all of lock ring wheels. none are the dreaded widowmaker split rims. All of these can still hurt you if mishandled. If I can get pictures of the widowmakers I will add them.

http://rides.webshots.com/album/5572377IoXezU

Widow makers now added the last 2 painted red and silver, not the greatest pictures and Cousin didn't have any dismounted so these pictures don't show disassembled wheel

Changed many of those and others without a tire cage.We would lower a vehicle lift down over the wheel to catch the ring if it took off.Looking back that was real dumb !!!!

Lock ring wheels must still be handled with respect, and attention to detail. I change them all the time and have never had one come apart.
-Remove all rust, dirt, etc. from inside of wheel, espesially the lock ring groove.
-When remounting tire, check and recheck to make sure lock ring is fully seated in the groove.
-Never stand or kneel directly over or in front of wheel when airing up the tire. Stay off to one side or use a locking air chuck so you can stand out of the way.

One of the next on the long list is going to be tires. Ive got a bunch of both 2 and 3 piece locking types for my big trucks. Is there much of a difference between the 2 and 3 piece types? What about ease of putting them together/taking them apart?

Thanks, Jeff

I think after looking at the pictures, I may have about 3 different combinations. Looks like majority of what I have are the solid one piece ring. Are most of these different styles fairly easy to change with a little bit of Safety driven common scense. I have called several locals and they don't seem to want to touch them.

For a redundant factor of safety, wrap them loosely at 3 equidistant points with short lengths of chain as you air them up. That's a bit of old bush mechanic lore for you.

The three and two piece are ok to work with. the easiest is the 2 peice with the split lock ring. biggest problem I had was getting the tire bead to break loose from wheel wound up using sawzall on several. review packrat48's suggestions as well as hotshoe36. the truck manuels (37and 54) I have cover tire mounting but may not cover all types of wheels. on the solid one piece wheels the tire shop I took them to(15 or more years ago) dismounted them but wouldn't remount them due to rust so I cleaned them up and did the ones I reused myself. On the three piece i did all myself didn't try the shops. We have a shop about 20 miles south that even does widowmakers as of last year accordng to one of my cousins.

I have a 1970 C50. can't tell which wheels it has by the pics? looks like mine are 2 pice but wondering if they are widow makers or not??? look original to the truck, they are 20 inch I think by 6 in or 6.5 they have 8.5x20 tires on them. The WHEELS are made by firestone tube type

look at your fronts and rears look closely at the outer lip. on the front you should see where the outer lip tucks into the outer edge of the wheel if you follow that around there should be a spilt on the outer ring as in the frist picture. On the rear since the wheel (assuming all 6 are in place) you will have a solid outer edge no where for the outer ring to tuck into the wheel as it is all one piece on that side. By 70 i don't think they were using widowmakers any more (as original equipment)If your wheels have a solid lip all the way around and there is no way for the outer ring to tuck into the outer edge of wheel on either side. look at the flat portion if there is a raised part similar but sharper than that of a tubeless wheel you may have widow makers you have to look very close where the the squared off center raised section is tosee how they lock. I have proably just muddied the waters more than ever. enlarge the pictures of the wheels I posted as best you can and they may help

I'll have to look closer. There is definitely no split in the lock ring like the one pictured. the wheel almost looks like one pice I know it isn't but hard to tell where the separation is. There is several layers of black paint on them. The fronts are 5 lug and the rears 10 lug. the tread on the tires looks brand new, but there is some cracking on some of them. a friend of mine said not to wory about small cracks because the tires are heavy duty with multiple plys. How much cracking is ok???

Depends on how far you drive from home as to how much cracking is ok.
I have had great luck running very cracked looking tires. As long as none of the cracks look really bad and they are all small "age cracks" just air them up to about the max listed on the tire and use them.

By running them with a higher pressure they flex less and the cracks don't get bigger.
If they flex much they will fail sooner.
But that's just a guess, as I have never had a flat on my truck with some really old 7.5-17 and some reasonably old 8-19.5 tires, about 8 years now, and 10 or 15 thousand thousand miles.

Perhaps the easiest way to describe "widow maker" wheels is:

They don't have the very edge of one side that removes, if they did then they would be "split ring" wheels.

They look essentially like modern tubeless wheels except for they have no "dropped center". That's the part that allows you to take the tire off by cocking it sideways and prying one portion of the bead off while the other side of the same bead rest in the bottom of the "dropped center".

It is very hard to look at them and figure out how they come apart in the center.

Is the watter less muddy now?

I'll have to post a picture of mine and mabey we can figure it out. The wheels look the same as other trucks the same vintage I have seen on the net. mabey some one thas one of these trucks that knows what they came with. it's a disk type wheel. by looking at your pics looks like the white 3 pice but I just cant see where the 3 pices or 2 pices separate?? mine are all holding air since I got the truck, which is a good thing. I have no spares though. guess I'll wory about it when the time comes?? I'm just woried that if I get a flat, I'll be stuck.no one around here stocks 8.5/20 tires and tubes the fronts are 5 lug with only 5 holes the rear are 10 lug. If I found 1- 10 lug wheel would it work for front and rear??

I would imagine your fronts are actually 10 lug under the cover plate that only has 5 holes in it.

Did half tons from 1947 to 1953 use split rims?

Thanks for any help...

What about replacement wheels to fit these trucks if danger of the wheels seems risky and local shops refuse. whats available?

For those that may be interested as myself because my wheels are old and in bad shape, budd wheels, alcoa and dayton offer replacement wheels both split and tubless. This was new information for me so I thought I would post it. Grigg thanks for the info on the bolt pattern, Alcoa has an perfect fit for my truck.

That is some good info. CCF - old split rims are nothing to fool with.

I had a 3 piece split rim explode on me with 95 lbs. of air in it. I know because I had just checked the pressure - luckily for me it was in a cage. The cage was destroyed but all I got was a bad bruise on my right hand.

All of the split rims were fine when designed and built. The problem comes when crud builds up inside the groove for the split rim to seat in.
That's what happened to me. Needless to say I will never air up another one that is not in a cage.