The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline Split Rim Tires

Hello,

I am restoring a 1948 GMC pickup that has original 7.00 x 17 split rims.

What is your suggestion, keep the old stock rims and find the right tires or go with new solid rims, but same size?

The answer to your question depends on the style of wheel the truck is running. Would it be possible to post some fairly detailed pictures of the rims, where the tire bead meets the locking ring? There is a design of wheel that has a full circle bead ring with a couple of relieved areas that allow the bead ring to be pried off the wheel after the tire is deflated. Others have a 3 piece design with a bead locking ring holding a much heavier design of bead ring in place. A third design has a slot cut into the bead ring which is pried off a little at a time in a spiral fashion. If you can post some pics, someone should be able to give you more accurate advice. In my personal opinion, I would not be comfortable with working with the thin ring type with the relieved area- - - -the locking lips are tiny, and the wheel is subject to rust damage that makes a catastrophic bead ring separation a possibility. The side load force exerted against the bead ring area on a tire that size is somewhere in the neighborhood of 35 TONS!
Jerry

Rims & Tires

Bierman, i had similar rims on my 48 and the greater problem was finding a tire shop that would touch them. Ended up buying some dexter trailer rims ( I believe it was suggested by someone else on this site). Added some hub cap clips to reuse stock hub caps. I got Firestone whitewalls so still had to use tubes. I dont drive on highway as my top speed is about 45mph down a hill and put less than 100 miles on in a year. I have heard some gripes about putting a trailer rim on a truck but it works good for me.

Trailer tires are made with a different sidewall and tread characteristic and are marked "FOR TRAILER USE ONLY"...they are not designed to take the pressures of driving, they are meant to be pulled with straight line stopping.

Be safe and use the correct tire for your application.

Mike B

He's using trailer rims, not trailer tires.

I have some wheels like that and they don't scare me at all. I have 17" tires on my 3500HD GCM. I replace the tires at 3 years because I drive 80 to 85 quite a bit. But they are still good enough for an old vehicle. I put 16" radial tubes with TR150 stems in them. I am 81 years old and have been changing multi piece wheels for 70 years. I still change them myself because I don't want anyone changing them that is afraid of them. Your other option is 16" Ford truck wheels or 16" drop center GM wheels up to about the mid 1980's. 7.50x16 tires are very common.

Those are the 3 piece rims with a lock ring that is separate from the full circle bead ring. As long as you find a tire shop with an old geezer who respects their possibility for problems during inflation, they're perfectly safe. Once those rims are assembled and inflated properly, it's virtually impossible for the pieces to come apart. If the tire goes flat or gets more than a few pounds low on pressure DO NOT try to reinflate it. Break it down and reassemble it properly. That style of rim can only be used with tube type tires, and a heavy inner flap that prevents the tube from chafing on the wheel. They're VERY hard to balance.
Jerry

Biermann, in Alberta I expect similar to Saskatchewan next door where my trucks are you won’t have a problem finding someone to work on them
All the tire shops know about split and multipart rims still being used in trucking and agricultural equipment and old vehicles used daily

However you will be mildly disappointed with the options for a 17 inch tube tire to mount on that rim

If you want a decent load rated working tire
You option will be Samson tracker XL in smooth highway tread rated for about 3000lb per tire
There is no good ground grip option like the one in your photo for these old trucks.

You don’t need to balance the wheel
The truck won’t go fast enough with that 5.14 rear differential.
-s

Hello All,

Many thanks for the good info you gave me.

I am an old gooser too and have worked with this type of rims when I was a young guy. I recall my dad welding a 'lockring' what we called it and tempered it again and the rim run on a farm wagon until it was sold in 1986 and I still did see it in our village two years ago.

Anyway, yes our local tire shop will look after them, they have a cage for inflating truck tires that they use to keep danger low. They know what they are doing.

I am a long ways away from doing anything to the rims and it is the least on my mind, but we all know how long some orders take and I want to be prepared.

This brings the question, as always, what is an rebuild to 'original' status and what isn't.

I like to keep the rims, If possible (to the dislike of my son) with proper tires, installed with tube type tires and a heavy inner flap and HRL stated.

This isn't a race truck, I know and will treat it as such, my future workhorse.

Thanks again and it is fun to discuss things with you all.

JoergK.

Can one put a modern, tubeless tire on these old high-flange rims using tubes and flaps? Or will the flanges abrade the sidewall of the tire? There are modern, 17 inch tires that look attractive if this would work. But maybe the rims are too narrow in any case. Anybody done that?

Couldn't see a reason why not. I have many applications were the tubeless tires run with tubes, simply I don't trust 'tubeless' under heavy duty conditions in mud, dirt and high torque.

OOPS...good catch Otto...lol!

Well...sometimes there's a trailer tire attached to the trailer rim

Mike B

There are a lot of options with 17" tires. They will be tubeless, but you will have to have tubes for your multi piece rims. I use used 17" tires with 16" tubes. You will need 17" flaps. Amazon as well as other vendors sell them. If you prefer tubeless, you will probably want to go 16". From around 1972 until 1995 GM used a 16" 8 hole wheel that will fit and is suitable for a tubeless tire. You can probably get custom wheels, but yu have to be careful that they don't hit your tie rod ends.

How about thus tires Coker Tires

Seem to have the thread I like on this 'work truck'.