The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Do unicorns come in pairs?

Found these at Hershey. NOS. GM Parts tags. Good.

Surprise, they are 16” x 6” wide.

Same bolt pattern as all Chevy trucks from 1938-54.

Any idea when and where these were used?

Thanks!

What PN was on the tags? With that, the application might be able to be tracked down. When Chevy went to 5" wide wheels (measured inside the flanges), they reduced the number of hubcap clips from 6 to 3. Those were used starting with 1955 second series pickups.

Gene - Definitely would help if you can picture the GM parts tag and look closely at the rims for some/any stampings as that info could help us ID them for you. When I get a chance I'll try to do a little research through my resources to see if something doesn't pop up with just your description.

Unfortunately, the part numbers had faded on the tags. The wheels have the K-H insignia. I’ll look closer for other markings. Thanks.

I did zoom in on the 2nd picture and see what appears to be a wheel "makers mark" near the rivets joining the rim to the center section. Also what looks like some stamped numbers/characters on one rim back edge surface inside the bead area.

Maybe someone recognizes these???

You said is has K_H on it?

K-H is Kelsey-Hayes, the wheel manufacturer

Otto - Not sure where you see anyone mentioned K_H???

Greenie said it himself.

Weird

For some reason when I saw your reply, his was not showing in my view. Or maybe I just need to clean my trifocals - lol.

I didn't recognize the stamped symbol as a KH mark. You learn something new every day.

Here are the only markings I see.

It says Kelsey-Hayes, in this timeframe they made wheels for GM and Ford. They are also stamped 16 x 6.

Thanks for the added details Gene. I'm still not finding anything showing a 16" x 6" - 6 lug wheel in either Chevy or GMC parts books.

That style of rim was used on trailers back in the day. Not sure about 6" ones.

If there are other characters stamped near the 16x6 that Dan found (I can't make them out) that may be a K-H model number. That might shed some light on what they were originally used on. Other manufacturers use the 6 on 5.5 bolt pattern.

I found this in the forum back from 2010. Looks like it may be optional wheel, RPO_274 from a 1948 passenger car.
[Link]

From that link (See highlighted on the attached) in the link you posted Phil, it looks to me like RPO 274 was just for 6.00-16 6 ply tires mounted on the same 16x4 wheels that the early AD trucks used. GM went to 16x4.5 wheels on AD's around 50 or 51. I'm thinking those wider 16x6 wheels are later than 1955.
[on edit] I checked a few later year spec sheets and Chevy offered optional 6.50-16 tires at least thru 1978 but they were mounted on 16x5 wheels. I haven't found any mention of 16x6 wheels. As I mentioned earlier, other manufacturers used the 6 on 5.5 lug pattern.