The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts 1965 Chevy C60 replacement wheel options

this truck has a 10x8.75 lug front and a 6x8.75 lug rear. trying to find some options on wheels. used steel preferably. can I convert the rear to 10 bolt like the front?
Thanks

Welcome to Stovebolt kbenz. Replacement wheels for "Big Bolts" is a frequent topic of discussion and others that have already pursued that will probably chime in pretty soon. Same on the question for looking at converting the rear to 10 bolt.

I saw your Welcome Centre post and it'd be great if you can provide some pictures and more details about the truck there as that can provide a place for folks to see what you have and hopefully better answer your questions.

I got my modern day 22.5" tubeless wheels that won't make my wife a widow at random like the FR5s the bus came with, from here.. https://buytruckwheels.com/products/22-5x6-75-white-steel-10x8-75-old-chevy-2-ton-trucks

It's a buy once, cry once deal-$60 apiece more than when I bought them, because "winning bigly," however as far as I know, they're the only game in town for these wheels. They're well made and DOT certified, but they're essentially semi tractor rims, which means the metal flange is 3/64" thicker than the originals. You might well need longer lug nuts, as 6/64" is 3/32" which is too much recess into the lugnuts for safety.

There's a thread about this where another 'Bolter had some longer lug studs made, he might chime in here also.

As soon as I figure out how to resize them. I have several.
I seem to be struggling today. Couldn’t find how to reply to you. I signed up on my desktop. I’m now on my phone now. Gotta sign in dummy 🙄🙄😂

I couldn’t find a 6 lug on there?

kbenz - From your description of 6 lug rear and 10 lug front wheels for your 1965 C60, it sounds like you must have "Budd Style' wheels as listed in the 1965 Chevrolet Truck Heritage documents (pic below).

We can confirm more once you can post some pictures.

PS - If you email the pictures to yourself, that usually will resize them smaller so you can then try and attach them again.

That worked. Thanks

Glad to see the note helped. I'm not a "Budd" wheel guru, so someone from the Big Bolt community will need to chime in with more possible info and a potential source for replacements, if they exist.

I guess a question that can be asked is, are you looking to replace them with one-piece rims then? From my limited knowledge, these look like multipiece wheels, but not the dreaded RH-5 "Widowmakers". Someone with more knowledge will hopefully chime in soon.

kbenz, Welcome to the BOLT. Something seems a miss with your front axle, generally the front and rear share the same bolt pattern, if not at least the same number of holes.

Someone may have changed the axle sometime in the Trucks history. Either the front or the rear my have been swapped. My '58 4400 has 5 lugs on the front and 10 on the rear, the wheels all have 10 holes.

I’d like to put 22.5” on it

Yeah. I get the whole 5 and 10 thing. This 6 hole threw me a little.

Hy guys, that truck has a miss match of wheels, the rear has six bolt Budd wheels while the front has the ten bolt Motor or Kelsey wheels which I believe are stock for that size of truck. I would suggest we need to standardize the wheel bolt pattern. I suspect the rear axle has been swapped. I have never seen a 22.5" wheel with the ten on 8.75" bolt pattern, but someone above mentioned a source. I was able to swap hubs and drums between a 50 series and 60 series because they used the same wheel bearings. We would have to identify the rear axle or at least the wheel bearings to see if a hub/drum swap would be possible, hope that helps.

It does help. Should be stamped somewhere right? Where should I start looking?
Thanks

Hy kbenz, probably the easiest thing to do would be to pull off one of the rear hub/drum assemblies off and identify what wheel bearings are being used. Once the hub/drum assembly is off measure the diameter of the drum and the width of the shoes, there are a few options for brakes on big trucks. You could also take some pictures of the differential from under the truck and post them here to see if anyone recognizes it.

Here’s some pics

Had someone tell me it’s an 18500# Eaton 🤷‍♂️

I'm thinking someone swapped in that Eaton rear axle when the original 15,000# two speed died, and there are no carrier bearings available for it on one side, though I can't recall which from back in the '90s when I did that dance and ended up putting a T170 under it; the modern option in 1995, yet now is as obsolete as the old T150 was when I swapped it out back then.

What's interesting is how there are all ten lugs on the front wheels. Never seen a motor wheel C60 (like my '65) with all ten lugs up front. I kinda wonder if someone did that themselves, or maybe found an axle heavier than the original 5,000# unit the truck came with. There were 7,000 and 9,000# options but I think some of them were Dayton wheels. The GVW on the tag doesn't imply that heavy of axles, however.

On the plus side, you can still get parts for that Eaton axle, and probably a reman third member for it in any gear ratio you'd like. Sadly my T170 is now as much of an orphan as the T150 it replaced.

Edit to add: the previously posted chart does show a six lug Budd wheel option for the 5,000 and 7,000# front axle. So if you can decipher which yours is, then you could find the right hubs for it, and put six lug Budd all the way around. I know I've seen those wheels at semi tractor tire places. You might even get lucky enough to be able to use your old brake drums if they're still good.

These dang trucks are confusing lol
I’ve got an old motor home down at the club. Seems like it had 6 lug. I’ll check next time I’m down there. 77 model I believe. Kinda forgot all about til now
Thanks for everyone’s input

6 lug 22.5" Budd Rims are not that hard to find.

I agree, you have a Eaton 2-speed rear...

Mike B

They not easy to find here for some reason

Have you tried Green's Auto Salvage in Fremont, NC ??? Years ago I went there and they had acres and acres of old big trucks! You have to put your boots on and walk these places...phone calls won't get you anywhere...

Mike B

Sadly, the days of boots on the ground at wrecking yards are about gone around here. Seems like developers always want the land :-( or else 'insurance issues' but either way, it's not like when I was a kid with my Dad and we'd pack a lunch and make a day of scrounging parts for our old cars at the various wrecking yards scattered about the SLC metro area. they're all gone now except Sommer's. Shoot, they even used to have a few old school buses around.

Never heard of them. I'll look them up. Thanks

I had an old motor home down at the club. Wheels are 10x7.250. 19.5”. Front isn’t a solid axle either