The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk 1948 3/4 ton swapping eight lug front drums to five or six lug?

Is there anyway without swapping axles to swap front brake drums? I have a 48 3/4t with eight lug front brakes I wanted to switch to a five or six lug(ease of finding wheels. Is there anything I can do less of swapping out the front axle? Thanks in advance. Jess

Good question but sorry I don't know the answer. Not the first time this has been thought of. In 48-50 at least the front brakes were the same for 1/2 ton & 3/4 - 11" x 1 3/4" Huck-style. So the drums are the same diameter but the hub is larger & bigger bearings on the 3/4. The center hole in the wheel is bigger too. The 6 lug is a 5 1/2" bolt circle and the 8 lug is 6 1/2". I don't know if there is room to have the 3/4 ton hubs/drum re-drilled to 6 lug. If this works it will only on the front. No way on rear because of the full-floating axle hub. Maybe somebody else will have an idea. Good luck.

you could ask a local machine shop about redrilling the hubs to a more popular bolt pattern. Mustang II hubs get that alot

Why the resistance to changing the front axle?

Swapping to a 1/2-ton front axle with hubs and brakes gives you 6-lug pretty easily.

I can't find one. Everytime someone tells me about an abandoned truck the front axle is always gone. Jess

I have never looked for wheels other than 8 or 10 lug. And I have never had a problem finding what I needed.
Do you really need to switch to fewer lugs?

Jess,
I take it you want to put a set of tubeless tires on our ride, like all of us 3/4tonners would.
If ya switch to 6 bolts on the front and 8 bolts on the back ya better be carrin' two spares, no? Something to conceder also is whether you still want to maintain a 3/4ton load rating with your truck.
From all the discussion on this subject, and there has been a whole bunch, I have reached the conclusion that there are only three really good solutions for the 3600 dilemma.
One-Buy or have a set of adaptors made up by a reputable shop. (My first choice)
Two-Have a good set of older centers installed into newer tubeless rims.
Three-Have one of the wheel builders make you up a set with all new parts.
The Dodge and Ford 8 bolts patterns are the same, but the center hole is bigger so the center register is lost, also the center line offset is wrong on all the newer rims. With a well-made set of adaptors you can space the wheel out and still maintain the center register, again my first choice because it’s the cheapest and you still maintain most of the 3/4ton capability of the truck. I say most because if your spacing the wheel out you will lower the load capacity of the axle assembly, (bearings, spindles, etc.)
Of course if you only want a daily driver and don’t intend on hauling gravel, you can always deal with the problem the way you were originally addressing it, that is, swap the axles, but then you will have a 1/2ton front end and 3/4ton back end rated truck.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Well I am going to hot rod the truck so the 3/4t load rating doesn't matter tome Im going to drop the front and the rear is a ford 9". I geuss the easiest is changing the front to 1/2t axle. Thats the plan anyways, Jess

Jess,
It is possible to fit 1/2 ton spindles on a 3/4 ton axle by reaming the bushings to fit the larger king pin. Sounds like finding a pair of 1/2 ton spindles would be much easier than locating a whole axle for you. Put an ad in parts wanted here and I bet you could find some. I see them on ebay once in a while also.