The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Will Modern Wheels work on a 8 Lug 1951 'Bolt?

ALL of the above Rim's will bolt right up. . .the ceneter hub will be the issue my K-3000 had 19.5 riveted rim's tire shop woildn't mount tire's on them. . .so i had to update to the moderen welded rim's. . . I got 2 from a ford 1 from a dodge other 3 came from GM's. . .so i sorta got a blend all 6 rim's bolted right up. . .

all 8 lug's interchange on a chevy. . .GM rim's will fit a GM only smaller center hole but ford and dodge will fit every thing. . .16's - 24.5's

Mike

Hy Marc B., This question has come up many times, yes the wheels will bolt up, the problem is with the clearance between the multi-piece tie rods and the wheel, spacers and longer studs can be used to move the wheel outboard to gain clearance, or you can convert your tie rods to a non rebuildable type, I'm not sure which ones will accomplish this, but I'm sure someone here does, and they will let us know, hope that helps.

Just to confirm;

99% of modern day 8 lug automotive wheels will not fit your truck because of backspacing clearance.

There are some application, few, hard to find, and unsure exactly which, might or might not work.

Long story short, No.

Unless using spacers.
Not to mention original hubs are less likely to fit.
Replacement tierod ends claimed to be for the 1/2 tons only.
I looked for two years and finally settled for a 8 lug trailer rims.

I posted a couple pic on this post. Its about 8 pages back.
"3/4 ton 3600 8 lug OEM steel trailer wheels work"

What's your reason for upgrading to late model wheels?

The trick is to have a backspace of no more than 3 1/2". Most newer trucks use a deeper backspace than that (5-5 1/2" are common). I do know that wheels from a mid-70s to early '80s Dodge will fit with no spacers, but a set on a '49 1 ton once with no interference issues with the tie rods. They did need some slight grinding in the center hole to clear the hub.

Hey Big Chevy. I dont have a complete set of the stock rims for the 3600 (I have 2) and I have found some nice chrome Chevy 8 lugs on ebay. I think they came off a 2004 or 05 truck. I am truly not opposed to using the older rims but, like I said, I just dont have a set. Nor do I have the snazzy little babby moon hubcaps that aftermarket shops want $150+ a set for. I can buy a whole set of late model chrome wheels for not much more than that. Thanks!

Thanks to everyone who has posted and will post to this question. Stovebolt.com and its members are the best!

3/4-1 ton Ford Econoline VAN wheels (pre 2000) will fit a 3600. I have them on my GMC 150. You will need 3/16" shims for the front due to the afforementioned tie rod clearance, but beyond that, the wheels are fine and they are very common.

I upgraded my wheels to 1991 3/4 ton Chev Suburban wheels and commercial T/A tires (16") They look fantastic. I shimmed my control arms as well and installed new tie-rod and modern ends from a 1/2 ton. everything works great but I am going to make a new tie-rod set-up and steering control arm form the parts offered by Speedway Motors that assemble everything with 5/8" bolts which the factory holes are. I can look up the part numbers I have referenced for mine if interested.

Be aware the newer vehicles have metric wheels. I know for a fact that SAE wheels will not fit on a '98 or newer Ford. I would suspect that the newer wheels will not fit your Chevy. I have read that GM also went to metric wheels and I suspect Dodge did too.

Ford definetly has gone metric, not sure about dodge, I'll have to check, but all of the wheel guides we have at the shop still list GM using the same std bolt patters. However, all GM trucks after '99 use a very different backspacing, namely from the way the front suspension is setup. GM swithced all trucks to using the '88-up 4x4 style wheels. These have too dep of a backspace to use on older trucks, and will rub not only on the front, but on the bedsides and possibly the frame on the rear.

Take a look at this '50,3600 and see what ya think. If ya don't mind 16.5" tires and a couple of 1.25" spacers/adapters for the front That's about all there is to it, plenty of clearance all round. They look pretty good and to the untrained eye they look original. 4 clips added to each one and you can use the original hubcaps. Thats it! The 8.75R 16.5 Cooper SRM II tires are the same height as the 7.00 x 15 stock bias plies.
Fairly common 1980 C20 Chevy, 16.5" x 6.75" wheels fit the front and rear hubs.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Are you sure you mean 1.25"? Or did you meant .125"? 1.25 would be awfull thick for a wheel spacer.

Read; "1.25 inch spacers/adapters", Bill. The adaptors are 6061 billets. None of the newer steel wheels that I have found will clear the tie rod. Not Chevy, Ford or Dodge. They all need to be spaced to clear the tie rod. The ones that I listed have the four spokes like the original wheels and therefore they look very original. The inside diameter of the rim itself is the same as the original split rim, in fact I have swaped out centers on the 16.5" and 15" split rims. The trailer wheels are "smoothies" and I don't think the stock hub caps will fit inside the centers.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Hey Denny
So what you are saying (and it appears to be the popular opinion) is modern solid wheels most likely will have to be shimmed out an inch and a quarter with adapters or spacers to clear the stock tie rod ends. I was just wondering if that would be hard on the wheel bearings? Where would I find spacers like this?
Thanks!

I went to the local junkyard and picked up some really beefy 16" steelies off a fed-ex truck. If you mount them the way they were designed to be mounted, there is no way they'll fit... But if you flip 'em around...

Hmm. 1.25" is just awfull thick for a spacer inmy opinion. I suppose as long ast the studs are long enough and that the nuts thread on at least the diameter of the stud past the nut top face (per NHRA rules) it should be ok. I'm not really a fan of spacers of any kind. Seen too many wheel offs caused by them.

i have seen some spacers set up on 1.5 inches thick. they actually had twelve holes on ___" BC. with a set of six lugs pressed into them and the other six holes where counter sunk for the lug nuts .... bolt on the spacers and then bolt on the wheels. i thought that the same company that offered those made them for eight lug as well... need to search through my archive of wish list cataloges if i find the company i will post it for ya marc b.
~army truck

hey marc i ran a quick search on google and found this:

http://www.ezaccessory.com/8_Lug_Adapter_s/47.htm

maybee that will help a little... seems a little steep in price.. got a machinist buddy? easy to make if you have the equipment...(the right equipment that is)
~army truck

Commercial T/A's ! yuck yuck. . .get some Mud terrain T/A's now those are tires. . . trail cutter RT's or MT's. . . my top 4 tire's of choice are :

Firestone super all traction.

General super all grip.

Goodyear custom extra grip hi miller.

Powerking super traction.

thay have many other brand's as well radial and bias same tread design's. . .if it don't make noise it don't belong on a truck older then 1978. . . my opinion

Mike D

Marc,are your wheels 15 or 16?I have two 15 in.wheels if you need them.
----------------
Floyd

Split to Tubeless Rim comparison:
http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2832270970098611668anEeHN
http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2672209260098611668KtaEXt
The tire Center/Line of the radial is .688” wider than the Center/Line of the bias ply.
You could probably get away with 1” adaptors but you need to have the studs below the face of the spacer. A 1.25” spacer/adaptor will give you a full 1/2” clearance from the stock tie rod.
Bill, of course that is the rumor that I had heard also and that is what prompted me to question a half dozen manufactures of adaptors and not one of them has seen a problem if they are installed and maintained properly. Several of them said that their adaptors are used by OEM’s. If they were such a liability I’m sure that the manufacturers would be flooded with lawsuits.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Check out my 49 in the gallery. Those are 8-bolt trailer rims I got from Kal Tire for about $90 each. I've posted the numbers here (somewhere....). Anyway, no spacers, fit great. 16x6 size, 3 1/2" backspace. The original hubcaps won't fit withoiut mods, but dome-shaped covers are available. I believe these are similar to early 70's Fjord rims.

Good luck

Boy Pete, believe me, if I could have found 16”x6” w/3 1/2” backspace I would have jumped on them. I looked, and asked and begged for almost a year but in the end I couldn’t find wheels like that anywhere short of the custom wheel manufacturer out in California.
We got some real solutions going here for the 3/4 ton dilemma, so lets make some comparisons and talk money (US dollars).
Lets not include the cost of tires, mounting, balancing here cuz that’s an individual thing and could run anywhere from, my brother-in-law gave me a set for nuttin’ to over a grand for premo tires. Many of us now have one of those cheapie $59 HF tire machines which with some effort, will work to mount-your-own.
The 1980, Chevy C10 tires were $50 for the four, no shipping. Not necessary in all cases, but blasting for two was $40, the other two I did myself. My paint ran about $50 cuz I used PPG DAR, but I could have just as easily got away with Rust-Oleum rattle can for under $10. Spacers were around $200 for the pair, nuts and shipping included.
Bottom line: For me, $340 for the wheels. Could have gotten away for $260 had I used my head. Pros are stock hub caps can still be used. Cons are, I’m stuck with limited choice 16.5” x 6.75” tires.
Now are ya talking about $90 each Canadian Pete? There would be shipping charges added also for us guys down in the States cuz we haven’t got Kal-Tire down here. I wonder what shipping would be for a set of steel wheels to Chicago or Dallas?
Bottom line: $360 + shipping. Pros, and they are two real big ones at that, are no spacers and choice of widely available 16” tires. Cons, need to buy after market baby moons to maintain originality and even then it won't say Chevrolet. And the wheel centers appear to be smoothies and not the four spoked centers like the original GM wheels, see picture for an explanation of what I mean: http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2060037150098611668GzuVBh
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Hey Army;
I see what you mean about those spacers being pricey! Wow! Too steep for my budget right now. Thanks for the help though.

Hey tntrucknut;
I have 2 of the factory 16 inch rims and two mismate oddballs (one is the outside rim of a dually...go figure!) but I do thank you for your offer of the 15" rims.

Hey
I threw some pictures up on photobucket at http://s222.photobucket.com/albums/dd86/kyblumoon/ to give everone a visual of what I got going on. In the pictures you can see I have two of the factory rims and two oddball mismates. I really want to thank everyone again for all the help.

Okay... Went to the garage and got the tag off a wheel I haven't mounted yet. Made by Rudeveca, a Venezuelan company that makes wheels for cars and light and heavy trucks. The other numbers on the tag are X-45304, 109291T (this was the catalogue number at Kal Tire) and 16X6. With this info, I believe any tire shop, especially those that cater to heavier trailers, should be able to order these wheels.

Now, I have a Canadian-made 3/4T. The tie rod is a hollow tube with internal threads and a clamp fitting to secure the ends. The ends are not the same as the drag-link (ball-stud in socket), but have a tapered stud that fits in a tapered hole in the steering arm. NAPA got the ends off the shelf from the make and year, so I believe they are original. I have between 3/8 and 1/2 inch of clearance to the rim.

I hope this info helps people in our situation.

Good luck

alright,.. after highflyer said something bout trailer wheels it got me thinking or at least curious.. (i just got home to see todays posts) i took a look for a while and either i am doing my wheel offset math incorrectly (wouldnt be the first time) ir these things might be cheap,well maybee at least affordable; perfect,er kinda close; and available in the U.S. as i couldnt find any rims but racing ricer car wheels on kal tire.

http://www.lowcosttrailersupplies.com/trailer-parts-oemsw.html

check out part item # 17-153

if anyone does check this out could you please let me know if i am counting the offset properlly? thanks
~army truck

I was trying to stay out of this campaign to sell each others ideas but can't stop my self. Since price was mentioned and I did have some data I copied and pasted this older post of mine.

....



It is known knowlege that trailer wheels will fit our 8 lug hubs while clearing tie rod ends. However after searching last two years I had difficulty finding non-spoked trailer wheels or any that looked like the originals.

Finally I hit the Jack Pot.

My uncle had a older trailer which had the wheels I wanted. So I tried to fit them and it worked.
http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2104715490100505384SPxlrx
Even the hub caps appear to fit perfectly once I get the clips.
http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2310359900100505384qzhVhQ

Only problem is that they are my uncles so I had to find my own. This lead me to this web site.

http://www.lowcosttrailersupplies.com/
I ordered the 16 x 6, 8 lug wheels (A-17-153-65), but there are a couple various options that might work.
The price was $62.75 per wheel.
I ordered 5 so I could have a side mounted full size spare
http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2672599930100505384GDDYyY
Shipping was $89 dollars and only took the 2 days to deliver to my door step.
Total price was $406.14 which I tought was good compared to other options.
The wheel came in black gloss which is what I wanted and looked very similar to stock split rims
http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2728067630100505384XRZjtY
http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2907227970100505384RGiOPo
Best part is that this wheel has 3.5 backspacing which clears tie rods with out spacers needed, barely.
http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2388772720100505384IUtZxc

The tire which I will be using:
DAYTON 204.899 TIMBERLINE AT COMMERCIAL
LT235/85R16 120/116R
Load Range E

It's alittle $$$, but looked the best with highest load range and set about 31.5 inches tall.

I hope some body can use this info. I know that wheels on this application is a contant problem. Thought I would share my good find.

Thanks every one for you help.
_________________________
Loy, 1950 Chevy 3600 3/4-Ton
http://community.webshots.com/user/Shellology?vhost=community

Hey Shellology
You have done your homework on this! I checked out the website at http://www.lowcosttrailersupplies.com/ and they look to have a few other options as well as the ones you bought. Great resource for a difficult problem to solve. The Advanced Design 3/4 ton and up 'bolts are awesome but a little on the problematic side in some areas. A solution like this is welcome and helpful to everyone. Thanks!