The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts Options "rims of death" 1951 6400 - make fit or ??

Found out from you guys that my 51 6400 has the rims of death on it.

I found a early series 55 2 ton that seems to have decent rims on it.

I am wondering if I should try to make these fit to my hubs or if I should just go and pull the front and rear axles off of the 55?

What have you guys done?

You can make bushings/adapters to use the late model wheels on the 51 truck. The new wheels have a nominal 5.25" center hole, and the old ones a 4.75" center hole.

If the 55 axles are in decent shape and priced right, then I think a complete axle swap would be a better choice. Assuming that they are early 55 axles, and are a bolt in swap for a 51? Or if they are late 55 they may still be suitable and bolt in???
Or perhaps the hubs and even brakes can be swapped from the new axle back to the old one?

Simpler yet may be to forget about the 55 stuff and search for the readily available 48-53 two or three piece lock ring wheels with the correct center hole already.

So many choices,

Grigg

I purchased some 4140 steel stock to machine some adapters for the front of my 1950 1.5 ton for the same reason. I have extra material to make you a set if you choose to retain your stock axles. Not positive of cost just yet though. Let me know if you're interested in going this route.

Like Grigg said, there's lots of ways to do this so you kind of have to decide how you want to skin the cat.

Thanks jgetti.

Will see what options I have available to me at the yard and then go from there.

Id suggest looking at swapping the hubs, that may be the easiest route to go.

In my GMC COE I wanted to keep the old 5 lug Motor wheels which are darn near impossible to find. I upgraded to a Chevy 1953 rear axle with bendix type brakes. The old hubs fit on the newer rear, but I had to bring the drums in to a friend of mine who welded up the original 6 lug holes and then brought them to a retired machinist friend who drilled the 5 lug pattern in them.

If you have a GMC you could have any number of lugs and different hub sizes. Chevy came with the 10 lug early on and added 6 lug wheels a little later, both of which should be reasonablly easier to obtain lock ring type wheels.

Hope that helps.

Jeff

Interesting. How come my 1948 has the split ring rims? They are the safer rims right?

Because someone put them on the truck!

So long as you can see the ring in the front face of the wheel its a lock ring type. The dangerous kind are centered in the wheel and that is where they come apart.

You can't say that one year or the other will have the dangerous rims that are split in the middle, So far I have seen them on a number of different years, and just as many if not more trucks of the very same years have the OK lock ring wheels.

Check out this Tech Tip: http://www.stovebolt.com/techtips/wheels/
It has some good info on wheels, including pictures of and info on the different types.

Grigg

Spartman,

I have 4 of the correct rims for your truck sitting on a pallet ready to go to the scrappers. They are all in good, usable condition. I also have several 1953 rims that fit your truck but have a different style side and locking rim from the others.

They are all yours for shipping if you want them.

Drop me a PM if your interested.