The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Tons 'o Fun 7.00-18 tires

My 1959 38 flatbed needs 2 tires and I have found an individual with 8 never mounted 7.00-18 bias ply tires at a very good price. Should I be concerned about the tires having the correct tire-to-rim lip to fit my original split ring wheels? I understand tires may have either a 5 or 15 degree mountng lip. It is important to gather as much information as possible in advance since I will be driving almost 200 miles round trip to get the tires and I sure don't want to buy tires I can't use.

Thanks,
Steve

Assuming you have 18" rims already?
Sounds like the tires you need then.

Old "new" tires even cheap won't always be a good deal. I ran some new never used but 20+ year old (even stored inside) goodyear 8-19.5 tires on my truck and they did fine for about 10,000 miles but then both rears started to loose sections of tread. The tires were free and served me well, but had I paid anything for them I would have been a little disappointed.

Grigg

I recently purchased 6 7.00-18 for my 1946 3800 dually. It was expensive at about $1300 for tires, freight and installation, but worth it to me. There are not many options these days for that size tire (I bought the Super Transports) and I don't know about the 5 or 15 degree lip, but so far so good for me.

Grigg and Overgripped,

Thanks for your responses. After very careful inspection and checking the manufacture date, I purchased four new/old (several years old, but never mounted) tires today. I plan to mount 2 of them and keep the others for spares.

I stopped in the tire store today, an old full service tire shop in a farming community, which handles everything from wheelbarrows to lawnmowers, cars, truck, tractors, and semis. He had no qualms about dismounting/mounting, but told me that the dismount, tire, tube, flap, and remount, would be $250/tire. Ouch. But, ya gotta have them!

I'll do lots of things, but I don't do tires!

Ouch! is right.
Wow, you better get a few more prices on that job. For that kind of money you can buy a new 8 lug 19.5" tubeless wheel, and have a tire mounted and balanced.

Grigg

Grigg,

I'd love to see some pictures on a one ton of the 19.5 wheel. I've had it in the back of my mind, but I just can't visualize it, and am not sure that I want to do something that will drastically change the appearance of the truck.

If you have some pics, please point me to them or email me at [email protected]

I don't have the exact picture you're looking for.
Here's what I do have http://rides.webshots.com/photo/1484222726080251109dhsKhx
That's 8-19.5 tires and the front wheel is similar but not 8 lug.

The 8 lug wheel you'd be looking at is an Accuride part number 29015 found on page 28 http://www.accuridewheels.com/completeversion.pdf

Or to keep the original look with all those hand holes in your wheels I'd contact http://www.ricksontruckwheels.com/ and see if they can reuse your centers in new 19.5" rims. I'm not sure if the measurements work out and how likely that is, but worth investigating, in fact if you measure the Id of your wheel, which is the OD of the center I'll compare that to a 19.5" rim. Also give me the mounting surface to center of rivet holes on the center.
If that works I suspect it'll still be more economical than $250 for tube, flap, and mounting.

Grigg

ID of the wheel - 18"
Center of hub to rivets - 8-3/4"

The rear is DRW with a stakebed, so clearance isn't an issue. Just curious how those 19.5 wheels/tires will clear/not rub.

jg

You sure the diameter of the wheel center is 18" and not something like 17.5"? I guess I'm asking if you were to put that center in a new rim what would size will it fit in without any machine work?
Also to double check, the wheel center it's self has 8.75" dish in it from flange to rivet holes where it attaches to the rim?

8R19.5 tires sholdn't have any problems with rubbing or clerance, I didn't have any although my truck was not quite stock.

Grigg

8 3/4" centre of hub to rivets =17 1/2" dia + the thickness of the centre on both sides should equal 18"
ron

these are 19.5 wheels from a P30 stepvan with 8R19.5 tires

http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2620734620106850169lkHiph

stock 3800 suspension no clearance issues. 7.50-17, 7.00-18 & 8R19.5 tires are all very close to the same height. I've got some of the old 18" multi-piece wheels. I took the center out of one to see if it would go in one of my 19.5 rims. sadly it was about 3/16-1/4" too big. I'm going to put some mold release wax on a rim & lay some fiberglass on it to make a pattern where I can make 4 more holes in the wheel center using hole saws. An 1 & 1/4" for the ends & About a 3" for the middle will reproduce the oval hole in my rims with 4 little ears left to clean up with a die grinder. I'll document with pics when I do it & I'm sure I can get them close enough the wheel will balance fine.

That's the info I was trying to measure and figure out, I just don't have an 18" wheel to work with. The other measurements in the previous post are confusing and not so much help I don't think.

So, with that info sounds like an original center can be turned down, possibly loosing the lip with the rivet holes, and then welded into a 19.5" wheel (how modern ones are made)
Only question left is does the dish of the wheel work out with the drop center on the 19.5" wheel and can you actually build a wheel that gives you the correct offset /dual spacing?

Grigg

I also looked at turning the lip off but what you'd have left would be too shallow to give enough offset.