The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts Need help on the DESIRABLE "Widow Maker" rims!

I am considering getting a 1955 second series Chevy 6400, and need some help on what to do about the rims. The story behind it and the plans for it are on the thread fixing the family truck which can be found in my posts. I have read the tech tip on the rims, and it said to NEVER keep those rims and I agree. Where can I get the rims at a descent price? I do NOT want them to look flashy or new. Where can I get these at a price that wont cost me an axle and a stovebolt? Hey, I just made a new stovebolt forum phrase! YA!

Hy 1955_Chevy_6400, just look at your local truck wrecking yards, or post an ad in the parts wanted forum.

The local truck wrecking yards do not have anything NEARLY as old as the 6400 and I am not wanting to deal with shipping from a random individual on the parts forum. I would rather deal with an actual company like a classic truck junk yard that is not halfway across the country, but am unable to find such a thing. My question is, does anyone know of a junkyard that might have what I need? I do not want to wind up going

What do you need?
What bolt pattern, 6 lug Budd or 10 lug on 7.25" circle GM, or something else?

10 lug

On 7.25" centers or otherwise?

Hey 1955 6400! I have a 1955 6500-series with 8.25x20" tires. My truck is equipped (origionally) with the 5-hole,10-lug wheels,which I THOUGHT were widow-makers, but since I took it to the tire store to mount my slightly-used 9.00x20's the tire man informed me that my (hopefully yours,too)rims are actually 3-piece rims,not like the older (mostly Ferd) rims from mainly the '40's I would ask a professional, but HOPEFULLY he tells you the same thing-This holds true for the 10-lug rims. I am not familiar with the 6-hole,6-bolt pattern rims,or tire sizes, although I know where there are 5 6- hole rims available in Center Point,Iowa, from a 1956 6400 2- ton. I wish you good luck and happy hunting! Gotta LOVE STOVEBOLT.COM! Sincerely: Bill Hickey [email protected]

Thanks for the help, but when my dad was using the truck about 10 years ago, the tire shop said he would not air up those tires because it was the "Widow Maker" rims. I am %100 sure they are "Widow Makers".

I wouldn't take the opinion of just one tire shop. There are a lot of shops with kids that have never seen multi piece wheels. If you post a picture, they can be identified in a hurry. If you live in DeLeon, there may well be an old peanut truck sitting around with 2 or 3 piece wheels that are safe. I don't think you are going to find a salvage yard anywhere that deals specifically in 50 year old 2 ton stuff.

He took it to 2 or 3 tire shops and all of them said no because of the rims until about the 3rd one decided to man up.

How about a picture or two? You know what they say about a picture....

I will try to get a pic next time I go out there which should be tomorrow but I can not guarentee I will get them. You may have to wait. I will try to and get some taken and posted soon.

Common sense maybe has more to do with it than "man up".

What do you mean?

If you are talking about the RH-5 rims then I have never heard/read/seen ANYBODY that thinks they are a good idea to even use at all. These are the rims that split around the rim down the center...think cut bagel.

The locking ring rims are perfectly safe to run and work on as long as they are in good shape and you know how to work on them. The locking ring rims can kill you if you put them together incorrectly and try airing them up. All 20" rims you see on classic trucks are locking ring.

Tad

So if they are 20" they are widow makers? How do get some that fit that are not?

All 20" wheels are NOT the RH-5 Widow Makers.

Wheels that have the locking ring out at the edge of the wheel near the bead are safe.

The RH-5 Wheels are made to come apart in the middle of the wheel. They can be identified by the 2" wide raised band on the rim right where the center disc meets the rim.

Check out Grigg's technical article on wheels for more info.

Mike B

I thought that sounded off! Thanks Mike B!

Wow... based off of your intel Mike, I'm pretty sure I have 4 different rims on my truck ;-P...

1 widow maker, 1 "other" near bead of the tire, and 4 "normal" (one is a different "make")

Steamylc,

You say you have 4 "normal" wheels...what do you mean? Do you have 4 22.5 Tubeless wheels or just a different style lock ring type?

Mike B

they're riveted instead of the lock ring. Pretty sure they're "one piece"..

Pretty sure they all have tubes though.

Steamylc,

ALL 20" wheels are Tube type and are mulit piece wheels.

My 22.5" tubeless wheels have the center disc riveted to the rim. I need to see if they built the 20" RH-5's the same way...

Mike B

Went outside and checked, and they've got the lock rings :-P my bad, they don't seem as predominant as the "widow makers"?

Do you measure rims from OD? I measured mine just now and they're 22.5". Are mine all tubeless too? (Will the tire tell me?)

You measure the ID of the tire or the OD of the rim which is impossible with a tire mounted. However, if they have lock rings, they are not tubeless and not the RH 5° wheels. If you look on the side of the tire, it will give you the size of the tire. It will probably be something like 7.50x20 or 8.25x20 the 20 denoting a 20".

I will try to get a pic of the rim with the holes and get a tire number when I head out there in the morning.

I was in the same boat as you. I had the split rims (not the deadly ones) but they had rusted so badly where the two halves come together that they were unserviceable. I tried searching for new wheels, but could not find a set that didn't have old tires on them, and the sellers did not want to bother having at least one tire removed to check the condition of the rim. I did not want to spend the money to ship junk. I ended up getting one piece wheels made at Stockton Wheel, but I hear they are out of business now. It is pricey to go that route, but better than no rims. The new rims are 22.5 and I installed tubeless radials.

That was not a lot of help, but thank you for your input. I would have them made custom by someone like alcoa, but I do not want the rims to look new. If I was restoring it, I would probably get new ones or have them custom built. Thank you for the input though! I want this truck to look old and beat up on the outside.

Back when split rims where the most common at times dangerous accidents happened. But its not the case that every day a tire shop had one blow apart.
The reason they fail is improper seating and assembly, the time something would happen usually is during air up, or if there is no air pressure. Precautions can be taken, its what tire cages are for.

I am not one bit afraid to run them, just find a tire shop that knows what they are doing, I am planning on buying new steer tires for my 54 6500 just gonna make sure the oldest employee that can do it right works on them. Amd yes they said its no problem to do it. Blake

Thanks so much for the help! Anyone else?

The jury is still waiting to see pictures of your rims, so a verdict can be reached about whether you need new rims at all...

Since you want old looking rims, and dont want to spend several hundred or more on replacement rims, your best chance of getting what you want is to show Ken/Grigg/Mike some good pictures of your rims, and hopefully find out you have locking rims that you can keep. If they really turn out to be the RH-5s, then the pictures will also help get you the right advice about options.

If you are still in Dublin, then if you head South through Comanche down to Mullin, there is a tractor/big truck tire shop on 183 at 573. I'll hafta ask my dad the name of the fella and the tire shop there, but my dad's sure that there not gonna balk at me when I eventually get around to needing to bring my multi piece locking rims in for new tires... I'm not expecting it to be inexpensive to get tires or mounting there, but I'll be shocked if they wont even do the job on the multi-piece rims...

Keith

Here ya go. And what is this weird looking bracket underneath the driver side mirror bracket?

That one is an RH5°
Are they all the same?

Yes, they are all identical. Thank you all for the help!

Just a little note on finding GOOD 3 piece wheels. I went that route and searched for wheels and have seen about 3 dozen here and there.
I bought the best of what I could find, very little rust on the outside thinking these would be okay.
After the struggle of removing the tires I was amazed at the amount of rust on the inside of the wheels which rendered these wheels useless.
In the future if I find more of these I will want to see the inside before I decide on it being a good wheel.

Dan

That's exactly what I think. My wheels looked great, and the guys at Less Schawb spent a long time trying to open them up. They got about 3 done and all were rusted beyond service on the inside. That's why I refused to buy any with tires on them. I never did find any and some of the used parts guys stopped emailing me when I asked to have one tire removed. The used wheels were affordable, but shipping would have cost more than the rims. If I got them home and they were crap, I would be out a lot of $$$$. Like I posted before, I had one piece wheels made up for my truck. They don't look that much different than the originals other than being 22.5, the tire profile is about the same and everything fits. They were not cheap to have done, but I feel it was my only option. Good luck on finding some with the tires off or someone willing to remove the tires before the sale.

This is a very believable and understandable situation, here's why:
1- Used 20" wheels are cheap/not worth much to start with.
2- So for anyone selling them there is no incentive to spend more money/effort than they're worth to remove old tires, and then dispose of the tires.....

When I sell old wheels I'll only remove tires if the buyer pays the tire shop to do so. I'm no good at it and it's not worth it to me for what the wheels sell for, it's pretty simple.

The solution if you want old wheels bad enough is to negotiate a price for what they are as they are and take your chances like everyone else does.
Eventually with enough sweat and piles of old rims and tires you'll get what you need.
No one said it'd be easy did they?

Grigg

I never did expect it to be even a little bit easy! I appreciate all the help! Does anyone know if I can get them off of a '70's or 80's dump truck? I can not remember where I heard this, but it sounded like a possiblity. Does anyone know what that old bracket is under the mirror?

They have to be 10-lug unlike yours, MacX. The fronts are 5-lug, but the rears are 10-lug. And yes, I know they can be 10-lug and fit on the front still. So to sum it up, they have to be 10-lug.