The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Artillery Wheel Question

I have a couple of 16" 6 lug artillery wheels that I'm a bit puzzled about. Someone has welded a bead around the entire perimeter of the wheels. There is a factory slit in the edge of each rim, and the hole where the valve stem comes out is oblong instead of round. I have no experience with split rims, so is that what this is? Why would someone weld the wheels, just to make them stronger? Are the wheels safe to use like this? I also have a 15 inch wheel that is made and welded just the same way. Thanks for the input

It does appear to be a split ring rim, the welding makes me REALLY NERVOUS. Perhaps it was put there because the rim had rusted on the inside. Split ring rims are sometimes called "widow makers" A kid at my high school in 1967 was decapitated when he aired up a split ring where the ring wasn't seated properly. Tire shops put them in a cage, clip on the air and press a remote button to air them up. That being said, The 48 1 1/2 ton Chevy I used to own had splits as does my '30 Packard. In good condition they are fine. As I said the welding makes me REALLY NERVOUS.

I didn't know they made 15 inch artillery style wheels with split rims. My '41 3/4 ton has regular 15" artillery wheels.

Ron, I have a set of 5 nice regular 15" artillery wheels that I plan to use on this truck to replace the welded ones. I need to buy some tires for them though. Just curious, what size tires are you running on your 15" artilleries?

I think the oblong valve stem hole is normal allowing the 'stem to move around while being inflated so as not to get chaffed.

Looked at all your px, what are those seats out of?

Thanks.

Ed, if you're talking about the seats in my '41 Chevy, they are the original seats. I suspect you're talking about the blue seats on my photobucket page though. They were out of a Saturn Ion coupe I used to have.

The rims with the weld bead around them need to have the tires removed and the rims cut up into pieces. There's no telling what the welding has done to the integrity of the rim, including inducing possible cracks and stress points. Even if the welding was done on a constant-speed turntable with a MIG welder, it would be dangerous. That one appears to have been done with a stick welder, making multiple short welds with many starts and stops. WAAAAYYYY too dangerous!
Jerry

The centers of the wheels are probably still useable. I had the centers of artillery wheels cut out and mated to new rims. I had an outfit called Stockton Wheel do that a few years ago.

I had Stockton make up single piece rims for my two ton, but I heard they went out of business.

Stockton Wheel is under new ownership

I found a link on the HAMB, only one guy had a good experience with Stockton. I know they are under new ownership, due to the death of the previous owner, but I would still be leary. The quality of work seemed to be o.k. but the time it took to get your wheels back seemed to be the big problem.

That may be true about the wait, I let them know I wasn't in a big hurry to get the wheels so I wasn't pressing them for the work. And I was quite happy with their work. Glad to hear they didn't go under. They were the only ones I could find to make the one piece wheels for the two ton.

The tire shops in my area wont even allow them in the building.And that is in stock condition. Yours have been butchered and who knows what could happen.But on the good side your widow could sell the truck stating "three of the wheels are original"

I had my wheels re-rimmed at Stockton and was happy with them. Their turnaround time was what they stated it would be. I don't feel like waiting 6-8 weeks for something to be done right is a problem.

On the rear I have a pair of 7.00/15LT recaps that I bought 15 years ago and never put on. They have been in cool dry dark storage all this time. On the front i was able to buy at the Tire Factory I think, a set of new 7.00/15LT hiway tread under the brand name "RUBBERMASTER" I can't remember exactly cause it was last year, but i paid about $78 each I think. They are Nylon bias ply with an 8 ply rating.

Sounds great. I just found a super deal on a set of 4 new Toyo 7.00R/15LT tires and I'm waiting for them to arrive. I was puzzled about finding a 15" radial tire size that would give me the height and narrow width I wanted, but I think these will work out well.

My ’41 ¾ ton had 15” artillery wheels with welded rings to make them “split rims”. I kinda thought it was some after market idea to increase the load rating of the wheels. I drilled out the rivets, saved the centers and had them welded back on more standard rims.

Hope this is not to off topic but Kip's41, what did you use for ‘standard rims’? I tried the same thing with an artillery wheel with a bad rim. Thought I would weld the artillery wheel center into a 15” 5 ½” chevy rim from about 1967. This would give me something close to a stock size artillery wheel. Did all of the cutting and grinding so that I had the artillery wheel center and the 15” rim from the 67(center cut out). After all of that work and to my surprise, the center did not fit the rim. There was about a 1/8” space between the ends of the center spokes and the rim. Does not say much for my planning.

Artillery Wheels

Hi Don:

Don

I guess I was just lucky with the wheel that I got for the donor rim. Someone had a 5 ½” Chevy rim on eBay a while back. I remember asking if it was riveted or welded. It was riveted so I bought it. I drilled the rivets out of both wheels and re-riveted the artillery center to the newer rim and all worked well