After about a year and a half of accumulating parts, I'm just about ready to tackle my truck project. It is a 1955.2 one ton with dual rear wheels. I would like to run 16" one piece wheels on the truck. I plan to swap out the rear end with a newer one with better gears, so no issues there. I tried newer (1973-up) dually wheels on the front. They fit and look good, but have less than 1/8" clearance with the tie rod end. I measured the distance fron the inside mounting flange to inside of wheel and it is about 7 7/8". The original 17" wheel is right at 7". So I measured every other dually wheel I have or could find at a recent swap meet, 16" GM and Ford, 16.5" GM, and even the newer 17" GM dually wheels. None is any less than the 7 7/8". Is anyone aware of a 16" wheel that is just a little more shallow than the standard dually wheel? I've been told I can use 19.5" bread truck wheels for greater clearance, but I would prefer to go with 16's to keep tire costs down. Any ideas or experience would be appreciated.
