The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts Cleaned up the Widow Makers

After having some trouble getting two inner tubes replaced on one of my trucks, I decided to take some initiative. Cleaned up and blasted the Firestone RH-5 wheels, this is the current result. They still need some finishing work before getting coated.

Before:
[img]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8077/8309630406_abf717f877_z.jpg[/img]

After
[img]http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2871/9218655895_088d1efa56_z.jpg[/img]
[img]http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3697/9221432618_85253c16d4_z.jpg[/img]

Wheels
[img]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7443/9233526964_c6cf2eaaa1_z.jpg[/img]
[img]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7285/9221432054_bcd3262737_z.jpg[/img]

You probably should not spend any time on those wheels. Take a look at the tech tip here, http://www.stovebolt.com/techtips/wheels/

Your asking for problems trying to use them.

Welcome Vegas6400! PLEASE follow Don's advice! These things are called "Widow-Makers",for a GOOD reason. We want to see the results of your restoration,not the results of a tire explosion! I don't believe that any reputable truck-tire shop,will even consider working on those rims! Insurance probably wouldn't cover the liability!

Don't worry, no tube tires here, it's either 10r or 285's up front still have to test fit to see which one clears the springs and fenders out back it's going to be some 385/65/22.5.


http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7341/9233541794_dc6d0fe75d_z.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7319/9230763937_4592a5670d_z.jpg

Dont Do It!!!
It's like playing Wheel Roulette!

Hy Vegas6400, welcome, those wheels (the last two pictures) are definately not Firestone RH5 wheels. It looks to me like someone cut the centers out of a tube type wheel, and welded them into what looks like drop center tubless type wheels. What size tires fit on those wheels?

I thought the same thing too. He is referencing 22.5 tires....

If they split in the middle(think oreo cookie) they are the RH5 and SHOULD NOT BE USED. They are a bad design that only lasted for a short time and with time rust has made it a horrible design.

Your rims(at least some of them) have a drop center for a radial tubeless tire, they are not RH5 or widowmaker. It is not the tube tires that are bad...or even a multi-part rim that is bad, but the specific RH5 design.

If your rims are non-factory fabricated I would look at them really carefully before painting for any cracking that may be present. It may even be worth getting them magafluxed. There was someone a while back who had a wheel company weld in old centers in a new rim and after a few years had some nasty cracks develop....looked to be bad welding. Before painting is the time to find any issues and fix them.

Tad

Looks like he or someone welded 22.5" rims on old RH5 center disc?

What's the whole story?

Nice job Vegas6400, that's making good use of a set of RH5s.Did you put the new hoops on yourself, or did you get them done somewhere? You gotta give us some more info here or this thread is going to turn into a RH5 safety lecture.

I have the RH5* on my 58 GMC 370. Those do not look like mine. You can see the weld all way around, that is not factory on the RH5*.

The idea was simple at first, Just get a wheel manufacture to make a custom set of new wheels, but that ended with empty promises and sorry w can't do that.

Then I figured that in the car and truck world people fix billet rims by cutting the centers out and re-welding them into new hoops and for the classic / muscle car group people take original centers and put them in wider rims to fit wider tires. So take the same concept as that and apply it to the larger trucks. I call around and find a few companies that say this process is part of their normal routine, so I remove the genuine Firestone RH-5 centers and drop them off to a shop. Well it comes to it most of the places that I went to came up with the conclusion that rims in a 22.5" size are unavailable. So I ended up searching and tracked down some 22.5" rims that would work a 8.25 and 11.75, a 7.5 was really prefered but I was unable to locate any new ones. Shortly after a pallet of wheels arrived, I did some test fitting and the sizes were pretty close, tried to get them pressed in locally and they were slightly too big. Ok, that's not a problem chuck them up on the mill and shave them down to size, well it appears that they are slightly too big for what I have, go around and look for a local machine shop that has a large lathe, and no one has one to swing these. Well it's back to the wheel shops, guess what, none of them had a large lathe either. After almost 2 years in the making, much expenses, and travel all over I have a set of partially completed tubeless rims. Still needs finishing coating, and some rubber.

The original equipment wheels
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2856/9239741569_544cdd58e6_z.jpg

RH-5
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7370/9242518806_93f910f6a9_z.jpg

Cut the original rims off
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7415/9239739387_66b3812700_z.jpg

New Rims
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5488/9242515858_a5b04f4c3f_z.jpg

Looks like it might work
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5349/9242511288_e5d4455f21_z.jpg

Pretty close fitment
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7285/9239721967_613d8a3d7a_z.jpg

There are some other pictures
http://www.flickr.com/photos/5251168/

Thi s was not an easy process for something that should be pretty simple. I think for my green truck, if a wide track rear axle can be located a set of four 8.25" wheels will be used with 315 tires and just flipped around to save on costs, plus the 385 seems a little over kill, but was needed to gain a wider stance with a narrow axle.

Very nice I did something similar last year but I wanted to still run old school tube tires so I got 1 piece drop centers from Coker 4.5" rims removed my old centers and welded them into the new blank...

Like you said seemed easy in concept... I too had to turn down the centers, I didn't have acces to a lathe big enough either... I went with a rotary table on a bridge port ...

Here's my process it's funny how similar we went about it..

https://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=725349&page=1

Well when you say you "cleaned up the widow makers" you really cleaned them up.

would a dayton 22.5 rim work....or would it not all line up right? I know there are 7.5x22.5 dayton rims available You may have more work involved though if you had to remove the flange for the wheel spacer.

Tad

CORPO- Those are some good looking centers, they seem to have a much larger hand hole.

Did you proceed with painting your wheels, if so was the tire install easily done without any damage. I've installed standard tires without much issue, but these commercial tires seem to be a beast in weight and stiffness. I would prefer to powder coat, but it's not easy to find good people around here.

It's great to hear that you were able to cut them down yourself, especially with short travel Bridgeport. I threw one of the rear wheels on the mill today to enlarge the center bore, and well some longer studs were needed to clamp these wheels, just have to wait until they come in.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7282/9245402942_775035f8dd_z.jpg

I agree with you, this is not complicated by any means, you would think that some of the places dealing with wheels all day long would be on hand to offer such services and be knowledgeable in their field. I can definitely see how people could be discouraged or given up on this. Glad to hear this is not an isolated situation.

You should have no trouble putting the 22.5" tires on and not messing up paint or powdercoat.

I installed my own 9R22.5 tires for my truck, the first side goes on real easy, some tire soap and sort of throw it on, done. The second bead needed a little prying, and some scraps of an antifreeze jug to protect the finish from the tire iron, still not at all difficult.
https://picasaweb.google.com/118082...onProgressPictures02#5806311930453515922
https://picasaweb.google.com/118082...onProgressPictures02#5806311960607387506


Grigg

The centers are from my 36, that style can also be found on 34's and 35's but the center bore is smaller on those

Those are some massive rims you got there!

I painted my rims, mounted them without any problems.. I used some of that harder paint you can get from Eastwood

http://i385.photobucket.com/albums/...2C6-233-0000001894FA5DCE_zps5edadfcd.jpg

Keep up the good work!

Did you weld them in a lathe? I have made some wheels similar to that using our brake drum lathe. Laying about 5 feet of bead got kind of tedious. I slowed down my wire speed a little to make a nicer bead and still got plenty of penetration.