New to the forum and just learning about trucks and restoration. I have a 1950 F-3...call her Big Blue!! I have the split rims, paced brand 17"tires on her last year, less than 100mile on them. Truck is in for a clutch replacement and in lien for a full restore in the fall. The shop wants to change from the 17" split rims to 16"? I don't really want to change, 1.) want to keep big blue original as possible, 2.) 17" tires were gift from my spouse and are "new". any thoughts?? How dangerous are the splits? can the rims be tack weleded together and still get tires on them? ( FYI....I am new to this....and a female!!!any fellow females?

 

First, welcome to the board, it's nice to see another bigger truck owner join and also a female.

The wheels on your truck are commonly referred to as Widow Makers and most tire shops won't touch them because of liability issues. Please read this page about Ford WMs:

Ford two piece rims

No you can't weld the rim halves together, those rims have deeper lip than tubeless type rims and you wouldn't be able to mount new tires or dismount the older ones. Also, you'd have to weld them while the tire was inflated to make sure the rims were spread out as far as possible, which would be impossible. You'd also run into balancing issues. Your truck has larger rear brake drums and you'll might have problems finding a 16" drum that will fit, but there are some out there. Rims from the same vintage Ford F-2, which have 16" wheels, won't fit over your rear drums.

Do a search of FTE for "widow makers" and "F-3" using my name and truckdog, Stu is the resident expert on wheels on FTE. If you check previous posts on this thread you'll see his name. Since you're new here you don't have enough post to use the site's search feature but you can get good results using Google:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/8...ml#post7429325

 

Check back a couple posts, and you will see the description of my solution. The 16" Ford wheels from the 1980s worked great. There are some pictures in my "Winter 05 Improvements" photo album in which you can see the wheels (black with chrome trim rings) on my F-3. You will need to get wheels with a tall sidewall (largest circumference possible), so that you don't gear it down too far. My truck (formerly) has a 4.86 final drive ratio, so it is short legged already.

 

First of all, welcome to the group. Glad to have you. Pretty soon you'll get to know Julie, too, I suspect. Looks like Bob and I were typing on top of each other so there will be some duplication here.

In your search you've found a pretty old thread. I'll link you to some others that will hopefully shed some added light on the subject. I'll address your specific questions in reverse order.

Widow maker wheels are technically termed "Firestone RH-5°". Do a forum search or a Google search of that term and read about them. They are dangerous as heck, and the halves cannot be welded together to make them safe. If you tried to weld the halves you'd trash a tire trying to mount it.

The 17" size is your problem. I've spent hours and hours going though old wheel catalogs looking for alternative safe designs in that size having your 8 lug x 6.5" bolt circle. I've found one. It was a design used on Chevy one tons of the late 40s/early 50s. It is called a Firestone "AR" design. It is a three piece construction that can still be serviced safely. Finding them will be one problem, and the other problem is they won't allow mounting of your hub caps. They use hub cap clips while your hub caps mount on external nubs on the wheels' centers.

Switching to 16" wheels isn't really an easy solution because early trucks such as yours (1948 to early 1951) have rear brake drums that are 14" in diameter. Many who have tried to mount 16" wheels on the rear of early F-3s say they rub the drums. Others, as you've read above, have found 16s or 16.5s that will clear the drums. It seems to be hit and miss finding wheels in these sizes that fit.

Another option is tubeless 17.5" wheels. You wouldn't be able to retain your current 17" tires, but you'd be able to use your stock hub caps. Ford introduced the tubeless 17.5s in 1956 and used them into the 1960s (off the top of my head I don't recall extactly when they stopped listing them). One of the threads I'll attach describes a member's search and success finding a set of these. Please don't think that 17" and 17.5" tires are similar. They are completely different construction and sizing but both wheels and tires will look stock.

The last option is to have custom wheels made. Companies like American Wheel Specialist in Pasco, WA, Stockton Wheel, or Wheel Vintiques could probably take your widowmaker centers and remount them in new tubeless outer rims. The limiting issue here is rim width. I'm fairly certain that narrow 6" modern 16" rims would be available, but don't know for sure that rims that narrow would be available in the 17" size. If you go with a wider rim you risk rubbing on the front inner fender wells and steering. You'd have to make some phone calls to see what was available. You can get these companies phone numbers by doing a Google search. Stockton and Wheel Vintiques have web pages, AWS doesn't. Stu

Here are some good old threads. Stu

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/7...els-again.html
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/8...9-ford-f3.html
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/6...ml#post5470496

 

Wow...you are all awesome for such quick responses! I am learning quickly to navigate around here and spent all hours after the post searching and googling these "widow makers". Breaks my heart to not keep Big Blue original! A local shop ( known it from childhood) had no problem working on the rims to mount the new tires, but had stories to tell for sure! Def. will explore the custom job and already been reading and checking out the links. I am sensing I am getting into another "addicting" hobby, that is very knowledge and equipment based.... ( i am huge with road/tri bicycling and racing) . Will update on decisons and news. Thanks again

 

Here's some widowmaker history from another thread I posted a reply on. It gives some background info. Stu

Widowmaker Firestone RH-5° rims were made from approximately 1947 until 1976/77 as either complete wheels or as replacement parts. They never have been outlawed federally, but there may be isolated states that have taken this action on their own. Instead, under pressure from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the manufacturers agreed to stop selling them in 1972. Interestingly, Kelsey Hayes was, as mentioned, still selling them in 1977.

Rather than outlaw them or force a recall, OSHA accepted the manufaturers' lobbiests' position that the many RH-5° failures were due to faulty training practices. In addition to increased training, tire shops were required to display safety posters. This weak federal action saved the manufacturers millions of dollars but did little to improve safety. As a result, the courts have awarded many wrongful death and injury awards, and the insurance companies have adjusted rates accordingly. That is why most reputable shops won't touch the things anymore.