Good morning Stu,

It's 65, cloudy and a light rain. You'll love the cool relief from the heat in the rest of the country.

The piloted bolt holes on mine were fine. What I mean to ask is about the face of the wheel itself. The diameter of the American wheels that has the bolt pattern is 14 1/4" but the face of the stock split rims and the 22.5s I have is only 11". I assume that allows the American wheel to fit over a wider selection of hubs but it just looks a little funny as it is not a stock appearance.

I hope that makes sense.

Eric

 

Now I understand. I'll ask, but my gut tells me you've got the answer. No doubt these wheels were originally intended for motor home use and designed for that application. I'll see what they have to say. Stu

 

Time to report back on what I learned during my visit to American Wheel Specialist. I spent a morning with Juan Murillo and his son Shaun. This is a small family owned company that is primarily a wholesaler to the Les Schwab and Commercial Tire dealer networks. They will, however, sell directly to people outside the service areas of these chains. I got a tour, was shown the shop where they do wheel assembly and custom drilling, and was shown their inventory of old and new wheels and rims. I sat with Shaun and fired my questions at him in between phone interruptions. To be organized I'll use dot points to separate topics:

• New 19.5" tubeless wheels - I need to amend my earlier post about these wheels. AWS can supply brand new 19.5" wheels having our 5 lug x 8" circle. These are the ones with round vent holes and the flatter face as pictured in that earlier post. I learned that these wheels are not made at AWS. They are instead motor home wheels (as we suspected) and are imported from Turkey. These are stocked in large numbers because the Les Schwab stores commonly need them for motor home customers. I’ve asked Shaun to find out the weight rating of these wheels. He'll get back to me with it.
• Reconditioned 17" Budd centers remounted in 19.5" tubeless rims - When I first talked to Juan Murillo, these are the wheels he was referring to when he said they had a higher weight rating than stock Budds. He quoted 4000 lbs versus stock Budds rated at 2500 lbs. A 19.5” drop center tubeless wheel is technically the replacement for a 17” multi-part wheel. The 17” center mounts to the new rim’s drop center instead of the old flat rim. This is what yields the increased diameter. These 19.5s look just like stock Budd 19.5s except they are welded on both the inner seam and on the face seam. Also, Shaun says the rim is thicker than on stock Budds. AWS has in-stock two sets of old Budd 17” lock ring wheels that can be used to make sets of 19.5s. FWIW, these lock ring 17” Budds are useable just as they are and will fit over F-4/5/6 drums. I looked at them and see nothing wrong with them. They are Budd #66520 which have 6” wide Goodyear “LB” style lock ring rims. So, these might be a cheaper solution than having the 19.5s made.
• 20” centers remounted in new lock ring rims – This is one of their core businesses. They can remount any bolt pattern. I asked specifically about the 6 lug x 7.25” circle and 8 lug x 10” circle (F-7/F-8). No problem doing either except that they don’t have a shelf supply of old widow makers to use the centers out of. On the more common 5 lug x 8” circle they could make up a set without having to first receive your old wheels.
• 20” centers remounted in new 22.5” tubeless rims – They can do this too. The only problem is rim width. They’ve had trouble mounting these in rims wider than 6.75”. Apparently they rub. And they don’t have a source for the narrow 6.75” replacement rims at the present time. So, it’s a good solution but not very doable (unless you can come up with some narrow Dayton style 22.5” rims).
• 17” F-3 widow maker replacements - For guys that want to retain use of their hub caps, and want to retain their stock rear ends with the 14” drums, AWS can remount widow maker centers in tubeless 17.5” rims. A widow maker center measures 15 5/8” across while a 17.5” center measures 15 1/4”. They can turn down the old center to make it fit cleanly. Also, they have remounted centers into 16” tubeless rims by cutting the center down a lot more. This would work on trucks with 12” drums.
• Group Purchase – Not interested. They feel their prices are competitive.
• Delivery times – About two weeks to do the work, not counting shipping.
• Price – I purposefully didn’t ask. There are too many variables.
I hope this helps. Let me know if something needs clarification. BTW, I have no financial interest in the company. Only trying to help get rid of widow makers. Stu

 

Great job Stu. Thanks for the in-person research.

 

Stu,

I second the thank you. You are by far the expert on these old wheels. If anyone has questions about wheels I always refer them to you.

I wish I had the time and resources to go on a truck field trip, it sounds like ti was very informative.

 

Hey Stan, where in Seattle are you? I am in Auburn. Was going to take my F-1 to the Rat *******s show at XXX but fuel pump issues have me going in the minivan.

Eric