Hello everyone.
I'm new here, although I have read through some of the threads and found some great wisdom within thier context. So... heres the problem I offer to you. In july I came across this great old 1953 F350. I bought it off a local masonary buissness that owend the truck since 53 and was still using it (light duty) to the day I got it. Its all origanl, with service records and a ton of spare parts. I love it, drove it consantly from when I bought it untill two months ago when I decided to park it for some body work. Yeah its rough, from a distance it look great, but there a mile of bondo holing the fenders on. Mechanicly though, its great! Plus he gave me all the stuff to keep it tuned and rolling good. Included was a totaly rebuilt rear axle, wich the one in the truck was rebuit less than 50k ago, and three spare rims and tires. I belive the axles to be Timken and have an odd bolt patern. Here lies the problem. I have read here about these two piece rims being dangerous. I havent had a problem yet but Ive only put mabe a thousand miles on the truck. The guy I bought it off of never said anything and he haulled heavy stuff with it, but then agian probably not the thing you wanna bring up when your trying to sell the thing. So do I have to be really concerned, or are they safe? One piece rims to fit are hard to find. I could swap in a danna60 but would seem a shame since I have two perfectliy good axles here. Finnaly, has any one or do you think it woud work, if you welded the two halves together? even a few one inch beads would keep them from seperating, and curent tire changing machiens should be able to mount a tire on a 17.5 inch rim.

 

First of all, welcome to the group. Glad to have you, and I admire your willingness to take on a challenging truck.

"Widowmakers" are bad news. The technical term for them is "Firestone RH-5°". If you do a Google search of these two terms you'll find a lot written about them here and on other truck related web forums. I'm not sure if a new person can use the FTE search function or not, but even for an old timer like me it's much easier to just use Google.

Adding to your challenges, the widowmaker rims are combined on your truck with a 6 lug x 7.25" bolt circle and wheels having 5" of dish. I'm gonna search for a thread of a long discussion we had with our member "Kenjh" who has a 1954 F-350 with the same, and actually more, issues than yours. In that thead I've tried to spell out for Ken his wheel replacement options. He's now opted to have custom wheels made instead of continuing his search for donor vehicles.

Welding the halves of a widowmaker together isn't one of the options. You'd never get the tire to stretch over the lip. And please forget about combining a 17" design with a 17.5" design. They are totally different animals. As we get deeper into this conversation I'll explain the differences if you want to hear it. It's getting late here, so I'll reconnect tomorrow hopefully with a good detailed list of donor vehicles for your wheels.

Edit - By the way, your rear axle is a Timken model B150. It's unique to your truck, but if you do decide to replace it with a modern axle the Dana 60 is a good option. Stu

 

I heard of a split rim taking a guys head off when they were changing it. BE CAREFUL !!!!!!

 

I looked for the thread about Ken's wheels, but the discussion is mixed with talk about his Marmon-Herrington axles. You'd have too many threads to wade through. So what I'll do is give you a quick run down of replacement wheel options. Then if you want more specifics I can list models, years, etc.

I've done this search several times and haven't found any 17" wheels that are safe and have your bolt pattern. You could, however, go with 16" locking ring dually style wheels, first making sure they'd clear your rear drums. Good sources would be later Ford, IHC, Dodge, and Studebaker one ton models of the '50s and '60s. One critical issue is the fact that you have 5/8" wheel studs as would these above donors. You'd have to avoid 3/4 ton IHCs having this bolt pattern because they have 9/16" studs.

To me the best option is to find 17.5" tubeless wheels. They were sourced on 1956 and later F-350s, Dodges, IHCs, and Studebakers. They have 4 3/4" dish which would closely match your 5" dish.

Another option is 19.5" tubeless. They would be the exact outside diameter match for your 17" tube type, but have much less dish (3.5"). So you'd have the wheels sitting out further from the truck and might have clearance issues. These will be much harder to find than the 17.5s or lock ring 16s. Sources are the same later model Ford, Dodge, IHC, and Studebakers.

I see from your profile that you live in PA. To find used wheels I'd suggest becoming familiar with Craigs List, and would use a nationwide search such as is possible through Google. I've seen the 17.5s on CL several times.

And the last option is custom wheels. That's the direction Kenjh is taking by having custom 19.5s made at Stockton Wheel. I also bought a remanufactured set of 19.5s for my trucks from American Wheel Specialist. This option is more expensive than finding used wheels in a yard, but would save you a lot of looking. Please do a reputation search of the various companies before spending your money. Stu

Edit - to show you that these wheels do exist, here's a pic of an F-350 wearing a set of 17.5s that's in a yard near Salt Lake City. Admittedly it's been a year or more since I took this pic, and have mentioned them a few times to guys, so they might be gone by now. Stu

 

Thanks for the input guys