Just wanted to introduce myself. I've been lurking in the forums for awhile after I bought a 64 F-600 basically because it looked pretty neat. So, now I'm going about fixing her up and making her mechaniucally sound. The previous owner called her Big Red and used her for a landscaping company. I intend to do light "Farmer John" type stuff as i like to call it(getting hay and heating pellets for the animals and house.) I also want to use it as a parade vehicle out here in Spokane, WA for my E Clampus Vitus Outpost.

So here she is...Big Red.
Big Red

 

Welcome to FTE! The truck looks in good shape and it helps that you know it has been driven recently. There is a large truck forum on FTE and you may get better help on there.

RMM

 

Welcome, glad to have you join and save Big Red. The FTE folks have it structured that the F-600s go into the big truck forum, which is fine and good, especially for newer models. But you’ll find that guys that like older big trucks drop by several different forums, and we all get along just fine.

So I can give you some bad news here, just as easy as over on the big truck forum. Your F-600 is a 1964 which set off alarm bells for me when I read the post title. Your wheels’ outer rims are called Firestone RH-5°. Widow makers. Finding tire service, especially in WA I’d bet, will be a challenge. Complicating matters, during the years 1963 and 1964 Ford fitted some F-600s with hub piloted hubs having the 6 x 8.75” pattern. I see them in your picture. Probably safer replacement wheels are in your future, and likely that custom ones will be suggested to fit the hubs. Safer used wheels with this set of variables don’t exist. There are ways to switch to standard stud piloted wheels we can describe — later if you want to hear it. Stu

 

Thank you for the welcome. Are they called widowmakers because servicing them is that dangerous or because of cataatrophic failure on the road? I'll definitely want to change them to make things easier and safer all around.

 

Serviceing is the problem, if not assembled correctly they blow apart, so cage is needed. It looks like somebody was not afraid too since has fairly new looking Bandag 900-20 caps on back.

 

Yes on both points. A third reason is near impossibility to get them serviced in some areas. The insurance industry tried and failed to get them recalled during the 1970s, and since then lawyers and juries have finished the job. Also, as fewer and fewer are in service it doesn’t make sense for a shop to train staff in handling of them. You might drop by your local Les Schwab to see what they say .

Les Schwab and Commercial Tire, the last I checked, have custom wheel wholesale contracts with a company called American Wheel Specialist in Kennewick, WA. They can take your widow maker centers and remount them into new 20” tube type or tubeless 22.5” outer rims. That’s your cleanest fix. There are also factory new 22.5” x 6.75” imported reproduction wheels available from AWS and others, but they are stud piloted and would have to be modified to work. Same would apply to any used wheels you could find in yards. If you want more detail on that we can cover it next. Stu