I have a 1964 F600 with the common for the year two piece widow maker rims. The tires were worn out and the rims were rusty, and while I do have a local tire shop that will work with split rims, I did not think the rims were in good enough condition to survive tires being changed on them. Plus, at 200 dollars a tire for 9.00 x 20 tires, It would be $1,200 for new tires plus the cost of mounting and tubes. Spending $1200 on tires to put on obsolete rims for a truck that is only worth $800 is economics that only our government could justify.

I did a lot of reading on this forum and others, as well as a lot of google searching and emailing sellers of wheels for measurements. This has been a year and a half process off and on for me. Lots of people have asked the question "How do I replace my two piece rims?" Most of the time, the answer is something along the lines of "There was another factory option of different style rims and you might get lucky to find some but no one knows where to get them so good luck." Or "An aftermarket company made some that would fit but they haven't made any in years and no one has any, but you might get lucky to find some but no one knows where to get them so good luck." Or sometimes "So-and-so company will make you custom $$$$$ rims for your $800 dollar truck." Or my personal favorite "Why in the _____ are you wanting to drive a 64 F600 on the road for anyway!?"

I couldn't accept any of these answers, and about a month ago I stumbled upon a cheap and 100 percent bolt on solution for all of us with the split rim problem. It seams that even after Ford stopped using the 6 on 8.75 bolt pattern, the military used them on equipment with Rockwell style axles for years. They did not use split rim, but rather the much better lock ring style rim. They we also stud piloted using a ball seat style lug nut as apposed to the F600 hub piloted rims. It also appears that the military is phasing out this style of wheel and rim and replacing them. You can find them all over ebay. I measured a set and found they would bolt on my truck perfectly. I also researched lug nuts and found a set that I was confident would convert my truck from hub pilot to stud pilot without converting wheel studs. I took a gamble and ordered 6 military rims with mounted tires that were guaranteed to be 90% tread or higher, for $85 a piece from an ebay seller who had hundreds, if not thousands, of them.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/173046524154?ul_noapp=true

I also ordered these lug nuts for the front

https://www.ryderfleetproducts.com/e...t-p-439-e5652r

And these for the rear

Inner https://www.ryderfleetproducts.com/e...t-p-439-e7897r

Outer https://www.ryderfleetproducts.com/e...r-p-439-e5977r

I have mounted all 6 on my truck and they fit perfect. The lug nuts for the front are made with an enlargement before the threads that will slide over the unthreaded portion of the front wheel studs.

I spent $600 plus shipping to do this conversion to my truck.







Hopefully for all of the other people with this same problem, this will be of some help.

 

Wow, awesome find

Anyone else got an opinion on this before I put it in the tech sticky?

 

I think there are at least two versions of this wheel. One in this pattern appeared on the GMC CCKW 2 1/2 ton WWII trucks. Possibly the same wheel on the Korean era M135. The M35 which lasted into the '80s, had the same pattern but can handle an 11.00 as a dual iirc.

There was a thread on these recently and I will try to search it out tomorrow.

All three are listed here as all three were 2 1/2 ton rated, although if you compare the CCKW to the M35 you will be wondering who did the rating!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2%C2%BD-ton_6x6_truck

 

Solved my troubles to
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...s-on-f600.html

Got my wheels and tires from Jim Henry in Albemarle NC. Great fella, willing to deal, lots of milsurp equipment.

 

The use of military surplus wheels has been discussed here often. The original poster must have not found those discussions. Here’s a recent one where the issue of wheel offset and tire size for a DRW install came up. Some military surplus wheels were intended for DRW and some for SRW applications. Measuring back spacing of the original widow maker wheels and ensuring that the replacement military wheels are the same or greater is important.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...s-on-f600.html

Also discussed here often has been the unique hub piloted aspect of 1963/1964 F-600s. Hub piloted 6 x 8.75” wheels are NLA, but the use of stud piloted locking side ring wheels with standard over the counter Budd hardware has been known to work. This is because, as the original poster says, there is an unthreaded section at the base of each nut that fits over the raised, unthreaded, section of a hub piloted stud.

What is new information, if the original poster was able to just bolt the wheels on, is their clearance of the truck’s rear hubs without modifications. Most hub piloted wheels having the 6 x 8.75” pattern had a 6.00” center bore. Stud piloted wheels generally have a 5.875” center bore. I’ve told guys who want to make this swap that they probably have to grind a 1/16th of an inch off the center bores of the replacement wheels to clear rear hubs. If this wasn’t required of the original poster that is new, and good news. Stu

Edit: going back through the linked old thread I don’t think I said strong enough in it that civilian wheel references don’t always list military spec wheels. I’ve seen multiple examples of this since WWII. So it’s very possible that some military surplus wheels will be found that don’t fit the customary patterns that apply to conventional civilian wheels. Stu

 

You are correct, I found no references to military wheels on an F600 before I went my route. However, I never had any reason to search "Military wheels on F600." I was always looking for something along the lines of "F600 Split rim replacement." I found no factual information anywhere, just a lot of maybes and good lucks. Kind of knocked me down a peg to find out someone had this figured out long before I did. HAHA

My military rims had a center hole of 6 1/2 inches. Plenty of clearance all the way around. Also, they are all chamfered for ball seat mounting on both sides of each lug hole. So they can be mounted single or double.

I am not saying to blindly order a set of wheels on the assumption they will fit. Of course anyone doing this sort of thing should take the 30 minutes necessary to do a little research, but the point of posting this was to provide people with a strong lead, that in most cases, (I believe anyway) will be a no modification necessary, bolt on fit. Just make sure you order rims/wheel combos that are 9.00x20.

Your mileage may vary, but to everyone reading this (and to no one in particular) please don't fill this thread with a lot of naysayers pretending to be engineers giving irrational reasons why this won't or shouldn't work. I have seen that too much regarding this same wheel fitment question on other forums and threads. It does work, I personally did it, I documented that I did it, I showed you my sources, and I hope that it helps anyone else that was in my situation. Thanks

 

military take off's have been popular for a long time as they are usually cheap and easy to get if you have a military base near by. I used them as they are a wider wheel, mine came off m35a2's and m105 trailers. I actually found a couple trailers with 11.00 goodyear radials on them, they were a tire for singling out the deuces and some of the trailers got them, don't think they really caught on. I put them on the front of my 77 f600 and a set of tires off a 900 series, goodyear radial traction tire on the rear on deuce wheels. fit perfect. Little tight on the front but work, and increase road speed a good bit.

 

 

Does the same rim used for all 4 rear duels and both of the fronts? I like the idea - am also wondering if those rims also work with more conventional tread tires?

 

Them rims in the picture work both front and rear. You can get road tread also, but most that you find have the military non-directional tread.

There are some rims that look similar but the offset is slightly different and must be used as singles. These were used mostly on Canadian military trucks as they ran the rear axles singled out, and not duelled like the US trucks.

I can get pictures of both types, if anyone wants, as I have many out by the barn

 

 

 

 

kind of reminds me of my old deuce and 1/2.