I know this subject has been hammered on uncountable times here but then someone new will come on and ask the same questions. The Facebook sites are the worse. They have a fair number of idiots who almost outright encourage people new to the hobby to work on these killers. It would be so bad if these idiots would place only themselves in danger but these wheels can explode while sitting in traffic or in a parking spot at a show.

Truckdog is the resident expert on truck wheels. He and I have been throwing out warnings about these for at least ten years. I just find extremely irritating when someone has a caviler attitude about the dangers of these wheels. This video was posted on FB to answer a question about WMs, I think it's a very good video and worth sharing.

 

Good video!

Thanks Bob

 

Very good description of the issue.

 

I’ll give you strong credit, Bob, for continuing to highlight these dangers. But honestly, there is plenty of available, reliable, information out there online. FB misinformation not withstanding. We see it by the number of guys coming looking for replacement wheels.

But what has come to frustrate me are the instances where new guys come on the forum begging for referrals to locking ring or tubeless wheels, then fail to follow through when solutions are provided. No doubt some of that is because sellers on eBay and elsewhere have gone to school on us and have increased asking prices. I read eBay and CL listings and know I’m reading my own descriptions and even part number citations. But that’s the world we live in, and resurrecting an old big truck is no cheaper than doing a small truck. And in this example it costs more. Stu

 

This comes up in the Large Truck forum all the time. So many trucks have these clear into the '70s. "Widowmaker, what's that?" Doesn't the term "widowmaker" cause a certain level of alarm, regardless of context?

 

Yeah, that's what amazes me. When I first got into this hobby 40 years ago I used to be able to pick up '48-52 trucks for scrap prices, I even got quite a few for free. Everyone at that time wanted '53-56 trucks. No one offered after market parts for the Bonus Built truck and there were a few that offered sheet metal for the more popular '53-56 market. Then about twenty years ago the '53-56 market started to tighten up and many switched to the Bonus Built years, going after all of the F-1s, F-2 and up were still relatively easy to get but then the F-1 market started to dry up and the market for the F-2 and up were garnering interest. People started buying up the F-4 to F-5 with what seemed like no research into what it takes to work on, buy parts and store the larger along with the higher cost to drive them. At that time I noticed a lot of truck buyer buy a big truck, do the mechanical and body work that is shared with the smaller trucks. These guys would wait until they had tens of thousands of dollar invested into their trucks and finally start looking for wheels and then they got sticker shock for the cost of the much larger tires and the hard to find replacement rims. Many of these guy already had tens of thousands of dollars into their truck and refused to spend another $2K+ in tires and wheels. They would rather let there mostly finished project sit than buy the need parts to get them on the road to enjoy. I'm not saying this is easy money to find but with a little research and asking around you can still find deals. But if you depend on some else to find the parts they're going to cost money because people like Stu, me and others have put in the foot work and sweat to find these parts, it takes a lot of time and fuel to travel around locating parts. I've bought complete sets of six wheel and tires from RVs for $150 and sold them for $600 in a week but I also drove a couple of hundred miles, crawled under an RV, fought with rusty lug nuts and drove back home. If I included my gas and time I figure I probably made $10/hr.

 

The misinformation about "widowmakers" is still pretty rife. I know tons of folks that when they see a split rim of any kind they will automatically call it a widowmaker.
I guess in the long run that's probably a good thing. Maybe if they think everything is a "widowmaker" they will be doubly cautious with them.

Bobby

 

I doubt it, what I hear most is, "I just throw are chain through the hand holes and inflate 'em. Been doing it for 50 years and never had a problem." Even on a more reliable designed wheel this is an idiotic thing to do. I know when I was young I did some things I see now was stupidly dangerous but most of those times I was working with my dad and he was one who did some shady things but I followed along because he was a smart guy and a very good mechanic. I think about what we did together and am amazed we didn't cause more damage.

 

Wheels, tires, steering, and brakes, are the foundation all vehicles ride on. Yet some people are more interested in the power plant, upholstery, and paint.

When I was in high school and first couple of years in college, I worked at a full service Shell station. There was another brand across an intersection, about 100 yards away, we were pretty tight with.

About a year before I started, the other station had a widowmaker go off in their garage. It was so loud the guys where I would work were concerned and tried to call. No one would answer the phone. Finally someone went to check on them and found out no one was hurt, but it rang their bells so bad they couldn't hear the phone ring. It had fortunately blown strait up and tore a big hole in the ceiling. They never worked on another one, and neither did the place I worked. They left the hole for a long time as a warning.

The father of one of the guys I worked there with had been hit by a widowmaker when he was younger. The injury left him with slurred speech and memory issues.

Not to beat a dead horse, but just because they saw millions of miles of service doesn't mean they should continue. They were dangerous enough when they were new. Now they're all old, worn, and rusted.

Props to those of you that spend a good deal of time warning against them.

 

There's some that gets it, and some men you just cain't reach.....

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post19949983

 

I want to add to the links here:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/8...-1-2020-a.html

So I always try to read any new info on the subject, especially solutions for folks trying to find a safe solution.

 

That was a good video Bob! We need to keep reminding people to beware of Widow-makers anytime someone posts about their new medium duty truck on FTE!

I had 6 "serviceable" widow makers left when I got my new 9.00-20 tires and excellent 3-piece lock-ring wheels from Les Schwab Tires locally.
After that, I bought a Harbor Freight plasma cutter and went to work on the wheels to get a little practice with it, and the widow makers became just small pieces of scrap steel!! I didn't want someone rummaging around in the metal recycle place thinking they found some "good" wheels!!

Cheers,

Rick

 

I want to thank 85e150 and the other FTE “Big Kids” (to use Penn Dick’s description) for creating the FAQ section on WMs. Really saves re-writing or search time looking for old threads on the subject. Stu