I was just wondering why they used so many different types of bolt patterns on the larger trucks. There has been a lot of discussions about hard to find replacement 5 lug wheels to replace the "Widow Maker" wheels on some the the larger trucks, F-4 and up. Up until the mid '50s Ford used the 5 lug wheels in different types of rims, the WM and, also earlier, a snap ring type. Then they changed to a six lug pattern in the late mid '50s. I can understand wanting more holding with an additional lug but now one of the members of the board found a '72 F-600 with 5 lug rims and searching the web I have found a few late '50s, early '60s trucks with five bolt and six bolt rims. This means both patterns must have been used at the same time, why? It seems kind of cost ineffective to produce two different rims at the same time. Anyone know the answer or would like to take a guess? The only reason I can come up with is Ford did the same with these wheels as they did with a lot of other parts, they had them and used them until they were gone. Some plants ran out sooner and started using the 6 lug wheel. It's just a guess, a bad one, but a guess all the same.

Then there is the Budd versus Dayton wheels. I assume for fleets Daytons were cheaper because it took less time to change just the outer rim and you could have an inventory of pre-mounted rims that could be quickly bolted onto a Ford or C***y or any other truck in the fleet. I would think Dayton would be the more preferred wheels but more expensive to buy and maintain.

The world needs to know! (or least I do, I'm just curious)

 

Bob - You know what I'm going through trying to find extra wheels for my trucks. I've got Budd and IH books covering 1941 to 1979 and it's amazing the different bolt circles, center hole sizes, size and number of bolts, snap ring styles, and hub centric/stud centric designs that were used over the years for different applications. My gut tells me they just had to accommodate the engineers at each different company that had their own ideas about what their trucks needed. It sure doesn't help us today. Especially since these big guys have been donors to the cookie cutters for so long and the wheels have generally just been junked. As an aside, I assume you saw what the 19.5s in AZ sold for. I sure hope the buyer didn't have to pay shipping on top of that!

 

The final bid on them was X3 the ending bid, $108. Shipping was extra. There are guys on this site who have paid $225+ just for each rim, plus shipping. Not too bad of price compared to that.