Bob, The rear wheels do have a spacer between them. I think the truck was originaly purchased as a cab & chassis, then converted to a dump truck where they installed an aristocrat dump bed with a hydrolic piston & the duel rear wheels with the spacer. I dont know if they still sell then but jc whitney had very similar spacers in their catolog a few years back. On my truck you put the inner wheels on then these long maybe 6 or 8 inch lug rods get tighted onto the studs then a spacer slips over the rods & than the outside wheel goes on & is tightend with lug nuts.

 

That sounds like kind of a dicey way of doing it. I would think they could be a lot of stress on the spacers, and outer wheels, if there's a load in the truck. From the pictures in your gallery it looks like your rear wheels come close to touching, do they?

I'm not trying to be critical but it just doesn't look right but that could be just the pictures. I know looking at pictures isn't like seeing something in person.

 

It is kind of a half-#@$$ way of doing it. Maybe it was a cheaper way of doing it back then. The tires dont touch with the truck empty but during load they probably do. These days the truck dosnt see that much work but once in a while I pick top soil or mulch. Hopefully the wheels wont fall off!!

 

That set up still has some historical value. I like reading about the add ons that were made and used years ago. Although your wheel set up isn't really all that odd, I like looking at odd accessaries made for older vehicles.

 

daingit !!!!!!!!! i gotz all excited thinking we were talking about the 5 lug rims like on the f-4's ........... i soon realized we werent ! cripes i know where theres 3 or 4 3/4 ton trucks and one van { ford of course } that i coulda got cheap maybe and used the rims . but alas we are talking f-3's . i geuss i'm just gonna , when it's time , buck up and pay for 'em . that goes against my cheap skate nature !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

It just dawned on me that the pic I posted last night wasn't right for this conversation. Those adapters convert a SRW axle for use with DRW Budd style rims. Sorry guys, a senior moment.

 

Stu, I finally got around to checking for the numbers on those 16 inch wheels on my F-3 rear end. The numbers are 3045LB5. So, do you know what they were for originally?

Vern

 

Nope, nothing close. Hollander Wheel Interchange does show that an LB wheel has 8 lugs x 6.5" circle, but we knew that already. Sorry. Thanks for trying. Stu