As you know I just picked up a 1955 F-250, and I am in dire need of some tires for it. All I can read on the tires is that they are Michelin's. I can't see the sizes or any of the other writing on the tire b/c they are so badly weather checked and dry rotted. I would like to keep and use the stock 8-lug wheels if possible once I sand them and paint them, but I would like to get some good tires on there like BF-Goodrich All Terrains on there. So the question is can I put on BFG-AT's or something comparable on these wheels, and what size tires can I get on these wheels?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

First you have to determine what kind of rims you have on the truck. If you have 16" rims you probably have one piece rims but if they are 17" you probably have the dreaded Ford Widow Makers. If you have the WMs you will have to find replacement wheels, no one will work on them because of the liability issues. Do a search of this site for "widow maker" and you'll find a lot of post about them. I also have a page on my web site:

Ford two piece rims

If you do have the WM it's hard to tell because whenever someone talks about multi-part rims they think about rims with the outer snap ring, WMs are very deceptive.

The best thing to do if you can't tell if they are one or multi-piece rims, and can't determine the size, is to take one to a tire store. My experience is you have to go to a tire place that sells truck tires along with car tires. I've gone to a couple of chain tire places, and like with finding other parts for our old trucks, the young guy behind the counter will just stare at you like you just landed from another planet.

 

A 1955 F-250, shown as model D in the Chassis book and in Hollander Interchange, came with either 6.50, 7.00, or 7.50 x 16 tires. Those wheels, whether one piece "drop center" style or multi-part, should still be serviceable. But like Bob said, a lot can happen to a truck over its 50+ year life time. If it was switched over to 17" wheels (sometimes done to gain road speed) you'll need to think in terms of replacements. All single rear wheel/non-Budd style 17s of the era seem to have been the Firestone RH-5° design that have come to be known as "widow makers". There's no safe way to use them. Stu

 

EEEK. That doesn't sound good. I need to pull the wheels and inspect them I suppose to determine what type of wheels they are and then go from there.

 

go to the boneyard and pick up a set off a newer truck, gets rid of any doubts about their integrity . i beleive ford , dodge and gm used the same bolt pattern , in the 3/4 and 1 ton 8 lug . or maybe buy a set of dually rims . i can get new ones here for like 75 each from stone wheel . most of 'em used the same bolt pattern for YEARS , the guy's can tell ya that ~~~~

 

If the wheels are the stock 16s they should be fine to use, and it's not hard to see what type construction they are. If you have questions maybe post some close-up pics of both inner and outer and we'll see what we can see.

A switch to newer wheels, though, as Kevin suggests would provide you the assurance that they would stand up to radial tires. There's been a good bit of debate on this board and others about the whether it is safe to use radials on old rims that were designed for bias ply tires. Some argue that bias ply tires placed more stress on rims than radials thus making radials safe to use. Others say radials are harder on old rims because of the greater side loads that are transmitted to the rim. Everything I've read on this leaves it an open question. I do know, though, that wheel manufacturers starting in the late '70s rating their rims for radial tire usage. In my mind that tips the scale toward radials being hard on old rims.

 

On a Ford with the floating rear axle the GM 8 hole wheels will probably not work as they have a smaller center hole than the Ford or Dodge wheel. So to be safe only get the latter. You could run the GM on the front though. Also, the newer Ford Super Duty wheels are metric and they won't work either.

 

I can take some more up close pics of the wheels for you to see, but I posted all the pics I have in my gallery at the moment.

So you are saying I might need to purchase new wheels as well? That will be fun convincing the wife to get cool new wheels. I would like to keep the truck as stock as possible, so the choice of wheels ill have to be selective.

 

That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that your wheels are probably ok to use if they are 16s, and especially if you stick with bias ply tires. If you want radials you need to be aware of the issue of radial compatability with old rims. There are plenty of guys that run radials on their old wheels. You'd probably have to use radial tubes also. Most likely you're not gonna be driving the truck hard. The problems I've read about with radials is that they can cause flex and fractures in the rims. Also, when mounted on cars with full hub caps the caps tend to pop off in turns due to flex in the wheel. If you're not driving hard, and if you use "dog dish" center caps, you're less likely to have trouble.

 

No, I understood you just fine, I just want an excuse to get new wheels and tires.

 

Don't lie to get new wheels, that's unmanly. Just omit some of the truth.

 

Bobo, the only reason I would have to convince the wife to let me get new wheels is b/c she wants new wheels and bigger tires plus a lift kit for her FJ Cruiser. So, in other words she gets first dibs on new wheels, not me.

 

Upon further investigation on the wheels and tires on the truck, I was finally able to read some of the writing.

The front tires say 6.5 x 16LT
The rear tires say 7.5 x 16L Type S

What is the correct bolt pattern for this truck? 8 x ?

I looked at the wheels as best I could this evening as well, and they seem to be solid wheels from what I can tell, but it looks weird on the inside of the wheel area. Its too dark to take pictures now, darn.

 

I just added 4 pictures of the wheels on the left side of the truck into my gallery, but I have also put them into this post. The first two are of the left front wheel, and the 2nd two are of the left rear wheel. So do these look like the dreaded Widow Makers, or do these hopefully look like the solid 1-piece models since they are both 16" wheels? ImageShack - Image Hosting :: img0051ob7.jpg ImageShack - Image Hosting :: img0052yy2.jpg ImageShack - Image Hosting :: img0053ya2.jpg ImageShack - Image Hosting :: img0054pl5.jpg

 

Like said above, 16"-ers are not WM's