Budd wheels
#2
09-28-2009, 01:41 AM
Back in the day there were four companies that made our car and truck wheels. They were Budd, Firestone, Motor Wheel Corporation, and Kelsey-Hayes. If you go back even further, into the teens and '20s, Kelsey Wheel and Hayes Wheel were separate companies. So if you count them separate it's five companies. Over the years the Firestone Steel Products Division was spun off and became today's Accuride. All the other companies are today owned by Hayes Lemmerz Corporation.
The term "Budd wheel" is generally used to describe a deeply dished dually wheel even though all the companies made that style wheel. One of the distinctive features of a true Budd design is its use of a "stud piloted" mounting system where the lug nuts center the wheel. The "hub piloted" mounting system that has become today's industry standard was first used going back into the 1930s by Motor Wheel Corporation. Chevy, GMC, and REO were the first to adopt that standard.
There are no Budd or dually specific tires. What matters is whether our trucks have 5° or 15° wheels and tires. The 5° designs can be either tube type or tubeless. The 5° design has been around since the 1930s/40s and is still in use today. Cars and light trucks use 5° designs with "drop center" rims in tubeless applications while the bigger trucks use 5° designs in multi-part tube type applications. The 15° design has been around since the mid 1950s and is used for tubeless wheel/tire combos. Generally it's found on bigger trucks, but I can think of a few used on 3/4 ton trucks. For instance, if I remember right you have 17.5s on your truck that will have a 15° design. I'll post a picture below showing the comparative 5° and 15° bead profiles. The one on the left is the 5° and the one on the right is the 15°.
If you get into talking about today's big OTR rigs, there are tire differences for "drive" and "steer" applications, but that doesn't matter so much on our trucks. Stu
The term "Budd wheel" is generally used to describe a deeply dished dually wheel even though all the companies made that style wheel. One of the distinctive features of a true Budd design is its use of a "stud piloted" mounting system where the lug nuts center the wheel. The "hub piloted" mounting system that has become today's industry standard was first used going back into the 1930s by Motor Wheel Corporation. Chevy, GMC, and REO were the first to adopt that standard.
There are no Budd or dually specific tires. What matters is whether our trucks have 5° or 15° wheels and tires. The 5° designs can be either tube type or tubeless. The 5° design has been around since the 1930s/40s and is still in use today. Cars and light trucks use 5° designs with "drop center" rims in tubeless applications while the bigger trucks use 5° designs in multi-part tube type applications. The 15° design has been around since the mid 1950s and is used for tubeless wheel/tire combos. Generally it's found on bigger trucks, but I can think of a few used on 3/4 ton trucks. For instance, if I remember right you have 17.5s on your truck that will have a 15° design. I'll post a picture below showing the comparative 5° and 15° bead profiles. The one on the left is the 5° and the one on the right is the 15°.
If you get into talking about today's big OTR rigs, there are tire differences for "drive" and "steer" applications, but that doesn't matter so much on our trucks. Stu
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