1948 ford F3 wheels

J

JHFORD51

Senior Member
I'm working on an F3 to be used as a farm truck. I had in mind to keep the factory rear end with the 4:86 gears while upgrading to more modern one piece 16" steel F-250 wheels. This get me the low gears for farm use and rids me of the 17" two piece Firestone wheels that scare folks. Problem is the rear 14" brake drums don't clear the modern style (up through 1997) F-250 wheels; they also don't clear the 1960's style F-250 (with the internal hubcap nubs) wheels.

These are the regular 8 lug wheels with a 6.5"pattern as found on Dodge, GM, and Ford F-250s and F-350 (non-dually) trucks.

What 8 lug steel wheel fits the 14" brake drums on the old F-3 rear?

Do I have to swap to a Dana 60 just to get some safe wheels?

Thanks.
 
there are 19.5 wheels with the same 8 bolt pattern. motor homes, delivery vans, may take some hunting
 
And although you'd loose some tire height, wouldn't 17.5s also work? Gives you more choices. I would prefer 19.5s as they are similar OD to the 7,50 x 17s.
 
The only 19.5s i'm aware of are dually wheels; as such they some strange offsets and require an adapter to run in a non-dually application. Unless I am missing something?
 
My 52 F3 had the smaller rear drums so the later wheels do fit. I didn't want to keep the 4.86 gears so I ended up getting a Dana 60 from a 1972 F250.

I'd give you the old axle if I still had it. It went to a 48 F2 that had the same issue you do.

I guess my point is, you can use the later model rear brakes and keep your axle or do the Dana 60 swap if you get tired of looking for wheels. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.
 
There is a thread running currently on the Ford Truck Enthusiasts forum. In the '47 and earlier section it's called '47 front drums'. Reason I bring it up it has good info about getting one piece 17" rims onto older centers. I'll try a link, but no guarantees.
 
Thanks for the feedback. I done dana 60 swaps on another F3 in years past; I was just trying to leave this one stock as possible. I'll check into re-******* my wheel centers if its feasible. Truck has reaaaly really nice rear brake drums; it'd be shame to not use them!
 
There are four solutions. Three are bolt on, and the fourth is the mentioned set of custom 17s.

First, and best, is the 19.5” x 5.25” Budd 71410. Hard to find, and expensive. Optional on Ford, Dodge, and Studebaker 3/4 tons. All beginning in 1956, Ford to 1966, Dodge to 1968, and Studebaker to end of production 1963/64. As Gary said, the 8-19.5”/8R19.5” tires are close matches for your 7.50-17”. These accept the stock hub caps if you want to use them.

Next is the 17.5” x 5.25”, either Budd 70720 or 73240. I’ve layed each number side-by-side and found no differences, so am clueless as to why the number change. The 8-17.5” tire is close in size to the 7.50-16”. These are easier to find than the 19.5s, and were optional the same years and makes. These also accept the stock hub caps.

The third bolt on is the Dodge 17” x 7.5” used up to recent years because Dodge continued the 8 x 6.5” pattern. I don’t have hands on experience with these but have read that they work. My number for them is Keystone #02312 / STL02312U20. These can be found in yards or on eBay.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/03-04-05-0...:Dodge&hash=item5b5052a799:g:G~IAAOSwqkRcDCIU

Last is the custom 17” wheels made using your centers with new tubeless rims. That option is described in the below FTE threads. Stu

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1005496-49-ford-f-3-pickup-parts-and-questions.html
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1484686-looking-for-5-lug-20-widowmaker-rims-3.html#post17142300
 
I'm in GA; historically there wasn't a lot of 1950s and 1960s 4wd trucks around my neck of the woods. All of the old 8 lug stuff I have ever run across has been 16" or 16.5" wheels. My old 66 F-250 came with the internal nub 16" wheels. Even those are like hens teeth around here!

My chances of stumbling upon either of the Budd suggestions are very very slim in all reality.

The Dodge wheels, while butt ugly, are perhaps the most practical and cheapest solution.

The 7.50x17 wheel and tire combo really fills up the front fender area much better than the 16" combos on the F-2 series. Plus they look stinking good! I'm going to see if I can get some nibbles on swapping my centers onto more modern 17" hoops. Surely there is somebody on east coast or midwest (i.e. Michigan) that can do this to avoid shipping all the way to CA and back. What the 17" Firestones lack in safety they make up for in wieght!
 
Also, I see one of the Budd suggestions was a 17.5" wheel. Can one still get 17.5" tires in something equivalent to a 33 to 35" tall tire? I was going to go with bias ply but not against radials if I run across some 17.5" wheels.
 
It’s a common misconception that the 17.5” allows a taller tire than the 17”. In the same way that the 8R19.5” is the 34” equal of the 7.50-17”, the bias 8-17.5” is close but shorter than the 7.50-16”. The shorter sidewalls of the tubeless half size tires (17.5/19.5/22.5) make them the equals (or near equals) of the comparable 16”, 17”, and 20” tube types. The 8-17.5” bias ply is being reproduced, but bias ply 19.5s and 22.5s are NLA. They can be seen in the below Universal catalog. Stu

https://www.universaltire.com/truck-and-military/truck.html
 
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