!3" rims for a 1940 Ford PU

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paetsgone

Senior Member
I eventually must mount 13” rims on my 1940 pickup drums. To date I have not found any 13” rims with a 5x5.5 pattern, not even trailer rims. I have also not found any adapters that will work. If anyone knows of any please let me know. I was thinking about welding in a round plate in with the correct pattern but thought I’d ask if anyone had a better option. Drilling new stud holes in the drum can’t be fun.
 
Being a guy who drives vintage Honda's with 13" tires, do you know that those tires are getting very hard to buy? Please tell us why you want 13" wheels on a 40 ford, or drums
 
I bet you wouldn’t be able to squeeze one over the 12” drum, even if you could find the right bolt pattern. Why do you need them?
 
paetsgone said:
I eventually must mount 13” rims on my 1940 pickup drums. To date I have not found any 13” rims with a 5x5.5 pattern, not even trailer rims. I have also not found any adapters that will work. If anyone knows of any please let me know. I was thinking about welding in a round plate in with the correct pattern but thought I’d ask if anyone had a better option. Drilling new stud holes in the drum can’t be fun.
Click to expand...

As others have said, why do you need them? It does not sound logical.
 
WW2 British Ford woodies used 13" 'Sand tires" VERY Rare to find them now. A set was sold to Aussies at Portland swap yrs ago. The Aussies recognized them! Newc
 
I am recreating a ww2 truck used by the Birtish in the North Africa, They used 13" rims with 900-13 tires. Neather of which live in the U.S as you know. I have located some tires here, however. Newc knows.
 
You probably get to make wheels yourself, or have a wheel shop do it for you. Take the center out of a riveted wheel, cut it down in a lathe, and weld new hoops onto the center. I'm guessing either the hoops were welded much farther out than the normal 16" stuff so there would be clearance for the brake drum, or spacers were used between the drum and the wheels.


Are you recreating something like this?
14686528-7132279-image-a-12_1560337864117.jpg
 
Great photo! And now we get why you must have those 13" wheels. This pic should be added to the Barn's 'Open cab Australian pickups' thread. Good luck with your search. Wheel spacers that adapt from 5 on 4 1/2 to 5 on 5 1/2 should work and give you offset for the drum. A friend recently sold a 60's valiant wagon that had 13s and I think 5 lug.
 
If you need to use a 5x5.5" lug pattern from a rivited F-150 wheel center,
then you have to use a rivited center F-150 wheel from 1996 and older.

Ford changed the bolt pattern on F-150's to 5x31" in 1997 and it's hard
to tell the difference by the naked eye, but they will NOT interchange
with the 5.5" bolt circle...:(




.
 
I just went through my late 1930s and 1940s wheel references and find M-H number LD6-5372-A listed in their September 1948 parts list. Interesting, but not unexpected, this wheel is not listed in the M-H LD6-4 (April 1942) manual. I’ve found other examples of military spec wheels omitted from civilian references until after their classified status expired. Described as 13 x 5.50”. I have to assume this would be a semi-drop center two piece rim variety. M-H used the 5 x 10.25” pattern on commercial vehicles through 1947.

I found later 13 x 5.50” semi drop center wheels through 1954 having both the 5 x 5.5” and 5 x 4.5” pattern for export if that info would be relevant.

I looked for modern 13” bare rim barrels to let you have a set built, but came up dry. Hey Wheel doesn’t list them. That leaves Gary’s suggestion to find an old vehicle with a wide 13” width to donate its rims. But I doubt you’d find them in the semi-drop center designs. If I can help you identify donor candidates from my references I’d be glad to see what I can find.

Another idea is to contact a custom wheel company to see if they have a 13” rim source. I recently used Custom and Commercial Wheel is SoCal for a custom set for my truck and was very happy with the outcome. Stu

https://www.customandcommercialwheel.com/


Edit: the pictured wheels on the 1940 have extreme negative offset. Obviously for drum clearance. One of the later export references lists the wheel having 1.34” of NEGATIVE offset. A regular wheel would have positive offset, generally something in the neighborhood of .680”. Stu
 
Last edited:
Lanny said:
If you need to use a 5x5.5" lug pattern from a rivited F-150 wheel center,
then you have to use a rivited center F-150 wheel from 1996 and older.

Ford changed the bolt pattern on F-150's to 5x31" in 1997 and it's hard
to tell the difference by the naked eye, but they will NOT interchange
with the 5.5" bolt circle...:(




.
Click to expand...

And I've been noticing the latest F150s have gone to six lugs, while the new GM 1500s have gone to five lug. It's like the whole world has gone topsy-turvey ...I'm sure that they are all metric now as well. Sheesh.
 
cas3 said:
GB, you need that machine gun on the foyota! incase the island gets invaded
Click to expand...

What you mean 'incase'? It's already happening.... Can't find a parking spot in town on the weekend already. For the big invasion after the apocalypse we already have the beach heads mapped out and the plans drawn....
 
It looks a bit like it may have the centres from 16' 35 wire wheels fitted inside 13" rims.

I have seen lots of combinations of wheel sizes made up in the past but never 13''.

It seems like a likely way of doing it and getting the same look.
A measuring tape is needed.

Geoff
 
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