replacement wheels

E

excalibur

Junior Member
I have a 1949 Ford F3 with the original wheels, 16" widow makers. I am looking for suggestions as to a different 16" wheel that would fit that is not a 2 piece wheel. It has to be 8 lug. I have tried junk yards and found that certain wheels will fit the front but not the rear due to the size of the rear brake drum. If anyone has any ideas of what might fit without breaking the bank I would appreciate the info.
Thanks again.
 
All F-3s, 1948 to 1952, came with 17” wheels (not 16”) having the Firestone RH-5° / widow maker two piece rims. No OEM 16” wheel has been found that will clear the 14” Lockheed rear drums. There are modern replacement wheels, some horridly expensive (19.5” Budd 71740s), others generally reasonable. The nearest to an OEM is the Budd 17.5” x 5.25” (either #70720 or #73240 visually identical) that became optional on F-250s in 1956 through to 1966. They show up on eBay commonly. These accept your stock hub cabs, and use bias ply 8-17.5” tires that are being reproduced but might be expensive. The other option would be a modern Dodge Ram 17” wheel, the number of which I don’t have memorized. These are on modern 2000s era 3/4 and SRW one tons and would require a yard search. Stu
 
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17 inch wheels from the early fifties Chev and GMC will fit the front of the Ford/Mercury truck. And the original hub cap will also clip right on the GM wheel. I have not tried the GM wheel on the rear axle so can't say if that will work.
 
The 17” GM wheels do not clear the rear hub of a Ford. Plus they are a three piece design called the Firestone AR that even the GM guys try to get rid of.

I’ll agree that F-2 brakes would be a solution. I won’t agree that it’s as easy as bolting on a set tubeless wheels to the stock axle. If going to that trouble was of interest it’d be as easy to just swap out the whole axle for a Dana 60 from an F-250 from 1972 or earlier.

There’s two sets of 17.5s on eBay now. Stu
 
Stu is the resident expert on truck wheels; hes got it down to a science and I second all his thoughts in this thread.

I've used the 19.5 budds mentioned above on an F-3; they look "right" because its a big wheel with a tall skinny tire. Pricey and hard to find; thick steel and heavy. Its a weird tire size, because the wheels are skinny, reserved for some light duty motor homes, older delivery trucks, and maybe older hi-rail F-350 style trucks on train tracks. Plan for offshore radials in other words after you spend a lot of coin for the wheels.

I've also just swapped the rear axle out as mentioned and run "regular" 16" wheels on a another F-3. They come in an "inne" hubcap version up to 1966 and of course are plentiful in the modern "outie" hubcap flange. This is easiest most economical route with widest parts support. You also get the benefit of loosing the 4.86 and going to a 4.11 or 3.73 in most easily found axles. Bendix brakes too vs the lockheed 14" units with hard to find shoes and wheel cylinders.

Remember the front fenders are same F-2 to F-6, thats a big hole to fill up with a 16" rim; same big hole on the F-2 and F-3 rear fenders. I always thought the F-2s looked a little funny compared to the F-3s just due to factory wheel size; I think the referenced 17.5 wheel approximates that F-2 look while clearing the larger 14" F-3 brake drum.

The most pratical (rear end swap) leaves you with a little extra gap between tire and fender lip. Of course you can axle swap now and then if/when you get a set of 19.5s they will bolt on and life is good. Decisions, decisions...
 
Thanks for the kind words. You’ve added detail and good additional insights. As you know, once we start on the options available to make an F-3 a drivable, more user friendly vehicle, pretty soon it gets to be a long conversation. Stu
 
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