Radials on Locking Ring Rims

[MBF]

I was at a truck show a couple of weeks ago and talked to the owner of a 1 ton IH pickup with radial tires mounted on his 16" Budd locking ring rims. He said that he used radial tubes and was very pleased with how much better the truck steered and the reduced tendancy to wander. I asked a local tire shop if this could be done when I bought my bias ply tires a few years ago. Since it was an old tire shop I thought he knew what he was talking about-when he refused to put radials on my rims. He said they'd walk right off, but lots of big trucks are using radials on 20 and 22.5" locking ring rims. I'm going to try a set the next time around. Mike

[grey beard]

Hi MIke,

Radial tires are running on many lock ring rims yet in the semi-size truck world. I realize that today most trucks are running Budd one-piece rims, but thirty years ago when I worked in the trucking industry, we had many trucks with 20 and 22 inch radial rubber on both Dayton and Budd rims that still used locking rings to hold the tire on. At that time it was an industry standard.

Radial tires got popular before the one piece Budd rims were available, so this was the only way to use them originally. Doing so requires the use of a radial tube - which is much heavier than a bias ply tire tube - and a rim flap, which rides between the rim and the innertube in the rim center. This recipe is perfectly safe in the tire world. You might have trouble selling this idea to a young tire guy today, so hunt an old tire guy. I had to offer to pay them if it didn't work, before my tire dealer would mount a tubeles radial on my 16-inch Pilothouse rims. Once he saw how they worked, he was a believer. It was just something he had never seen - and my rims are sorta' narrow - only 4 1/2 inches wide, but you saw the tires on my truck at Macungie.

Speaking of the which, I'm going to Das Awks Fest tomorrow at Macungie. Will you be there? Desoto39 from the car side (Rich Hartung) will be there, and I'm looking forward to meeting him. Let me know if you go.

Thanks