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Posted

Before the previous owner gave up on the restoration of the truck ('51 B3C) that I am now restoring, he installed four new steel belted radials (P235/75 R15). The front tire stems appear to be for tubeless tires, but the rear tires appartently have tubes in them. I have attached a photo of the back of one of the rear rims. Someone welded a string of angle brakets around the outer rim of both rims. I have no clue whey they are there. Anyone have an answer or a quess?

post-6619-13585359103888_thumb.jpg

Posted

they play a tune as the tire spins?

that is odd! Unless they dinked around with the rim and added them as re-enforcement?

Posted

probably reinforcement. Rumor has it the radials put more side pressure on the bead area than bias plies do so to make them "safe" PO added some pieces to strenghten it. True or not? Common sense tells me compressed air exerts equal pressure in all directions. Might have a balance problem with those wheels. Looks like one of the angles is missing.

Posted

froma purely engineering stand point, air pressure is exerted equally in all directions, the design of the tire might have some influence on a locallized pressure load, but the air pressure exerted should be equal normal to the surfaces in all directions.

Posted

His engineering and fabrication skills seem about equal. Hope you can find another rim.

Posted

my experience with the 75 number was pretty bad. I was trying to get a close to the 6.00 x 16 as I could get with a radial. The guy installing them said that the rim was too narrow and these could slip off as I went around a corner. So he exchanged them for a 85 size which was a little larger than what I wanted but they worked. Looks like your previous owner went for another solution.

Posted

from what I've read about the industry change from bias ply to radials, it was a goal of tire manufacturers to make the radials backwards-compatible with car & truck wheels that ran on bias ply to make more sales on replacements. From looking at the rims on the '48 and newer rims I'm gonna put on my '52 daily driver, the metal thickness and bead profile are very similar. Side loading of the bead from air pressure is practically the same whether a tube is used or not. Bead sealing on lock rim wheels is only possible with a tube, so maybe some local grease monkey put the fear of Jesus in the PO to put some gorilla welds on the original rims. Grinding the welds off might clean off the unnecessary weight, but dunno how well the wheel will be balanced or if the welding was done so poorly that the surrounding metal has been fatigued. If you're up to the challenge, maybe you could try to carefully grind off what ya can and see how it balances out.

Posted

Thank you all for responding to this thread. It would appear, as several of you noted, that the welded brackets were meant for reinforcement, and probably not necessary. I may know more when I get the frame up on the rotisierie (a long way in the future) and get the tires off, sand blasted, and get a better look at what I have. At this point, I don't think I will lose much sleep over it. Thanks again guys. I appreciate it.

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