Custom wheels - Problem, questions, help.

[montaillou]

Well, custom made wheels are not cheap. If you're not looking at super singles, there are still a few options out there. I have seen 22.5 wheels that are 7.5" and 6.75" wide. The 7.5" were made by Accuride, but are no longer part of their catalog so they can be hard to find. If affordable is what you want, you want something already out there.

If you're looking to keep the budd set up, you could try this wheel, https://a1truckwheels.com/product/22566wb/
That link also shows a 19.5" & 17.5" wheel. I primarily have been looking at wheels/tires that are readily available.

 

[orren]

Well, custom made wheels are not cheap. If you're not looking at super singles, there are still a few options out there. I have seen 22.5 wheels that are 7.5" and 6.75" wide. The 7.5" were made by Accuride, but are no longer part of their catalog so they can be hard to find. If affordable is what you want, you want something already out there.

If you're looking to keep the budd set up, you could try this wheel, https://a1truckwheels.com/product/22566wb/
That link also shows a 19.5" & 17.5" wheel. I primarily have been looking at wheels/tires that are readily available.

Those look nice but I need them in 20" for the NDT's and they must work with tubes .

 

[montaillou]

Finally found a good source, nearby for retreads, a plant about 60 miles away. However, I started thinking about the weight. Custom made 22.5 x 13 steel wheels are gonna weigh A LOT (there is no one in the US that makes an aluminum wheel that size as a blank and/or with 6 hole and wheels from China are like $1k each w/shipping) and 425 or 445 tires are also gonna weigh a lot. Now, I'm wondering about 24.5 x 8.25 aluminum dualies. I can get 11r24.5 & 12r24.5 tires on that size wheel.

I would rather have super singles, but aluminum are just too expensive and steel is just too heavy.

 

[davidb56]

Well, custom made wheels are not cheap. If you're not looking at super singles, there are still a few options out there. I have seen 22.5 wheels that are 7.5" and 6.75" wide. The 7.5" were made by Accuride, but are no longer part of their catalog so they can be hard to find. If affordable is what you want, you want something already out there.

If you're looking to keep the budd set up, you could try this wheel, https://a1truckwheels.com/product/22566wb/
That link also shows a 19.5" & 17.5" wheel. I primarily have been looking at wheels/tires that are readily available.

theres 8 on fleabay for 150 each and 68 for shipping.

 

[davidb56]

or these: a1truckwheels.com/product/22566wb/

 

[montaillou]

I would prefer to stay with at least a 44" tire which is why I'm looking at 24.5 wheels. I also want to stay with a wheel that fits a somewhat common commercially available tire. The 22.5 x 6.75 tires range up to 39" or 40" diameter tire.

 

[montaillou]

Wheel blanks arrived today. 62lbs each, aluminum, chrome (bleh) - have to rattle can those, they'd look ridiculous on the truck. Machinist is the next step.

 

[montaillou]

I posted a general question elsewhere, but here's the problem I'm having.

Should the bolt holes be chamfered? I'm going with a dually set-up now and when I read about modern hub piloted wheels, the bolt holes are NOT chamfered, they're only chamfered on stud piloted.

Chamfering both sides is an added expense, $75/wheel. Could I get away with not chamfering the interior of all the wheels that sit directly against the hub?

And while I'm posing questions does anyone know how many vent holes should be on a wheel? At least one needs to be present for the valve stem and presumably another opposite to balance the wheel. But should there be more? As far as I can tell the chief purpose of the vent holes (besides the valve stem) is for weight reduction.

Do vent holes weaken integrity in any way?

 

[tobyS]

You do need them chamfered and since you are using in budd (dual) configuration, they need both sides chamfered. Check your rear stud length too. It might be okay since you need the 2 piece nuts. Notice the inner nut has a double chamfer (a chamfer to match the inner and to pilot the outer), so only chamfer on one side would not work.

If I recall Wes broke some studs with AL wheels. Have you checked out "Alcoa" nuts ( I think that's the nickname) ? AL wheel chamfer is a radius while most budd are a straight chamfer.

 

[montaillou]

AL wheel chamfer is a radius while most budd are a straight chamfer.

I don't understand what you mean by this. Ok, I did some web searches. So, my machinist isn't a wheel guy - I couldn't find a wheel specialist that can work on a 24.5 wheel, so I went with a machinist who had a table big enough. I spoke with a tire place that does mostly commercial truck tires and they told me that modern aluminum wheels use a chamfer just like the steel ones. I know I'll need longer studs and a longer inner cap nut - AL wheels are thicker than steel. I'm gonna have a shop reflip the hubs and do the install.

I gave the machinist a line drawing I found here that showed a close up detail of the lug nut with the chamfer angle. I also gave him the NSN listing that shows all the specs on the wheel. There was more to the drawing, I edited it just show the stock configuration.

Know anything about vent holes?

 

[tobyS]

I was thinking of Al as singles that use this nut.....thus would not apply to duals. But I did see the extended length budd inner that you need for al to al. Sorry, with this pad, I don't link....put in "budd inner for al to al ".

 

[montaillou]

Coming along. The hole is for the valve stem. There will be another on the opposite side, so it won't affect the balance.

 

[tobyS]

Seems like the weight of the valve stem would offset the materials removed, thus no need for a second whole.

 

[montaillou]

the weight of the valve stem

But that's just a guess. I'm gonna have the tires professionally mounted and balanced, they can always put a lead weight on after they attached the valve stem.

 

[montaillou]

Well, this project took a little time to complete. I hope to have the new wheels/tires on the truck next week.

The idea of polished aluminum on my truck seemed out of place so I had them black anodized. It's much cheaper than powder coating, 40% of the cost and the thickness is 0.1 mil - wheels are heavy enough as it is. It's used in the aviation industry quite a bit.

Learned a lot about commercial tires, I knew nothing when I started - not saying I'm an expert, but know a lot more now.

Searched for months, got lucky and some of these tires went on sale at the right time. The steer tires are Bridgeston M843, and the drive tires are Goodyear retreads, G741 MSD. If you decide to go the commercial tire route, always call a dealer for prices. If a tire is on sale the dealer will have the lowest price. The on-line retailers, like Simple Tire, etc. have good prices but dealers have better prices - on commercial tires. I could've gotten retreads for the steer tires - retreads for steer tires are ONLY restricted for buses, but then some tire places won't mount retreads on the front axle, regardless and I'm doing this to make things easier.

The Goodyear guy I was working with got Covid and no one else there knew anything about me, so, that pushed me back a few weeks. His prices were good, and he delivered them 2/3 of the way to me, no charge - the advantage of working with a dealer. He also relayed to me that WHD (waste haul drive) tires don't hold up as well on the highway per what he learned from a customer that runs dump trucks on highways. I decided to go with MSD (mixed service drive) instead.

I decided to go with premium tires mostly because I just wanted to hedge my bets. My research (albeit, limited) couldn't come up with any independent articles on tire quality (re: Chinese vs American). The ones I tended to find appeared to be funded by someone who benefited from the conclusions. These may be the last tires I get for this truck, it's hard to say. I expect the tire compound to last 50k - 100k miles.

I got the Bridgestone steer tires for $525 each, and the drive tires for $360 each. Mounting and stems were about $35 each.

Note: the flyer for the Bridgestone recommends drive or trailer, but their webpage also recommends steer.

 

[tobyS]

Wow....you are going all the way! Looking forward to pictures!

I've been looking into the wide base aluminum wheels myself for an entirely different purpose and could not come up with the blank in the 22.5x 14 or 13. Did you locate them? I went to alu-wheels.com but no luck.

We don't have much problem with the adaptors causing shops to reject the job as much as the rims with split rings like an OEM deuce prior to A3.

 

[montaillou]

blank in the 22.5x 14 or 13. Did you locate them? I went to alu-wheels.com but no luck.

Do they have to be aluminum? Are they for off road? I found some places that will do custom steel wheels, but they're not rated for anything but off-road. Keep in mind, steel wheels that size will be over 100 lbs.

 

[tobyS]

On road use. 4x2 maybe. I'm okay with an adaptor and the 11 1/4 bc. On rear

Google "Track Ready Hummer" for the inspiration to my madness.

 

[montaillou]

Before I decided to go with 24.5 wheels I had looked for 22.5x14 and couldn't find any blank aluminum wheels...outside of China. Shipping single wheels to the US is stupid expensive.

 

[montaillou]

So, this particular sub-project took about a year. Drove home tonight, only got up to about 50 mph, but it seemed ok. Not like it'll go much faster so, it'll probably be fine on the freeway. The shop had to buy a hub socket, I'm paying for it but I told them to keep it - I already own one and who knows they might need one in the future. They also bought longer studs - got them that supplier link from a thread here on SS.

It is SO much easier to steer with a narrower tire on there even though it's only going from 15.5" to 11.1" width, the tread pattern might help too as well. Power steering is definitely back down on the bottom of the list again.

So two of the pics may not be obvious what they are, they are looking down the plane of the tire along the inside and outside from the rear. The hubs were swapped back to original configuration and the dual tires really fill up the space. The air dryer had to be moved to inside the frame - probably a better place for it anyways