Can you tell if these are widowmakers?

[jumpsoffrock]

Has anyone ever seen these wheels before? Do you think they are another version of split rims? 22.5"?

Truck is a 1978







Thank you.

[Robert1970C20rstbukt]

Yup, those look like two-piece 20" wheels with a split ring. The rear wheel has what looks like an inner tube valve stem. I've seen those before on early to late '70's GM trucks, but the wheels with five hand holes were more common like these:

[jumpsoffrock]

So they're still the old crapper widowmakers, huh? Well, guess I'm throwing that out of the picture.

[studda]

The ones with the outer lock ring are not the true "widomakers". They are still safe to use. You just shouldn't try to change a tire if you don't know what you are doing. As long as they are not the ones that split right down the center of the wheel, you will be fine. Those ones are known to blow apart spontaneously. The ones with the lock rings are safe once the tire is seated and aired up.

[Robert1970C20rstbukt]

What studda said is correct, the true "widow-maker" wheels are Firestone RH5's that were discontinued in the late '60's I think. Those wheels are actually split down the center and are very dangerous to service, especially ones that are severely rusted. If you look at the bottom left corner of this rim chart you can see how the two halves attatch:

http://forums.aths.org/Uploads/Image...-af68-f3cb.jpg

The ones you show are called multi piece wheels or lock ring wheels, sorry forgot to mention that.

[studda]

I forgot to mention that even the ones with the lock rings can kill you if you don't know how to service them so, if you've never messed with them, I wouldn't suggest trying it. Most agricultural tire shops will change them for you for a price. A lot of old grain haulers and other agricultural equipment still use them.

[junkmandan3]

The RH-5s are the type that splits down the center between the beads, and people are more leery of them.

The rims pictured look like standard 20" tube type, although the spoke pattern happens to be different than most I've seen.

[C10 - C90 Bill]

Yeah, before I even heard the name "Widowmaker" I had an old rusty one that I got as a spare wheel with my '62 GMC 4000 and never mind not hearing about them, it was actually the first one I even seen. I sent it out to be sandblasted and it wasn't cheap. The metal itself looked nice and clean once I got it back, but the more I studied on it, the more I knew not to use it.

I think it was the prettiest piece I ever dumped in the scrap pile...