1953 chevy 6400 wheels

[fscboss]

we just bought a 1953 chevy 6400 tow truck. the wheels appear to be split rim. is that correct? is there a replacement that would work?

[jkeating1]

I don't know what will interchange, but the wheels are 20 x 6" with a 5 & 3/8" offset, or the optional 20 x 6.5" with a 5 & 5/8" offset. Either have five front and ten rear lugs that are 5/8" 18 thread on a 7 & 1/4 circle.

[jkeating1]

Actually--it appears that 1977-2005 Chev & GMC 3500 HD dual wheel use a 10 on 7.25" bolt pattern. It's a 19.5" rim with a 133.35mm hub bore. I don't know the stud size, but those might work on the rear. (that is the 3500 HD only, not a regular 3500)

I don't see any 5 lug wheel applications. The Isuzu and Mitsu trucks are 5 lug, but over 8" pattern.

[jkeating1]

Not to belabor this issue--but why wouldn't a 10 lug, 7.25" bolt pattern work on a 5 lug, 7.25" hub (like the 6400 fronts). I would think 5 of the 10 holes should match up.

I'm looking at a 6400 myself, if you wondered why I'm interested in this topic. so if you try any of this, or any other combo that allows you to keep the original HO72 axles and the '53 front hubs--be sure to post.

However--if yours is a single speed rear axle, it's a 6.17 to 1 ratio; and if it's a 2 speed it's 5.13 to 1 in high gear (8.1 to 1 low). I saw a thread where a guy put a 4.11 in the original housing.

I'm just saying--I would probably be looking for a later model axle anyway so I could find some better gear ratios available. So wheel options would also improve.

[fscboss]

thank you for the reply. you have researched this very well. we are at the crossroads of what to do. different axles or a later model chassi or sell it.

[63 & 64 Bowties]

I'm in the process of changing the same wheels on my 39 2t.
I'm using 19.5's off of a Chevy drivetrained motorhome.
The fronts use the same wheels as the rears, it just uses 5 lugs instead of all 10. The other holes are covered by the wheel stiffeners.
The problem I'm running into is the brakes. Mine came with 20" wheels stock, like yours. And, even though the bolt pattern (10x7.25) is the same, the rear wheel won't fit over the backing plate. I had to cut my backing plates down.
Take a look at yours from the inside and you'll see there's only about 1/4" clearance between the inside of the wheel and the outer edge of the backing plate.

[63 & 64 Bowties]

The 19.5 wheels are available, at least in my part of the country. They were common on older motorhomes and bread trucks. I have seen the reference to the 3500HD like jkeating1 mentioned, but I don't have any personal experience with them.
I put an ad on Craigslist looking for 19.5's and got three replies. One guy had a set of six with brand new tires, which I bought, one guy had two wheels, and another had ten wheels at $25 each, no tires.

[jkeating1]

I ran across this post in a forum. It sounds like the poster has actual experience with this:

"....the 5 and 10 lug rims are the same as a chev 3500HD. i know this because i started with a late 40's gmc 2.5 ton chassis. here in alberta DOT can give you a runaround about using the split ring 3 piece rims (cuz i guess they can fly apart if not installed correctly) so i needed to find non split ring rims and found that the chev 3500HD (it must be the HD version) and i think 96 was the last year of the 5 and 10 lug rims were used. the 3500HD also used a dana 80 rear with disk brakes which is what i am running with the 19.5" rims....

oh and yea i forgot to mention that yes our original rims were hub centered, with a smaller diameter hub than the newer 19.5" rims, if you want to run the new rims on the old hub you only need to take a slice of pipe the correct size to make up for the difference in hub diameter... i think its about 1/4 inch...."

[63 & 64 Bowties]

I got one set of rear duals on, but the truck is outside and it's just been too cold to finish up right now.
In the one pic you can see how close the backing plate is to the original 20" wheel. The 19.5 may have fit, but I ended up cutting about 1/4" off. I tried mounting the wheel on the hub before it was cut and it seemed like there was gonna be a paper thin clearance.

[jkeating1]

That's righteous, brother! The blue works.

[63 & 64 Bowties]

Thanks.
There's only about one square foot of paint left on the truck, but it's blue, so....