ElPolacko, here on the HAMB, hooked me up with 4 of 'em! I've got the krusty tires demounted and found that 3 of them are 4 inches wide, one of them is 3.5" wide. What years and model cars and trucks ran this wheel and what are some differences?
I thought those were 37 to 39?? 36's had wire wheels didn't they.... or late did late 36 switch to wide 5's??
The book I have on these pickups shows wires on the '35 only and the artillery style on the '36 and '7..... Anyone know why they are two different widths (3.5" and 4")?
I'm no expert but I believe the wide fives were used (at least on cars) 1936-39. I believe the different widths may have had something to with whether you had the bigger V8 or the V8 60 engine. Jay
I also have some wide fives and noticed the other day that two of mine are slightly different. They have smaller "holes" between the spokes. The area around the lug nuts is slightly different too.. There must be some different varieties out there.
Okay, so 3 wheels, pretty much the same, all within an inch of each other?! You'd think Ford would'a just went crazy and pushed the envelope with a nice 5 incher too.....
'36-'39 regular V-8 cars ran the 16x4" wide five wheels. 60hp cars had the 3.5" wheels. Sizes remained the same in '40 but they were, obviously, a 5x5.5" bolt pattern "steel" wheel. JH
Didn't they run a wider wide five wheel on the Lincoln zephyrs? If you can find a set of General Jumbo? wheels, they were 15 inch wide fives and don't actually have the "spokes". Justin
They did...39-41 3/4-ton pickups used a 16x5 wide five wheel. They are not scalloped like the 36-39 car wheels though...they just have 5 slots. Here's one of the 5" wide 3/4-ton wheels on the back of my rpu... I am running the 3.5" wide 37-39 V8-60 wheels on the front...all with 36-37 Lincoln Zephyr caps. Neal
My '39 Mercury sedan has these wheels (16x4). I am planning on pulling the axles out from under it and using them on my '27 coupe. I have all 5 wheels and a full set of original Mercury hubcaps. The cool thing about the Mercury axles is that they had hydraulic brakes from the factory in '39. I haven't decided whether to sell off the rest of the car or put a later rear end and maybe a MII front under it and keep it.
Your 3.5 " wheel is off any 37-39 60 Hp Ford car. Other than being different in width I do not see that it should be any more advantageous or desirable than the normal 4" wheel. The 1/2" bead width is not going to be a noticeable difference other than fake hoopla to pump up the uniqueness to make a buck. The hard to find 3 1/2"x 16" wheel is one from a 1940 ford 60 hp The more sought after wide 5's are the pickup units that are wider in width, 16" x5", and the Marmon-Harrington 15" wide 5's.
Wide Fives RULE! Really cool wheels! There are MOUNDS of these wheels out there laying around for cheap. If it were me, just to be consistant, I would pick up another one that's 4". As already stated it probably doesn't make much of a difference other than you're pushing the limits of most tire specs (in terms of recommended width). I'm running 600x16's up front and 750x16's out back. I may elect to have the rears widened to 5 or 5.5 inches, at some point.
can someone explain this wheel? I have 2 of them. It is 16x4. Mine is the white one, the other is for comparison.
I've got "access" to a pair of the wide 5's that are 3.5" wide....would it be to my advantage to get 'em by swapping 4 inchers for 'em???
WheelKid has 3.5"ers available on his site, or at least they advertised. They cost a bit more then the 4" but they are there. I have 2-3.5" and 2-4" waiting to be used on my coupe.
Yep, that's the plan....the 3.5 may be more desirable, but I just want 4 that match. Interesting. The black wheel is the one we're discussing here. It's spider has a flat face and larger holes, while the white one has a spider with a rounded face and itty-bitty holes, plus it has more meat around the stud flange.....wonder what they are from.
the white wheel came off of the argentine '38 cabriolet/pickup thing. It had 2 normal ones and 2 of those. So it could be off almost anything. Are the ford ones stamped ford somewhere?
I just picked up a pair of 18'' wide fivewheels. what would they happen to be off of ? sorry not trying to hi jack.
The 18" wide fives are a Kelsey Hayes accessory wheel that is pretty rare. That's a hell of a score and probably worth a $500-1000 I would think. Not exactly sure what ran them but I assume it was a truck.
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