[truckdog62563]

The 20" wheels that are original to a 1946 era truck have two piece locking side rim wheels. The dominant style is called the Firestone RH, but there were various Goodyear rim designs that were more common to Dodge and IHC. All of these can be kept in service if undamaged. Beginning in 1948 Ford began fitting Firestone's "Advanced Design" wheels with outer rims called the RH-5°. These are the dangerous rims that are today called "widow makers". If your truck had wheels swapped at some time during its life and had the RH-5° fitted, they should be replaced. Otherwise, swapping on newer style tubeless 19.5" or 22.5" wheels are an optional alternative.

But there are trade offs. The most common tubeless wheel is the Budd #89340, 19.5" x 6", mentioned above. Still fairly common and found on both Ford and Dodge Class A motor homes of the 1970s and early 1980s. The trade off here is tire outside diameter. If you now have 7.50-20" tires they will be approximately 36" - 37" tall. An 8.25-20" will be 38" tall, and a 7.00-20" about 35" tall. The #89340 uses either a 225/70R19.5" tire at 32" diameter or the preferred 8R19.5" at 33.5-34" diameter. The shorter tires will materially reduce road speed.

The other tubeless alternative is the 22.5". There were several varieties made be Budd, Kelsey-Hayes, and Accuride in 5.25", 6.00", and 6.75" widths. The narrowest tire today is the 9R22.5" which is 38" tall, same as the 8.25-20". Finding an old original set of any 22.5" variety will be hard and expensive.

Factory brand new 19.5 x 6" and 22.5 x 6.75" wheels are being reproduced and imported. I'm told from Turkey. They look much different than old originals. Both can be seen online at the Wheels Now web site, and available from a variety of other companies. Stu