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Old 08-21-2019, 06:02 PM   #24
1976gmc20
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Join Date: May 2015
Location: Montana
Posts: 3,696
Re: Recently Purchase my First Heavy Hauler

Quote:
I am just outside Helena in the Scratchgravel Hills.

They are the ones commonly referred to as "widowmakers", a two piece rim that splits in the center like the diagram in the bottom left:
I'm sort of but not quite near Lavina, so it's only a couple hundred miles

That diagram looks about right except I seem to remember the narrower piece fitting over the other half (?)[Edit: I was thinking backwards: the diagram is the same as the wheels that I had.]. Anyway, another logger had a truck a little newer than mine (actually just about like yours) and he showed me how to change them. It's basically like de/mounting a tire on/off a solid wheel except it's steel on steel, half the wheel coming off or going on. There's a little notch on the inside that you pry up (once you find it!) and you push down on the other side and "tap" it sideways to pop it apart. This is of course after you have broken the beads down on both sides and the tire is collapsed. Once you get it apart, you can see how the half that comes off is just slightly elliptical at the mating surface so it can pop on and off.

Assembly is the opposite: you lay the one half across the other at an angle with the notch up, then stand one foot on the low side and "tap" the inside directly across until it pops over the other half. It has to be "loose" after you get it together, or else it is not all the way over the little ridge that holds the wheel together when inflated. Nice guys turn the ring so that the notch is lined up with the valve stem so you can find it again

None of this will make any sense if you've never changed any type of multi-piece wheel. Sliding the tire/tube/liner on and off is the same as other types.

When I was logging I would get several flats each season and fix them myself, plus I bought used 8.25-20 tires from a school bus contractor and change them myself. I couldn't afford to hire any work done on my equipment back then.
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Current/past Chevy/GMC trucks:
1958 Chevy C-60; 1965 GMC C-50; 1965 Chevy C-10; 1971 Chevy K-10; 1973 Chevy K-20; 1976 GMC C-20; 1977 Chevy C-10 Suburban; 1980 Chevy K-10; 1989 Chevy K1500; 1991 GMC V1500 Suburban; 2016 Chevy K2500 HD

Other vehicles: 1988 Jeep XJ; 2011 Toyota 4Runner

Last edited by 1976gmc20; 08-22-2019 at 11:02 AM.
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