@jgmtrbb97 A friend of mine is running 16" wheels on his 1957 3600 without issues. Two things to keep in mind: While the bolt pattern is the same for all of the 8 bolt wheels, the center hole sizes are not the same. Be aware of the center hole size when you go shopping for wheels. Also, I don't think you will find wheels with hubcap clips. My friend had to drill his wheels and add the clips in order to use the stock dog dish caps. 

The change-over can get a bit expensive.

Mike

@jgmtrbb97

Please forgive my ignorance/stupidity here, just trying to get a handle on what you want to do.

Are you essentially wanting to use newer tubeless (maybe radial) tires and maintain the look of the wheels you have?

If so, you can install new radials on your old rims and use radial rated inner tubes (and liners if necessary as with multi piece rims) in them.

That's what I've done on my '46 3/4 ton and it has worked very well for me.

I found tubes with valve stems that are made to be bent/formed to fit the application and they ended up looking exactly like the original set up.

Mike, thanks for the heads up on the center hole diam. and the clips.  I assumed I’d not find something setup for the caps.

I’ll do some measuring before I start the search for other rims.

Stovblt, I read somewhere about what you have done.  But there was a mention of liners as well.

Where did you find the inner tubes with stems?

I also have a lot of guys telling me to get rid of the multi piece rims for safety and the fact no one wants to work on them.  What are your thoughts on that?

@jgmtrbb97 

I know a really good guy at a tire shop here in Saskatoon.  🙂

They service everything, including big trucks, and had no qualms about working on my wheels (although I changed most of them myself).

Your rims should be perfectly safe, as long as they aren't too rusty inside, or are the RH-5's

NO shop will work on RH-5's, but I'm pretty sure that's not what you have.

I'm including an old illustration of rim types for identification purposes.

The RH-5 is on the bottom left and is characterized by a raised area in about the middle of the inner face of the rim where the 2 pieces of the rim lock together.

Any RH-5's I'm familiar with (and we have some on 1 truck on the farm) are 20 inch rims.

My rims, and probably yours, are more like the RHP's in the upper left.

The locking rings on mine are towards the edge of the wheel.

These wheels are perfectly safe and safe to work on when they are in good shape.

You do need to be careful not to bend or distort the ring when removing it though.

If a big truck tire shop says they don't want to work on yours, just find another shop that will.

For tubes, my guy found me Carlisle brand radial tubes in my size (7.00-15).

If you need the long bendable valve stem, you need to ask for the TR135 stem.

Here is a good web page for identifying what valve stem you need to ask for:

https://www.petestirestore.com/Which-Valve-Do-I-need-on-my-Tire-Tube_b_54.html

I have several extra tubes in the shop, I'll try to remember to look tomorrow to see what sizes my tubes cover as they usually are made to cover multiple sizes with one tube size.

By the way, nice truck!  🙂  👍

PS

Yes you will need liners, but you shouldn't have a problem getting those.

Also, I think I found more pictures of your truck on the internet, and you have the same style of wheel I have, but in 17.5 instead of 15's.  🙂

@jgmtrbb97 

The picture I posted above doesn't really give a good perspective of what my tires look like on the truck.

My avatar does better.

@jgmtrbb97 

MY BAD!

The stems you need to ask for and the ones I have are TR150's.

They are like TR135's but longer.

The picture at https://www.petestirestore.com/Which-Valve-Do-I-need-on-my-Tire-Tube_b_54.html for the TR150 is not accurate but the description is.

@jgmtrbb97 

It looks like Carlisle is now called Carlstar and they list a tube that will work for you.

The tube is for 7.00/7.50R-17/18 with a TR440 stem, part number 322440:

as found here: 

https://www.carlstar.com/our-products/product-detail/high-speed-specialty-trailer-tubes/

A slightly small tube will usually work fine so a 7.50 tube should be fine up to 8.00 as it will just stretch a little extra to fit.

You can not go the other way though.

Tubes a little too big will inflate with wrinkles and crack.  Especially bad in a radial tire situation.

The tube and the TR440 stem look like this:

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/ctw-322440?srsltid=AfmBOoqZVSOCRXcjFVDR78rVbtyRBb_CROIP0BPkNaJNqF5NFJZGAkw

The TR440 isn't bendable, but looks like it should work for your wheels.

@jgmtrbb97 Like Ole, I do my own tire work. I don't want some disgruntled tire monkey taking out his frustration on my lock rings and powder coated wheels. There is nothing dangerous or mysterious about your wheels that would keep you from doing the work yourself.

I would not want to change anything about the looks of your fantastic truck. I drive all my old vehicles on bias ply tires and I find that as long as the tires and steering components are in good condition, they drive just fine. Those 17s are just as God and Chevrolet intended. Thanks for the picture.

Mike

@ole-olson , does this look right for the liners?  They say for spoked rims only… but look the same on all sites I can find the.  17” x 4.5” wide with center hole.  
Also found another site with tubes….

Any recommendation on radial tire size to keep truck at similar height?  
Also, were you cautious of the rim width when you chose your radials?  In descriptions it appears some have range from 6-7.5”.  

@jgmtrbb97  @35mike

I'm hoping Mike will give us his input and opinion on what I'm about to post, as I've never had to work on, or look for tires tubes and flaps for 17.5" wheels before.

The tube you show lists a TR75 valve stem which looks like it should be about 1 inch high to the bend and then about 3-1/4 inches long from there.

I think that should work for you, but a couple of quick measurements of your rims will verify that.

The flaps/ liners however should look more like this, but for a 17.5 inch rim:

It looks like they might be a little harder to find than tubes and tires.

I did pay attention to rim width when deciding on tires

There didn't seem to be many good options for 15" light truck tires, but one stood out with the tread, overall diameter, and positional qualities I was looking for.

It was the Yokohama RY215, in the 215R-15 LT size.

They have since discontinued that particular tire, but not before my tire guy warned me and I bought a full additional set plus a few spares. 🙂

Yokohama does have this tire, which you may want to look at.

It shows 696 revolutions per mile with the 215 size, as compared to original Chevrolet specification of 675 revs for the 8.00-17.5 original equipment tire.

That works out to you doing 58.2 mph when your speedometer shows 60.

Or, the 235's give 671 revs and 60.4 mph with a speedometer reading of 60.

Probably pretty pricey now, but they do show that there are tires out there that will fit.

@ole-olson, why couldn’t you use just a more typical truck tire like these?

@ole-olson Ole, Just a note for clarification, we are talking about 17" wheels with a lock ring, not 17.5". There will be not tubes or flaps listed for 17.5" because all tire sizes that end in .5 are tubeless tires. 14.5, 17.5, 19.5, 22.5, 24.5...all tubeless.

Mike

@35mike  @jgmtrbb97

How on earth did I get the figure 17.5 stuck in my head?!

That makes sense now.

The only .5's I have any experience with are the 11.00-22.5' radials we recently swapped onto our 1985 Chev 7000 series.

And of course they are tubeless.

I think I was looking up revs/mile specs on the oldcarmanualproject site where they don't list 1955 trucks so I just jumped to 1956.

And I "thought" I went back to the thread to verify the size being asked about.

MY bad, my very bad.

So, looks like the poster has 3684454 17x5 wheels with a 1/2" positive offset.

I'm surprised that those rims are actually 1/2" narrower than my 15x5.5's on the '46.

So I'll start over.  🙂

Thanks Mike, I knew I was at least doing the right thing when I asked for your input.  🙂. 👍