Can someone tell me who manufactured these wide 5 wheels?
 

I have never seen a wheel like this before in 15". It appears to be factory made. Came on the front of a 37 that I bought. Has a little more reverse than a regular 16" wide 5. I removed it from the car to see if there were any stampings or markings, there were none. I have heard that General Jumbo made a wide 5 wheel but have never seen one and could not find one on google. I understand that Lorin Sorensen in Ford Life did a very complete article on accessory wheels but do not have access to that article.

Re: Can someone tell me who manufactured these wide 5 wheels?
 

Hi; I have those on an OLD circle track car. Track racers preferred the wide five and still use them with 5/8" drum studs. Newc

Re: Can someone tell me who manufactured these wide 5 wheels?
 

Boy, "Newc", I don't know. I have a bunch of 15" wide fives for my dirt modified (probably about a dozen). They're all a lot wider than this one appears to be, and none of them have clips for hubcaps (or even holes for them). I would expect that this is some sort of aftermarket wheel to allow folks to run more modern tires on the original cars. One thing that kinda mystifies me is that it seems to be built "backwards"; usually, the rivets are on the inside of the wheel.

I do have a couple of older wheels that are narrower, but they are all obviously homemade, which this one does not appear to be.

Re: Can someone tell me who manufactured these wide 5 wheels?
 

Only thing I came across in Ford Life is in Nov-Dec 1973, a feature on low pressure tires. General Jumbos, Goodyear Airwheels, Dayton Super Balloon and more like that in the early '30's. Rims varied from 17's all he way down to 13's but I didn't see any wide fives in the article. There was the Musselman Hub-Brake Company wheel that looks like a wide five, but it uses a different hub and drum with a conventional lug pattern. It has the wide five look because of the split rim using nuts to hold the halves of the rim together. The claimed benefit was ease of mounting a tire on the split rim.

Re: Can someone tell me who manufactured these wide 5 wheels?
 

Those wheels were made by Kelsey-Hayes. You will probably have to remove the tire to find the markings inside the rim (if its not too rusty.

Re: Can someone tell me who manufactured these wide 5 wheels?
 

I have seen similar wide 5 wheels in 15", on Ford Marmon-Harrington 4x4's. One MH I know of in Montana is a '48 Ford club coupe with the wide 5 wheels.. The family that owns the car has had it since new.
They also have a '37 Ford MH in the same barn, it also has the wide 5 wheels.
I have four of these wide 15" wheels, they are split rims that mount to the drum with the split ring to the inside, hub cap clips to the outside.

Re: Can someone tell me who manufactured these wide 5 wheels?
 

Kellsey hayes

Re: Can someone tell me who manufactured these wide 5 wheels?
 

Any special reason why they made these wheels? The 18" K/H make sense for extra ground clearance but not sure why 15". Maybe for the better ride qualities? Thank You for all the reply's so far. Would appear these are somewhat rare?

Re: Can someone tell me who manufactured these wide 5 wheels?
 

Not super rare but not as common as a 16" wide 5. I have heard all kinds of stories as to why they were made. The one i tend to believe the most is when cars started to go to 15" tires in the 50s these were made to update older cars.

Re: Can someone tell me who manufactured these wide 5 wheels?
 

There was a trend for wider smaller tires sizes that started in the mid thirties. The artillery still of tires in the 15" size was very common as a HD option on GM pick ups, Dodge and International also offed 15" wheels/tires as an HD option.
In 1949/50 15" tires became the norm for most passenger type cars.