[truckdog62563]

You’re describing a problem that has been well flushed out over on the FTE forum. The 14” Lockheed rear drums on ‘48 to ‘51 F-3s dictated the use of the 17” stock widow maker wheels. No 16” stock OEM style wheel has been found to clear them. There are, however, solutions that have been found. Two of the solutions are OEM tubeless 17.5” and 19.5” wheels offered on F-250s between 1956 and 1966. These allow use of stock hub caps too. The 17.5s are either of two Budd part numbers, #70720 or #73240, and the 19.5” is #71410. As you might expect these aren’t plentiful. But they show up on eBay pretty regularly.

The third solution is to have your stock widow maker centers remounted into tubeless 17” x 7” modern outer rims. Slightly wider than the stock 5.5” wide widow makers, but when the difference is balanced with a proper offset they work well. These allow use of stock 7.50-17” tires. Several FTE members have had good service in having these built by Stockton Wheel in CA.

There is also a modern 17” Dodge wheel that works. Going from memory here they are 7.5” wide and require use of a spacer on the front axle to my recall. They don’t accept stock hub caps. I can look up the part number if this option interests you.

The other common solution is a replacement D60 rear axle from a 1972 or earlier F-250. This lets you use any 1997HD or early 16” F-250 wheels having the 8 x 6.5” pattern. Stu