What size tires on 42-47 1/2 ton?

[D. Jones]

What size tires were standard on the 42-47 1/2 ton pickup?

The 16" wheels I've found, and there hasn't been very many of them, had 600 - 16's on them and were about 28" diameter. Would that have been the standard size?

[38 coupe]

6.00-16 was the standard tire for 1/2 ton pickups. 6.50-16 was optional for a bit more money.

[Tommy Caruso]

i would go with 650/16 the 600,s look a little lost in the wheelhouses and the truck will be a bit more stable with the 650,s.

[blucar]

You have to be very careful putting 650 x 16 tires on the stock 1/2 ton Ford wheels.. The 650 x 16 tires will generally be in a 6 ply rating.. The stiffness of the 6 ply tire can cause the wheel to break/split at the bead line.
My father had a lot of trouble with this wheel/tire problem during the '40's-'50's. If he up sized the tires, he would opt for the heavy duty "artillery" type of wheels. The wheels were generally wider and designed to handle heavier rated tires..
Split rims generally did not come into vogue on light duty pickups until the mid '50's..

[41panelmark]

I put the radial/bias on mine for smoother ride along with corresponding tubes just in case the tires roll open on the beads.

[D. Jones]

Sponsored Links (Register now to hide all advertisements)

I plan on running radials and am trying to figure out the correct size/diameter. Since I won't be hauling any heavy loads I will use car tires instead of LT tires if I can get the size right. Is there a radial size that is the same or at least close to 600-16 bias ply in a car tire?

[blucar]

I'm not to sure just what size 16" radial tire is somewhat equal to a 600 x 16 bias ply tire.
Be very careful in selecting a tire because the radials are generally designed to be mounted on a wider wheel, generally 5.5", or wider, whereas the stock 42-47 Ford 1/2 ton wheel will be in the 4.5 range.
Another problem that is cropping up with tires is their age.. Recent laws that have been enacted will not allow a tire shop to work on, mount tires that are over four years old..
Many of the specialty tire warehouses sell tires that are almost out of date.. I recently had this happen on set of tires that I bought for my motor home..I had about 10k on the tires, they were showing a wear pattern on the steering axle. The alignment was checked and it was off, the tire shop was going to rotate the tires onto the drive axle.. Wrong.. The tires were six years old, they had only been on my RV for two years.. I would have to guess that the tires age was due to the slow economy, however, the dealer did not tell me that he was selling me "old tires"...
I recently needed a set of tires for my '73 Duster.. I thought TA Radials would look nice on the Mopar Magnum 500 wheels.. The tire store did not have the size I needed in stock, they could have them in two days.. I asked about the date of manufacture, the salesman was reluctant to actually say, replying that they would be of current manufacture. I wanted an actual date.. A phone call was made, the tires were three years old.. I did not buy TA Radials, opted for a Michlyn 70 series that they had in stock. The tire had a 1" oval on the side that had a big 2013 cast into the tire.. No more "mombo jumbo" tire codes I guess.. Buyer be aware!!

[38 coupe]

For blackwall tires on a pickup I like 215 / 85 R 16s. Here is a picture of my brothers truck with a set installed:


These tires were installed on clean, painted rims. Tubes were not installed. It has been several years and they still drive nicely without any air leak problems.

[blucar]

For many years I owned a business that had several trucks ranging in size from 1/2ton to ten wheelers.. As radials became more common in the late '60's, early '70's I embraced the use of radials on our trucks because we got better mileage out of them, and they drove better..I figured that if radial tires were good enough for UPS, they were good enough for our trucks.
At first we were using tube type radials.. Radial type tubes were required, the only trouble we had with the tires was failure of the tubes, which generally caused a tire failure. I gradually switched to tubeless radials. On the larger trucks the tubeless tires required tubeless type rims in lieu of the split rim type.. An added expense but it cut our tire problems down to almost nothing on an annual basis.
The reader of this tread should keep in mind that I'm talking 1950 to 1967 model trucks in the lighter series, at the time the newest truck we had was a '72 GMC 7500 series.
In some cases I did purchase new rims for the F100's and F250's because we wanted larger tires for larger loads. If I purchased wheels that were more HD, I always purchased wheels from Ford and/or GM that were correct for the bolt pattern, hub design, and would accept the original hubcaps..
Never did care much for generic, one size fits all, aftermarket wheels..