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Split Rims-Making single piece by welding in place?

W

WeirdDeere

Member
I know that the old style split rims are really rather dangerous to work with...I"ve wondered if it"s possible to weld the outer ring solidly into place onto the rim and use it just like a normal rim, mounting and dismounting tires the conventional way. In my head it seems no more dangerous then guys that take normal rims, cut apart, and widen them with strips of steel.

I don"t really plan on doing this but I had the thought and wondered if it was realistic or even really safe.

Brandon
 
I wouldn't do it, but I know my welding skills. If I had someone else do it, maybe. I just won't be the one putting the tires on without a cage. Hopefully when they blow I will be driving not walking past them.
 
I have only heard of people welding in bands on tractor rims, which turn at low speeds and have low pressure. I would be nervous of a split rim on a road vehicle or high pressure tire whether it was welded or not. This is just my ignorant opinion.
Zach
 
Those rims usually don't have the deep dish to them to allow the tire to be dismounted the conventional way. Those tires are usually too stuff to mount like that as well.
 
I would feel safer with the split-rim as designed, rather than a welded up version. I have never had an issue with split rims, and have run many of them. There are also several different styles of split rim, and I don`t recall the infamous model, but only one of them is the true widow-maker. The style I have on my `49 dodge, the lip of the split-ring projects inside the bead of the tire, so the tire locks it into the rim, still working well after 64 years.
 
No, because there is no drop center which you need to get the tire on. You could probably force it on, but you would damage something or your self. I've worked with split rims for years and have not had any problem with them. There is two or three different styles so you need to know which one you are working with.
 
Only if you first buy a million dollar insurance for your wife because she going to need it. If it was that easy do you not think you would have seen it done many many times by now??? Tires rims and airing them up if not done right will blow a guys head off his shoulder and even a plain Jane car tire can
 
It was just curiosity on my part, note the part where I said I wasn't really going to do so.

As you said, I've never seen it done by others....I was curious to know what I wasn't thinking about.

My Oliver 70 has split rims which I don't plan to use. Nothing else I have has split rims. I'd have to look closer at the '37 Dodge to see for sure.

Brandon
 
My dad changed 100's of them. He taught me what to look for as I aired them up. You can tell the ones that are warped of bent! We never mounted them back up. Never had a cage, never had one to come apart. But at our local station when I was about 10 or 12 A neighbor had his head took off. Also My brother-in-law, had one that was warped a little. He could tell it wasn't right. So he put it on the inside. It was a Dodge 800 tandem with budd wheels.(cast spoke) He started airing it, with his back turned and him kneeled down trying to be as small as the outside tire. Well it blew up! that ring beat around under that truck for what seemed a long time flew out the other side of the truck hit the side of a building bounced over the top of the truck and ran itself into the roof of that building. A auto-parts store. Makes you not want to fool with any more! Vic
 
I"m not commenting about how safe it would be. I don"t believe it would work without having a drop center for the bead to drop into while it goes over the edge of the wheel on the opposite side.
 
I have and still do split rims and have been for decades and have learned how to do so with out a cage but I do so very carefully and have seen what happens if you make a simple mistake. As I said even a car tire can remove a guy head it he does something wrong. I worked at a place back say 30 or so years ago that had a black mark on the ceiling from a car tire that exploded and broke the guys jaw when it flew off and that was a simple tubeless tire like say a 225/75R/15
 
If they have cast spokes they are called Daytons. I have a Question--If the rim being aired up was on the inside-that means it was around the axle-so how did the ring get out from under the truck???
 
Which one is the widowmaker? I'd guess it to be the
20" 2-piece Budd rim, of which the ring is NOT
split, but installed by laying the ring on the
gutter and prying it over, via the cutouts on the
I.D. of the ring. Used on Chevy trucks in the
fifties.
 
The true widow-maker is the old split rim wheel. It is really two halves of a rim that lock together.

images


What most call split rims today are really locking ring rims.
 
No.

How would you pry the tire over the rin, no drop so you can't get it to fit over.

Tractor tire runs maybe 30 psi, truck tire runs 75+ psi. Don't want to fool with that much pressue, it is not double, to multiplies many times as it rises....

As mentioned below, the troublesome rims are the ones that split in 2 pieces. All the split _rings_ are still good to use, I believe there are 4 good designs and the one bad one. The split ring you can see the seam out on the edge.

They used those widowmakers into the 1970's, I got educated with my Ford grain truck. You can replace them with a new rim, but they only make radial style new rims for most bolt patterns. Fortunately the millitary ran the common 6 bolt bias rims for a long time, and you can find military split ring wheels pretty easily. Unfortunately, most folk dealing in millitary stuff don't know what they have, and are selling the millitary tires, scapping out the rims.......

Paul
 
Yes, they are dangerous. No, there's no way to make them safe. I saw a man get killed inflating a tire on one of them. It's hard to forget what that looked like. Please get your cutting torch out, cut them in half crossways, and sell them for scrap.
 
You would to have had to been there. It rattled around there for a long time it seemed. The ring was pulled side-ways like a spring when we got it out of the roof. One end was stuck down in the roof.
 
Won't work. You need a drop center in the wheel to facilitate removal and installation of the tire...
Split rims aren't all that evil if you keep them in good repair, understand what you're doing and use a cage when you're working on them.
If you really wanted rid of them it might not be so hard to change them over to tubeless wheels depending on the application... If it's got the standard Dayton hub you just change the 10.00-20 over to 11R22.5 and the 11.00-22 over to 11R24.5. There's no need to change the hubs; just change the wheels on the hub as the hubs are the same. Lots of used wheels around for them, particularly in 11R22.5.

Rod
 
glad to hear you have no plans to do such a daring act ,,.if a guy wanted to end it all he could weld the split wheel with the ire still on the rim ... DONT !!!
 
Jim, Have you ever seen the youtube video of the rim with a tire mounted and inflated welded by a robot arm? Temp. and pressure rise rapidly until it explodes within three minutes. I showed my students the video this past week. That and a split rim explosion in a cage. I believe it got their attention.
 

Fritz,

The rim with the band with the 2 cut outs

that snap up and over the rim is call a semi-

drop center. Ford loved them and grove farm

dump carts also had them.

george
 
yes i HAVE ,,, KEEP SHOWING THAT ,,, It SCARES me How stupid and total lack of common sense thar is out there ,, it comes from not having practical experience
 
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