I have owned a couple of vehicles with split rims. Known as “suicide rims” because of the fact that the outer ring can fly off and kill the guy mounting the tires, they are not a popular item to drag to a tire shop. In fact, it took me eight tries to even find a place willing to look at them for me when I needed new rubber installed on them. It takes an old hand and an experienced one to handle those wheels, evaluate them and decide if they can even be used again, let alone safely. For those of you who have never experienced or learned about split rims, this video is neat. These guys are restoring an ancient Diamond T truck and the wheels have come back from the shop they were at with new tires on them.
Now, the wheel discussion is cool but the really interesting thing is how they mount them on the truck and get them runout right! You want to talk about something wild, even smashing the tires back on your car or truck was a pain in the ass back in the day, this is proof positive.
Knowledge like we see in this video is fading, it seems. Perhaps that is the nature of the business but there are less and less people capable of dealing with a split rim or who know how to properly mount a tire as we will see on this truck so it drives down the road nicely. Hell, there are still younger guys making steam engines work these days so maybe there will also be a small cadre of enthusiasts who still understand the ways of the past as most move on to the newer and the “better”.
This is not a slam bang video but it is one that we think gear heads will find interesting. Give it a watch.
