Geoff Weeks

The baby moons were the only "Bling" on my trucks, the nut covers got a little grease on the inside to keep the rust off the studs. Getting hard to find 1 1/4" nut covers. The hubs in both pictures need a re-paint, but both were hard working trucks, not trailer/show queens.

Somewhere I have an exhaust tube adaptor, it is just right for installing speede sleeves on front axles. I had to paint it red so it didn't get used on some exhaust job.

Here: Metal Trailer Hubcap Mounting Bracket For 8 Inch Rear Hubcap On Trailer Axle - 4 State Trucks

The bracket that allows you to mount them on a trailer, work just fine on the front. They bolt on over the oil hubcap and have 4 prongs that the babymoons snap onto. Unlike disk wheels the center of the hub is inside of the outside of the tire. BTW my Marmon and my '89 IHC had air start and spoke hubs.

Needs "baby moon's" on the steer hub also! Like them on the drives

Spokes and disks were competing back in the 40's and 30's likely before that. I have two 40's K IHC's one on disks and the other on spoke. I pulled Motor Wheel hub pilots off my Marmon and installed spokes after too many cracked wheels and studs. The one time I spec'd a new vehicle (Trailer) it was with spokes and sliding tandem. Salesman tried to talk me out of it, said it wouldn't have resale value, he was right, the trailer was crap, the wheels were the best part of it!

I know finding them is difficult, when looking for replacements. Many of the older trailer types have been discontinued. As the hub/bearing size and spacing has been consolidated on drive axles, it shouldn't take many part numbers to service most drive axles. I converted most of my tractors to spokes.

In the 50's Buda had their 844 diesel that would put out around 400 hp (when most other diesels of the day were below 300 closer to 200) and get close to 6 mpg (when the others were around 3), sound like it should have taken over the market. Customers loved them when the ran, but bankrupted most because of breakdowns. Alis Chalmers bought it and tried to solve the problems, calling the engine the 'BIG AL", you don't see many of them in trucks now do you? If it can't go the mile with the freight, all other stat's don't mean much.

You can add my name to the list of people who are cautioning against pushing it too far. I made my living with engines that were 30-40 years out of date, even though they were the Cummins 855, the most common engine used in trucks, there were some parts that took some time to find 40 years on. Most truck engine can go 15-20% over stock and keep together long term. Once you go much over that, you are asking for problems. Unless your customers are far different then mine, they never cared how big an engine I had, only that their freight got delivered when they needed it. I pulled load exceeding what you do, over some of the same passes you pull. Biggest problem when turning up engines is keeping them cool, both coolant and EGT. Pulling a long grade, you'll find it real quick. One of those track pulling engines wouldn't last a mile pulling a grade with a full load. If you want to build a truck to "play with" and have deep pockets, have at it. If you are building something to make a living with, then stay close to stock. My customers never cared that I pulled up in a 40 year old cabover with 380-430 Hp, (turned up 350's and 400's) just that I turned up on time. Customer isn't going to care you are 1st to the top of the grade, if it means you are broke down a lot of the time. Parts stash at home means little if you are on the side of the road with a loaded trailer and need to be towed. I worked train derailments with a 238 hp powered Fleetstar, and hauled 170,000lbs with 400 hp. It is far too easy to break things with high hp than low, I moved those 170,000lb loads through a 14 organic clutch!

Facet made electric fan clutches for trucks, My Marmon with a 3406B had one. Simple and worked, took utility trailer bearings and was easy to rebuild. Unfortunately parts are non existent. Namely clutch plate. Any Cummins 855 should be no problem fitting a Horton air clutch. The conversion will likely require a new fan and some plumbing, you might get lucky and be able to reuse the fan, but the mount an pulley will need to be changed. Electric motor driven fans just can't move enough air for a hard working big bore diesel.

Dash shift diagram say no, direct in 5th. Clark 5 speed I think. I had the same trans in a Fleetstar.

You are correct, and with the close up I can see where what I thought I saw was not what was. I apologize! If installed backwards it is very dangerous which is why I made an issue of it. Thank you for the close up to clear that up. I still think the off-set is going to cause a problem, with the king-pin inboard of the inner edge of the tire. That spider/hub was not made for floats, but at least it isn't on backwards. You can mount one backwards, but it will not seat on the spokes correctly and the wedges will be way out on the stud if the stud is long enough. Broken studs and a lost wheel is the result, which is why I made an issue of it. I've seen some crazy stuff done, and I was worried this was one. Again I admit it isn't what I thought and I apologize. Here is a Goodyear 20" rim assembled "backwards" on a steer hub, as you can see it will go on, and the wedges even go over the studs. I hope you can understand my concern was about safety.

I am not guessing, I could be mistaken about the front rims being rear, the picture isn't a close up enough to tell100% however, the fronts are clearly mounted to the hub backwards, placing the center of the tire outboard of the outer bearing. Look at the pictures of the other trucks you posted with floats on the front. in every case the center of the tire is not outboard of the outer bearing. I never said the rims weren't DOT approved, what I am saying is as set up on the steer they are wrong. On a proper set-up the centerline on the tire is between the two wheel bearing on the hub, this puts the center of rotation on the kingpin close to the center point of the tire (at the center point on center point type steering) To me the fronts look to have a double mount flange but I could be seeing the drop-center, the pic is taken from too far away. Look at all the pictures you posted of other trucks with floats then look at yours, they are not the same. In all cases in the above post the drop center gutter is on the INSIDE, yours in on the OUTSIDE.

Hard for my old eye to see, but it looks like the RRO may be mounted on the correct rim for the front, possibly the RFO also. What a mess, I wouldn't move it on its own without getting proper rims and tires in the correct positions. Front floats go on 12.25 or there about front spoke rims. rears can either be Super Singles, on the correct SS rims or duals, on 9" or narrower rims. With the rims that are now on the front, the C/L of the tire is OUTBOARD of the outer wheel bearing, which will make near impossible to steer, and will overload the outer bearing.

They look goofy because he has the wrong rims on the front, those are "super single" rims for the rear, Spoke wheels that use wide base (wider than 9") take different rims for front and rear. On wide base rims for the front, they have a single flange with the offest to keep the tire in the proper position over the bearing/spindle. Wide base for rear have a double flange with a space between them (to be like the spacer band) and center the wheel over the hub. He has rear, on the front, which moves the tire out, and not only looks goofy but isn't safe. Here is a pic of the correct front style wide base rim for spoke wheels.

Those are popular here also. Mostly all I'll be towing are the black trailer in the picture and a tow dolly for cars, both require about the same ball height and size so a single fixed drop works for me and about 1/4 the price of an adjustable drop. Only thing I own with a Lunette ring is a 1940 generator on wagon type trailer with steel wheels. I will not be pulling that on the road! Don't know how much it weighs, has a 525 CID Buda and is 62.5 Kva. Neat running gear, sprung on both axles, wheels are spoke with steel, I don't know if it was a bomb cart that was converted, or what.

I realized I never posted the finished product. 8" drop, could have gone another inch. Next drop from 8" would have been 10". You can see where the original ball mount was, far too high for most things I'll pull. I moved on to the carb, been rebuilding Zeniths and Carters. Made a big difference, starts an runs a whole lot better.

Put in a few 500 mile days in my 6-71 powered Fleetstar, yeah I know they didn't only get used in the city

I could be mistaken, I always understood the 'U" was for Urban, a short nosed tractor to maneuver in tight places like East coast cities. Much like the IHC Fleetstar. 2 cyl under the hood, 2 under the dash and 2 beside the driver!

tire | FMCSA (dot.gov) Here it is in print

Re gooved tires are prohibited, re capped are not. Re-cap are prohibited on passenger (bus) steer. It is in the federal (Green book) register. Smaller truck tires (lighter) up to a certain ply rating/ weight limit may be re-grooved, it the tire says "regooveable" . I went through the same CVSA course the truck-cops did, a few were in my class. That was in the book.

Long time ago on a different forum, someone was looking to mount a rack and pinion gear on an axle, he was told it was illegal to mount it there (not by me) and I took the man's word that it was not kosher to do so, as I had never seen it done in any road vehicle. It adds a lot of Monkey motion to the steering shaft, with the axle going up and down on the suspension and also moves it down lower to the road where it could get smacked. For those reasons I never questioned the "illegal" statement that was made, I should have because of the t nonsense I have heard as "illegal" in my time. Everything I worked on (Macks included) had the steering box on the frame. Too many spout the "Illegal" claim but can't back it up. Like recaps on the steer of a truck, no, it is not illegal. It isn't often done, but it isn't illegal. My bad, for not researching it.

Well, that is something I have not seen before, so I learned something new! I can see a whole bunch of reasons why it never was popular, but I believe you it was done.

Not so far out. I have heard and read about, heat exchangers and even running the pump water through the engine to keep it cool on long fires. If that truck at one time had some sort of heat exchanger, someone may have fitted a filler cap (neck) on an old hose connection when that equipment was removed.

My Fleetstar's of that vintage have S cam rear and wedge front. With it pulling badly on brake application, it could be an S cam out of adjustment by a lot, or it could be a frozen wedge, which happens more often. That isn't a low air switch in the lower line, it is a hyd brake light switch! I know it is new and you want to drive it, but please have someone who knows a bit about trucks come by and give you a hand. You get stopped on the road, and the result is likely a tow bill and a ticket. A single rear with no spring brakes and a 2 speed axle (or had one at one time)? So must have a driveshaft E brake? I worked on a school bus that was set up that way (air brakes but only driveshaft E brake), but that would be fairly rare. Most air braked trucks are required to have spring brakes, I thought the school bus was an exception (didn't want a school bus stuck on RR tracks because of an air problem). Early stuff, yeah they had air brakes and either drum or disk driveshaft brakes. I know most had to have spring brakes starting back in the 50's or 60's. You listed your location as USA, which isn't helpful, if you were near me, I'd drop by and at least get you started on what needs to be done. As it stands I have no idea what part of the country you are in.