Wooden spoke auto wheel I.D. help?

beaverislander

beaverislander

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I am hoping one of our distinguished seniors can I.D. these for me.
I was in the process of getting an old trailer made from a car axle road worthy and as I was taking the bald tires and nasty rims off some family members showed up and gave me a mild chewing out. They are wooden spoke wheels and everyone seemed to think that I should restore them and put them back on with new tires. I started searching the internet hoping to see what they came off of but can not find the answer. I did find a better picture than what I took but they have 6 lugs, mine are 5 (the green ones.) Does anybody know what they came off of? The hub caps say Chrysler, and I have no reason to doubt that they aren't original. Mine have 15" tires on them.
Thanks.
Edit-Looking closer, I don't think that 2nd pic is of the same wheel, the spokes look longer.
 

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I'm not certain- before my time, but the last wood wheels produced as production on American cars was 1932 or 1933.

Certainly could have be a Chrysler.
 
While the hub cap says Chrysler something, I've not seen one that looked like that. I owned a 1929 model 75 Chrysler with heavy wooden artillery wheels, as they were known, and they didn't look like these. The wheels are definitely not a pair.

I'm sure an old timer older than me will I.D. them though.

LTC
 
I just checked and the cap says "Chrysler Six"

The second wheel was a mistake, I should not have posted that pic nor referred to it. I jumped the gun so to speak :-)
 
Like poster # 3 above I once had a '29 Chrysler Phaeton with wooden spoke wheels, but the wheels were 19 inch diameter, and the rim width was only about 3 inches. The front hubs attached to the axle the same as the old time horse drawn wagons and buggies with a large hex nut...They looked nothing like yours and I would guess the age of yours to be at least into the mid thirties. Regards
 
If you are planning on using the trailer I think it would be foolish to try and reuse the wodden spoked wheels.
 
I dunno... The green one still appears to have wooden spokes. Look closer at the area where the (obviously owner applied) paint has either peeled or worn off. Looks like Ash or Oak to me. And look inside the metal center. Appears to be wood spokes radiating from there.

Anyway... I'm old, but not that old. My first recollection of automobiles was a 1949 Chevrolet 4 door, that my mother owned.
 
From the photo it is impossible to even see that the green wheel is wooden. A trick I learned years ago, after loading and then driving 10 hours through a blinding snow storm, an abandoned brass bed I found in an alley, was when the antique scrap metal buyer pulled a 10 cent magnet from his pocket and stuck it to my prize brass bed. "Ain't brass son, it's iron and I don't buy junk. Get it outta here". That bit of wisdom has saved me countless hours of unnecessary toil and humiliation ever since. If nothing else it would end the controversy here.
 
A picture of the back side of the green wheels would quickly tell whether they are stamped steel or wood spoke. They look like steel to me, and the style and number of lugs is reminiscent of Chrysler products. Most car companies went through wood spoke to wire spoke to stamped steel, although a few used steel discs at one time. Studebaker was using 5 lugs in 1929 on their optional wires spoke wheels.
 
I had some old 15" Chrysler rims that were widened and reversed. They were '50s vintage. All steel.

My point? The old Chrysler rims were the same large bolt pattern as older Ford trucks. That might help to date them...or not.
 
If they were mine I'd find a way to list them in websites for auto restoration people or collectors of automotive memorabilia, and use other wheels for your project. It's conceivable they could bring a nice price to the right collector or restorer.
 
what is throwing me is the fact that they are 15" rims. The green one looks like a 33 dodge, the natural one looks like a 32, but they would be 16" rims. Last year for wood spoke for chrysler corp was 1933.
 
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Close up pictures added

Tires are MultiMile '78' 8.15/8.25-15 G-78-15
I have included more pictures. There can be no douby that the center portion of these are made out of wood, with the outer and inner rim being metal.


<a href="http://smg.photobucket.com/user/beaverislander/media/IMAG0905_zpsc54f7ca5.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v625/beaverislander/IMAG0905_zpsc54f7ca5.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMAG0905_zpsc54f7ca5.jpg"/></a>
 

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I am looking at this kind of like shouldazagged does. While I really don't care what the wheels/tires look like on a utility trailer I would hate to further beat up something that could be important to someone else. I think maybe I'll just take the old tires off the wheels and see how much work it would be to strip them down and see what is left of them. The wood actually looks very solid. My curiosity has been peaked and I would still like to know what they were off of. Maybe I just have to much time on my hands.
 
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