Not all 2 piece wheels are dangerious only those that split in the middle. Those are bad news becauuse you can not see when they correctly locked or not ,you REALLY need to know what you are doing to work on those. The reason you just can not weld them is you could not mount a tire because you do not have a drop in the middle for the tire bead to sit in while mounting . All multi piece wheels are know as FLAT base wheels because they do not have or need the drop in the center to mount the tires.
They aren't dangerous driving wise, they are and always have been dangerous to the guy changing the tire on one. Get careless airing one up and it can come apart and cause serous harm to you if not kill you which has happened more than once. In the early 70's in Waco Texas we lost the guy who a lot of us bought our tires (especially used tires) and rims from when he had one come apart when he was airing it up and it took the top of his head off. Even then a lot of shops didn't want them in the shop anymore and those that did often had cages that you aired the tires up in that had the the bars in the cages bent all out of shape. The real problem with them now is that the ones that are still around are quite old, possibly damaged by rust or by improper tire changing in the past or other reasons.
They call them 'Widow Makers' if they are a true 2 piece split rim. They take a tube and a flap and the way the tire is mounted and dismounted is by splitting the wheel in two. I don't know if you are thinking like mounting a tire on the rim like a modern tubeless and that is why you are thinking about welding one up? Take the money from the sale of the s**** wheel and invest it in a modern wheel and tire....cheap insurance in my book.
Thank you mr. Now with all due respect,Im not.thinking of welding anything. It came up in a conversation,I said that it woukd be impossible for the machine to force the thick walled tire over the wheel. The split wheel's outer lip seems to be thicker that a regular 1 piece wheel of same kind. But the suggestion seemed valid,,but too easy to be safe. I already bought 2, 1 piece wheels and looking for the other 2. Although I heard of a shop that still works on these 2 piece wheels. They are dangerous but !Oh they look good!!
most all truck tire shops will not touch them at all , they actuallty will talk the owners into buying newer safer rims , when I did tires when I was younger I remember chaining the tire and rim and deflating them before removing them off the hub of the truck even the 2 peice outer ring ones are dangerous too . do your self a favor , s**** them and buy a drop rim and when you do cut a corner out of the rim so it cannot be reused .
They are not inherently dangerous IF 1 the parts are in good condition and 2 the person doing the job KNOWS what the hell they are doing. A few years back I was collectin BIG trucks [semi tractor size] and did all my own tire work .One place I worked at sold big truck wheels so I had access to litature on proper procedures to safely work on them. You also need to reconise damaged parts when you see them and be SMART enough not to used them. A bit of knowledge and a good dose of common sense is good to have no matter what you are working on.
Thank you Sir! I must be doing some right as I have made 69 + years screwing around with dangerious stuff . No bubble wrap for me ! LOL!
Changed many of the 2&3 piece rims in my younger days working at a truckstop. Done right they are no more dangerous than putting a bigblock in a hotrod and not running front brakes,and that happens right here on the Hamb. Back in the day when you had a blowout with a tubed tire at least it didn"t explode like the tubeless **** running today.
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