7 Lug F250 ???

[k_williams1982]

I know that this is too new to be an IDI so I'm posting in the wrong section, but just curious if anyone has seen these before. I responded to an ad on CL for some wheels with tires and the guy responded back saying that they are 7 lug and on a '97 F250. I was sure it was a mistype, so I asked if he meant 8 lug and he replied saying that they are 7 lug and send this pic to prove it...

 

[icanfixall]

GBuy them... Thats just a plastic cover thats made to look good. You can ask the seller to remove the cover and count again... I bet he tells you there is 8.....

 

[Chevyboy_0]

I've seen these as well, the weird thing is they have the body of the f-150s, but they're badges as an f-250 and have 7 lugs... I don't know where they're from

 

[turbo_joe]

i have also seen these when i used to work at a tire shop, still dont know why they did that though

 

[The Warden]

I actually somewhat remember this...IIRC it was a light-duty F-250 built on the F-150 platform in 1998 (and maybe parts of '97 as well), before the SuperDuty came out. It was the only 1998 model year F-250 available. My guess is that they used 7-lug rims because they were using a lighter-duty wheel than what a true 3/4 ton truck would use, and didn't want you to be able to swap them onto a true 3/4 ton. Something like what GM did with using 5 lug rims on their 1/2 ton 2WD's and 6 lug rims on their 1/2 ton 4x4's (and IIRC lighty-duty 3/4 ton 2WD's)...

Can't hurt to have him look, but I think those really are 7-lug rims...

 

[MUDKICKR]

yes ford did make 7 lug rims, it was for a light duty f250 and i even saw a couple f150s that had 7 lugs.

 

[k_williams1982]

He said he removed the cover and there's only 7 lugs... First time I'd ever heard or seen them.

 

[david85]

Its true. When ford killed off the OBS trucks in 1996, they had no real 3/4 ton truck for a couple of years. The new F150 was modified as a stop gap measure to be a light F250 until the superduty was ready for sale. I would avoid those trucks as much as possible. They are not very common and getting parts would probably get harder in the years ahead.

Imagine that, ford not having a 3/4 ton truck but it happened.

The idea of splitting the pickup line into two seperate platforms was to offer a heavier work truck in the superduty, and a lighter 1/2 ton truck in the F150. Now the F150 today is basically a 3/4 ton truck anyway.

 

[Knuckledragger]

7 lugs. An abomination. 7 is the very worst number to use on any circle pattern. It cannot be evenly divided into 360 degrees, so the only reason to use it is because you can. Let the machines worry about splitting up the minutes and seconds of the angles. It is an insult to good design. Now I have to find one.

 

[k_williams1982]

What would be the tightening sequence of a 7 lug? It looks like the only way to tighten it "evenly" would be to go every other (tighten, skip one, and so on until you got back to the starting point).

 

[MUDKICKR]

ford did have the 3/4 ton trucks in 97 and 98. the f250 hd and f350 were obs and the f250 ld was new body sytle. i think ford was testing the waters on the new body style before they made every trk into the new body style. i beleive the new body style didnt go as they expexcted so they designed the super duty so it wouldnt be confused with the f250 ld body style. in 97 and 98 they offered a f150 hd which also had 7 lug bolt pattern. i almost want to say they made those ld f250s in 99 as well but i really cant remember.

 

[typ4]

the F150 today is just a crown vic with a box on the back, total POS.

 

[MIDNIGHT RIDER]

We run a big tire business and they are so rare that I have yet to actually see one.

I have seen many of the silly-looking seven-lug hub-caps, but those are on everything from a F-100 to a SRW-F350, regardless of lug-count.


I thought the seven-lug F-250 was just a myth, until I was shown pictures of wheels that did, in fact, have seven lugs.

I would say that, if one were to mothball one of those trucks, it would be quite valuable in another thirty years, just like the now-worthless all-wheel-steer Chevy/GMC trucks that are so easy to wreck.

 

[icanfixall]

Wozers and geepers.... I had no idea of this hermaphodite.... And I thought I knew better... Still learning I guess... Sorry for my bad information too....

 

[LCAM-01XA]

the F150 today is just a crown vic with a box on the back, total POS.

Hey, no dissing on the Panther platform, ya know how much abuse they can take? lol

And the weird thing is that while these F250s do indeed have 7-lug wheels, there are tons of E-series vans out there that run around with similar style 7-lug wheel covers, yet they do have 8 lugs under them - now what's the logic (or lack thereof) behind that???