Besides the obvious "it's a Ford part"...

Saw this beside me on the road today.




WTH ?! Ford Ignorance.

 

7 lugs ?

 

Are those lock washers behind regular nuts? That is nuts!

 

thats what i thought when i saw a craigslist ad for 7 lug ford wheels.i thought the guy was on crack.told a buddy of mine.both got a good laugh then about 2 days later he calls me and says there was a ford pickup in his work parking lot and it was missing one wheel cover.as he walked by he thought it looked odd and sure enough 7 lugs.guess you aren't putting any other wheels on them.

 

IIRC the 7 lug rim was a super odd ball like the 97ish F250 that had the 150 body style (ie not super duty)

most ford truck rims are 5, 6 or 8 lugs

 

That's the kind of ignorant incompatibility for no good reason that will prevent a country from progressing and doing the likes of winning the next WW.

Incompatibility with every other vehicle on the planet, for what benefit?

Over the 100's of years of vehicle development, we have 3 lugnuts for goofy little cars, 4 for many purposes, 5 works great, 6 is good for trucks, and 8 or 10 for Big Trucks, and these combinations work great. There is just no good reason for SEVEN.

Might as well offset 1 or two of the holes from identical, too, just to make sure it's as dificult as possible to use.

 

As we say at work when insurance companies make us use after market parts on damn near new cars involved in accidents ., "if it fits it ships " lol.

 

Apparently you don't remember the old Pontiacs, 1 of GM's better ideas.

 

That was for appearance, FORD was serious, but it only lasted 2 years I think.

FORD'S BETTER IDEA
Had a customer with one and the differential went out tried to find USED one NOT one anywhere in the south east, He wound up needing to carry 2 spares one for the front(7 lug) one for the rear(5 lug).

Johnny

 

I worked at a Ford/Mercury/Lincoln dealership. This is not uncommon for Ford. They make oddball stuff to force consumers to buy parts from them only in an attempt to corner the market. Their shenanigans are endless in this regard. Typically parts are only made for five years only also. This practically forces you to find an aftermarket supplier or buy a new car. Since the dealerships aren't allowed to hoard old parts it makes for a lot of pissed off people. Just seems a good way to shoot yourself in the foot as far as I'm concerned.
In my state they eliminated every Ford dealer except for two, Flood and Tasca. Tasca may bring back memories from the 60's for some of you.
Another good one was the Lincoln air ride suspension fiasco. They would always fail and parts totaled around 3k to replace. Napa stepped right in and made a replacement setup for 1k, smart move.
They were also known to buy out Ford parts suppliers further thinning the supply to ensure sales for their select dealers.

 

That's bizarre. I had no idea those existed.

I had a coworker decades ago when talking about Soviet military equip he used to say 'Yeah, some of their stuff is basically copied from some of ours, but it's crude with weird sht like 7 sided bolts & such'

I scoffed at the idea of any machinery having 7 sided anything.

Now I know he wasn't just BS'ing, but precient!

 

Yes those were on the 97-98 f250 LD model

 

try to find parts...my buddy owns a ford salvage yard...and that stuff is gold...and impossible to get

 

and just what pontiac wheels are you refering too?

 

prob pontiac 8-lugs

 

And old VW's had a huge 5? bolt pattern... but seven on a truck is stooopid, with 3 o's.

 

actually they were designed for nascar.they wanted better brakes and the aluminum drums disipated heat better.and they also had bigger brakes.my 66 catalina has 2 3/4 inch wide brake shoes on front.

 

From 60-68 super duty big cars, Kelsey Hays wheels. The part numbers for the drums changed 3 times, and the wheel size twice due to the width or fin angle. Plus the drums had RH or LH thread depending on the side of the car. Parts and some wheels would not interchange from the 60-62, 63-64, and the 65-68's. Front brake widths went from 3-3.25 wide from 65-68. The aluminum drums were from ambulances and limos, the big car super duty drums were not aluminum.

 

A buddy of mine is still running his 98 F250. It is strange with 7 lugs but it has 235000 miles on it. The new F150 hd still has 7 lug wheels!

 

the wheels will fit all the drums,the rear drums were all the same brake shoe width but the early 60-62 had short fins.and yes the 60-64 had left hand threads BUT my 63 olds fiesta wagon had left hand threads and dodge used em til clear up til the 70's.there is a company in the chicago area rj relining.they reline these drums.and when rebuilding the old 60-64 will replace the left handers with righty's

 

not to mention make ever other engine to transmission bolt pattern different. Oh and even within those make one different now and then. It is crazy trying to figure out what trans or bell housing will fit which engine. Plus making all the frame stands and motor mounts different.

But quality is job one
and they have better ideas.

 

The first thing I noticed was no dust cap or am I missing something.? Also when I was,younger I heard a guytalk about changing a tire and breaking all the studs. Then finding out that one side of the car had left hand threads I don't remember what kind of car it was seems like it might have been a dodge .
Railguy

 

Kind of defeats the countersunk locating mechanism.

 

The company truck I drove for several years was one of these. Caught me by surprise the first time I changed a flat tire. Both the 7 lugs and the funny washer thingy attached to the nut. Both are strange alright, but I put a lot of miles on that truck driving rough mountain roads. It held up fine. I agree with the comments that it will be tough to find replacement parts since there will be no interchange with other makes or for very many year applications.

 

1955 Olds (and probably other years) also had right and left hand threads depending on what side of the car you were on.