Wheel sizes 1/24th & 1/25th

[CRUSADER2]

Ok guys, I suppose this question has been asked a 100 times before, long before I joined this forum though, and I know I could probably find the answer on the internet but I thought I would use this world wide bank of information and experience that exists here. The question is, would fitting 1/24th scale wheels to a 1/25th scale truck roughly give a 22.5 wheel size? Another question that has puzzled me for years is why did we end up with two different scales in the first place? When I first started modeling trucks back in my teens I am sure everything was 1/25th, luckily most of trucks I want to build are still available in 1/25th. Last question! did most American trucks run on 22.5's through the 70's and 80's? The reason I am asking all these questions is that I am currently building a MARMON coe using the Revell Marmon/Peterbilt kit and the tyres are horrible and I want to change them and the wheels for something more realistic and I notice that there are some really nice ones in 1/24th,    cheers all, hope you can help.

[KJ790]

Italeri's 1/24 scale rims are slightly out of scale and actually measure out to about 23.5" when scaled up in 1/24 scale. If you convert that to 1/25 scale they are close to 24.5" rims. I have seen it done a few times and it looks fine on a 1/25 scale truck.

[Force]

Most European trucks ride on 22.5 inch wheels, on US trucks 24.5 inch seems to be more popular than 22.5 inch, at least on the long haul tractors, and these are for tubeless tires.
Back in the day when we had tube tires with split rims the sizes were 20,  22 or 24 inch.
For modeling purposes we have to have rims that fit the available tires and as Kurt say, the 1:24th scale Italeri wheels are closer to 24.5 than 22.5 in 1:25th scale, both he (Double Take Replicas) and Jamie at Mo'luminum Truck Parts has very nice resin wheels and tires that look far better than the Revell wheels, some might be out of stock from time to time but they usually returns, Auslowe Model Accessories also have nice wheels.

Why we have 1:24 and 1:25 scale...well you have to ask the manufacturers, 1:24 is more popular with the European and the far east manufacturers and 1:25 is more popular with the US manufacturers...the "exception to the rule" was Monogram who did the models in 1:24th scale.

[leafsprings]

4 hours ago, CRUSADER2 said:

 Last question! did most American trucks run on 22.5's through the 70's and 80's? 

IMO, most trucks in the 70's ran the 20" or 22" 2 piece rims. Most all AMT kits from the 70's came with 20" 2 piece rims. In the 80's, IMO, it was pretty much 50/50 split between 1 piece 22.5" and 1 piece 24.5". There were always exception to the rule, but they were  in much smaller numbers.

Edited June 3, 2018 by leafsprings

[Force]

AMT did both 20 and 22 inch rims for their truck kits, the White Freightliner, Diamond REO, White Road Boss, White Western Star, and Autocar kits have 22" rims on 11.00-22 tires and the rest has 20" rims on 10.00-20 tires, later reissues can have the slightly larger 11.00-20 tires from the ERTL truck kits...all are split rims for tube tires.
The exception is the Kenworth K100 Aerodyne COE wich has one piece tubeless disc wheels and either 11.00-22 tires wich are reused from the older kits with 22 inch rims, or the Tyrone Malone Bandag tires with no size markings depending on kit...the Malone race trucks also have different wheels than the other AMT kits.

Edited June 3, 2018 by Force

[vincen47]

These days, I believe 22.5” rims are far more common than 24.5” rims on modern US trucks. In the 80’s you’d see a pretty equal amount of 22.5” and 24.5” wheels.

Edited June 3, 2018 by vincen47

[vincen47]

Moebius rims scale out really close to 22.5” in 1/25 scale, if you’re looking for that size of modern Alcoa style wheels. 

[CRUSADER2]

Thanks guys for all the info, sounds like 1/24th wheels will be fine as long as I keep away from Italeri tyres, Auslowe do seem to have the most options as I would like to fit super single's on 6 spoke wheels, but M&G Mouldings have a few options two.

Just got to make a decision,   thanks again all. 

[Force]

The later Italeri tires aren't bad as they are one piece rubber, the old plastic two piece ones isn't that desireable.