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Stockton Wheel Service
History
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Continued
Stockton
Wheel was established in 1883 by the Holt brothers, who moved to
Stockton from San Francisco because the weather on the bay would not
allow the wooden wheels they built to properly cure. They earned a
nationwide reputation for outstanding quality and innovation, building
strong, dependable wheels and developing solutions for special
applications.
One of the problems they solved was that much of the fertile loam in the
Delta area couldn't be properly farmed, the spongy peat soil would not
support a tractor. Even horses wearing special one-foot wide shoes would
bog down.
An early attempt to solve this was a tractor with six, 6-foot wide drive
wheels on the rear axle. This behemoth would travel on the bog all
right, but they couldn't get it to the fields. At 46-feet, it was too
wide to cross the bridges that dotted the Delta.
Years earlier, an English inventor had been experimenting with a
track-laying vehicle, but it had big problems. It couldn't turn.
Benjamin Holt took that abandoned concept and made it work. He called
his new machine the "Caterpillar Tractor." Maybe you've heard of it.
Stockton
Wheel is still solving problems for their customers. Now their
concentration is on custom designed wheels for street rods, and doing it
right. Anybody can weld a wheel, all it takes is a welder. You can even
do it out of your house. The trick is to make sure it's round when
you're through and that it stays together after you put it on your
vehicle. It helps when you're committed to do the kind of job you would
want for your own car.
The crew at Stockton Wheel have a vast knowledge of wheels. It's hard to
stump them when you ask what the OEM wheel was and what were the options
for a specific car. They will build a wheel to your specs, but if you
want it authentic, they are the authorities.
If you're building a street rod or "restoring" some street muscle, you
owe it to yourself to give Frank a call. You don't have to settle for
the wrong wheels just because they're close to right.
SWS
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