For Hap, I had always thought that our Canadian sourced loose lug Kelsey 88 rims had flat bases and a solid land around the inside to locate the rim on the felloe. The Hayes branded fixed lug rims have a groove rolled into the base. We have loose lug rims just like this, with slots cut into the rolled section for the loose lug to engage.
Last week a T club member brought a rim and tyre up for me to show him how to mount the tyre, and I learned some more about T rims! His rim was Branded Kelsey 88, but it had a rolled in groove! I had never seen one like it.
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Allan, I have used both styles on the front of my TT. If you look closely at the rims with the slots, you will see that they are cut clear through, allowing a place for water to get inside of the rim. I sealed the slots with some RTV sealer before mounting the tires, just in case. Dave
David, We have the rims with slots which are cut right through too. They are usually in poorer condition due to water getting in and rusting, and having greater wear when the loose lug presses into the slot.
Until this Kelsey rim turned up, I had always thought the ones we had were Hayes rims, as the rolled in groove was the same dimensions as that in my fixed lug Hayes rims. However, in this Kelsey rim the rolled in groove is sharper and smaller in cross section than the Hayes rims.
I cannot see any reason why Kelsey would make a loose lug rim in two different ways. Unless, the rolled groove type with open slots as above was recognised as inferior, and they developed the flat based rims with solid locating ridge to cure the problem.
I watch with interest.
Allan from down under.
G'day,
I have Kelsey 30x3.5 on the '23 and Kelsey 21x4.40 on the '26 same as above. All made in Canada.
Peter
G'day,
Allan -- thank you so much for posting the excellent photos and information. Peter and David thank you for the additional comments and information.
By any chance has anyone seen any dates stamped into the Kelsey rims and/or felloes? If so, that might help us date when one or both styles were used.
And as noted at: http://mtfca.com/encyclo/U-Z.htm#wheels see: March 7, 1924 for USA production and according to the 1925 Canadian Ford Price List of Parts also, both the USA and Canadian Fords used fixed lug rims. I know for the USA that Kelsey produced some of the fixed lugs.
There is lots more still to discover. But it is much easier to make sense out of it as we share the information and compile it so we can compare the data.
Again thank you all and if anyone has additional wheel, rim, felloe etc. data we always welcome that sort of information.
Respectfully submitted,
Hap l9l5 cut off