What is the story on these?Took forever to get the pic small enough to post
Beautiful! Reminds me of the timers with four rollers and four sets of points. All this was soon replaced by a small amount of ordinary air.
Actually Fred, I found a patented one of the same concept that had air. Appearently there were all kinds of things out there. Did anyone on the forum but them yet.
Hey! see.. http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/29/22974.html
The owner of the wheels has decided to put them up for bid on t-bay. Many of you will likely know the guy. He's one of the Iowa guys that's always at Hershey.
Tour America,
JC
I would be interested in hearing more about these wheels. Does he have a complete set? forda155c(at)yahoo.com
Looks like a wheel that buit in shocks.
There are two of them, both rear wheels.
Tour America,
JC
Uh it would be nice to know how they are listed or a number.
Very ingenious. Were wheels like this intended to eliminate the need for axle to chassis shocks, altogether? It appears that as the car hit a deep hole or rut, as were prevalent in roads of that time, the five (5) pair of small shocks would have allowed the hub to move up and down, or diagonally within the rim to take up the shock. Only danger I see is that whenever one or more of the ten (10) shocks eventually began to give out, some would weaken, leaving the ten shocks, all with different tensions, causing the hub to fail to center properly, thereby causing a wobble. If any of the shocks failed totally, there goes your support along with the wheel and rim, resulting in catastrophic failure. Thanks for sharing this curiosity, but I would not recommend ever using them on your car. Just hang them up and admire them for the thought and ingenuity that early entrepreneurs, specializing in after market accessories had, to take the risk, design, finance, put into production and market such devices. Jim
I rather doubt those are shocks - I figure they contain springs, more than strong enough to hold up the loaded car. Compression occurs only when wheel falls in a pothole?
The danger I see in using them would be damage to the pumpkin everytime it high-centered. Perhaps a skidplate was available to go with these wheels?
Seth
First of all Mack,
I don't believe that these have come up for auction yet. I just posted the picture and told the guy that there was an interest in the wheels.
I agree with both Seth Harbuck and Jim Patrick. No matter what type of compression shock is involved, those ten little buggers are bond to wear and fatigue at different rates. The result would be a grossly off-center wheel.
My biggest concern would be the side wobble. Each one of those joints from the rim to the hub is going to give a little and create quite a bit of side play. It could only get worse with time.
They'd probably work great right now in their present froze up position.
Tour America,
JC
Here is a 1920 patent illustration for a similar wheel, which according to the text uses, spring, "air" and fluid damaping in the shock absorbers. This is such a great "hang it on the wall collectable", I can't wait to see the bidding. Any bets on how little or how much they go for. What do you think the diameter is? In my umble opinion such a bad design. If there is enough interest in these patents, I can list the numbers for yaall.
I went through about 900 patents on the net and found about 25 or 30 wheel designs with many of the same idea but none that really looked like the subject wheel. The wheel here could be an early version of something that was changed a lot and later patented. If someone buys them it would be great to get a brand or stamped info. from the wheel. What pops out about the design is the parts count per wheel dooming them all to where this was found. Imagine adding 4oo more parts to the bill of materials (+100 for the spare) of the Ford if they were to use it. The low part count wheels are there but look scary.
I talked the gentleman on Saturday morning about these wheels and he said that one of his friends would be setting them up on T-bay Monday sometime.
http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT1106963&id=PsJTAAAAEBAJ&pg=PP1&dq=aug+11+ 1914+wheel#PPP1,M1
Sorry boys, I've got it figured out, they were designed by Sigmund Frued or perhaps his staff assistant
Edward R. Levy
Everyone is missing a glaringly obvious point here, the T was a cheap economy auto, these wheels are amazingly complicated, expensive and well thought out - military perhaps, and not just for absorbing rough road bumps?
The inertia of these heavy objects must have been tremendous, taking all of the braking power of a small drum setup to stop the outfit let alone the rest of the vehicle - unless the unit was designed for low speed operation.
There were spring loaded wheels but not nearly as complex as these, some had just a twist of spring steel instead of spokes.
Of course there were also dreamers who patented things with no logical attachment to the real world. They had fun nonetheless.
VICTOR
Nick Google patent site is pretty cool. Have not found anything T related, have you?
They were used for hauling nitroglycerine in WWI.
Uh what is the michelen tire made for ? I sent a copy of that photo to a friend who used to work at michelin to see what he may know.
Ok here's another example of a cool wheel. So I wonder how you would figure unsprung weight on this one?
Ebay auction is done today, only 7hrs left.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Model-T-Ford-rear-wheels-shock-absorbing-rare-rat -rod_W0QQitemZ330075979467QQihZ014QQcategoryZ43960QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem