DISC WHEELS FOR COMMERCIAL VEHICLES.
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CAST STEEL WHEELS solid with the hubs are very nearly universal in this country to-day on all but the lightest commercial motor vehicles, but there has not yet been manifest any sign of development in the direction of wheels of the solid disc type, a style of wheel which is beginning to come into some favour on touring ears mainly by reason of the greater ease with which they may be cleaned. In America the disc wheel for lorries is already beginning to make some headway, and we illustrate herewith two types of lorry disc wheel made by the Clark Equipment Co., of Buchanan Michigan. The first is a solid wheel for use on heavy lorries designed fo carry loads of from 3 tons to 5 tons, the wheels being cast solid with hubs and rims in an electric furnace and machined up afterwards. All wheels are made to S.A.E. standard rim dimensions, and, as shown in the illustration, the rear wheels, where required, are cast with bosses around their faces to which the gear rings for gear-driven trucks, or the chain rings for chain-driven ones, may be bolted .together with the brake drums.
The second type of disc wheel made by the concern is a pressed steel wheel, and is intended for use on trucks of from 1 ton to 2 ton load capacity. The design of these wheels is very simple A plain barrel hub is employed with flanges, and the two discs of pressed steel metal, with splayed inner edges, are electrically welded to both hub barrel and flange, as well as being bolted to the flanges. Separate brake drums, also of pressed steel, are bolted to the flanges of the driving wheel hubs. The flanges converse to the outer edge, and are then splayed out and electric e34 ally welded to standard S.A.E. rims. The sectional illustration shows the construction very clearly., all wheels being made to the lorry builders' speeifica tion. H.S.