AN AGRIMOTOR WHEEL OF HEXAGONAL FORM.
Page 11
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
THE Balude non-skid wheel is designed to prevent wheelslip in agricultural tractors when travelling over very soft ground. The difficulty in designing a non-skid tractor wheel is to find something which will be efficient in mud or soft earth and, at the same time, will not be destructive to road surfaces when the machine is travelling to or from its work. The Balude wheel consists of a broad hexagonal rim, across the facets of which ridges are placed diagonally.. These ridges are in the form of segments of a circle; the ridges being trapezoidal in section.
At first sight it would appear that the machine would progress in a series of violent 'bumps, if, indeed, it were this to progress at all. But, as each of the segments is a portion of one complete circle surrounding the hexagon, the wheel simply rolls along as if running on a smooth iron tyre. When working on soft ground the ridges sink into the earth and prevent sideslip, whilst the hexagonal form of the rim gives tremendous leverage and a. good fulcrum or holding of the ground at the angles of
the facets. One would imagine, however, that this type of wheel is only suitable for exceedingly powerful tractors.