Nick Johns Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 Ideas what this was for, ..eliptical rear wheels?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
les freathy Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 I reckon it belongs on the fairground Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Runflat Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 Looks like a walking beam arrangement between middle and rear wheels - presumably to keep the main body tub at the same height? But are opposite wheels kept in the same alignment to stop the thing rocking from side to side? If so, then presumably no differential? So, good at going in a straight line! Nightmare. The eliptical wheels presumably have the effect of continually transferring ground pressure from middle to rear and back again. Is the theory that this will help reduce slipping wheels on, or tendancy to dig into, soft ground? What's it for? Probably an amusing experiment for those boys in the development shed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Farrant Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 Ideas what this was for, ..eliptical rear wheels?? Nick, I thought that tractor looked familiar, it is based on the Allis Chalmers M7 snow tractor built for US Army. The idea was to change the ground pressure applied to aid traction, the rear wheels gear so that when one axles wheels were vertical the others were horizontal. Just found a link; http://www.geocities.com/grnegnham2001/M7_VARIANTS.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fv1609 Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 It's one of these: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andreadavide Posted December 5, 2008 Share Posted December 5, 2008 I can only imagine the damage done (by swearing) to the immortal souls of the poor people who had to fit the round tyres on the elliptic wheels, they aren't even of the split type... Andrea Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick W Posted December 5, 2008 Share Posted December 5, 2008 I was just about to say i wouldnt fancy changing the tyre on those wheels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bodge Deep Posted December 5, 2008 Share Posted December 5, 2008 Is it a test bed for tyres? Thrashing that thing round for a few miles will test the rubber pretty thoroughly..? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrian Barrell Posted December 5, 2008 Share Posted December 5, 2008 It was an attempt to improve the off road capability of wheeled vehicles using eliptical wheels. The theory was that they would 'walk' over the ground rather than just roll but it required that the wheels on each side be driven in the configuration shown i.e. one vertical and one horizontal to even out the pitching effect. I believe it was not overly succesful. There was a feature in Wheels and Tracks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Batchelor Posted December 5, 2008 Share Posted December 5, 2008 Interesting, we took our Pioneer out once to a show and a chap told a story of trialling these elliptical wheels, somewhere in the Andover area in WW2 period, can't remember where he said excatly. This idea was among some other weird and wonderful ideas. He sketched the idea out but I'd never seen a picture til now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fv1609 Posted December 5, 2008 Share Posted December 5, 2008 These pictures are dated December 1950 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Johns Posted December 6, 2008 Author Share Posted December 6, 2008 So now we know...last time I saw wheels like that they were on the remains of an airdrop Landrover which the parachute had failed ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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