----- Original Message -----
From: "Ryan M Gill" <rmgill@mindspring.com>
To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2001 5:07 PM
Subject: [MV] Two Piece Wheels?
> Ok, ferret related question here folks.
>
Well, not just Ferret, bolt-up two piece wheels are standard in the UK mil
for fighting vehicles. This isn't to be confused with lightly modified
civilian standard trucks used for regular road transport.
>What sort of issues have
> people found with the military two piece wheel hubs? A conversation
> with my roommate resulted in some interesting dangers of the things
> being professed by him.
>
Nowhere near as dangerous as the split ring devices, plus you can do a tyre
change in the field without the histrionics of safety cages, chains and the
like. The main danger is for the colour-blind who cannot recognise the red
nuts. The CMP vehicles produced to WD requirements are also bolted, two
piece rims.
The issues seem to be the ease of handling, I have personally removed and
re-fitted several 14.00 x 20 non-runflat on bolted rims and they are so
easy, the larger sizes have proportionally more leeway and just fall off the
rim with minimal persuasion. The only trouble is the sheer size and weight
of the tyre, dropping it squarely onto the back rim is awkward single-handed
and lifting the assembled wheel to vertical isn't easy.
> It would seem that if your bolts are in good shape and torqued down
> right you should be fine. Add to that the fact that if you don't
> inflate the wheel with the bolts missing you should never really have
> a problem (aside from separating a wheel that didn't want to separate
> the bead from the wheel...).
>
The bolts are actually retained studs and even with several missing, but not
adjacent, the rim will hold.
The main reason for the two-piece rim is the Army use of run-flat tyres, you
will notice a Ferret, for instance, has the nomenclature R.F.H.S.2. moulded
in the side wall. Picking an unmounted tyre up it immediately becomes
obvious that the tyre is exceedingly heavy for a smallish 9.00 x 16, the
side walls are 1 1/2" thick to the tread. There is a very thick bead
spreader fitted being several inches thick of hard rubber like a giant flap
that stops the beads moving from the rim and a smaller than normal tube is
fitted owing to the volume taken up by the exceedingly thick side walls and
spreader. You may well find most Ferrets driving around on 0 - 10 psi
actually in the tube.
The two piece bolted rim is about the only way these runflat tyres can be
fitted as the spreader has to be compressed slightly, the British military
seems to have standardised on them for all wheels on specialised or combat
vehicles from before 1939 to the present.
Richard
Southampton - England
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