13 replies to this topic

[Jocke P]

Can someone help me ID these Wheels?



...and if possible what kind of rubber is moulded on to them...

Rubber is very grippy and develops flat spots if I have the car standing on its Wheels for a while.

Not sure what thread gage, but the axle is 1/8

What front Wheels would be used for this type of Wheel?

Thanks

[don.siegel]

Jocke,

 

Those seem to be silicone wheels, perhaps AJ's, although they don't really look like it... could be from any one of a number of period manufacturers. The flat spots are pretty typical, for this or any other type of tire in fact. But many silicones still work after 40 years, which is not the case for spongies.

 

For the front wheels, anything you want that match this type of tire! Probably at the time it would be a small diameter o-ring type, like Riggen or Champion...

 

Don

[airhead]

  the thread will probably be 5-40

[Jocke P]

Thank you, I expected the rubber was silicone, no other substance lasts that long...I Think they would look great on a 1:24 Lotus 49, but I will have to put new rubber on them.

[Jocke P]

When were the threaded hubs phased out? ....and when did the silicone tires become available?

[Steve Okeefe]

Jocke,

 

Serious racers began to move away from using threaded hubs (on threaded axles) beginning around the middle of 1965.  This of course was in large part dependent on the actual availabilty of other types of hubs.  The ratio was probably about 8 or 9 out of 10 using threaded hubs, and the rest using either set screw or "Posi-Lock" type hubs.

 

By the end of 1965, the ratio had dropped to about 2/3 of all serious racers using threaded hubs, and almost all the rest using set screw hubs.  Please note these are estimations based on race reports, columns and general articles in various slot racing magazines; I don't think ANYBODY really knows the exact amounts (I surely don't).

 

The 1966 R&C races, which were commercial, highly competitive and well documented by their sponsor, helped accelerate the trend away from using threaded hubs, and by the middle of 1966, the ratio had shifted to something like 2/3 set screw hubs and 1/3 threaded hubs.

 

By the end of 1966 the ratio of use in commercial racing was probably something like 4/5 set screw hubs, and 1/5 threaded.

 

Wheel manufacturer Riggen required their sponsored team members to use (of course) Riggen wheels, which in the beginning of 1967 were still threaded.  So, when John Cukras, who was driving for Team Riggen in April of 1967 won a national race sponsored by Car Model magazine, he did it on threaded wheels.  But that was pretty much the last hurrah.  By the middle of 1967, virtually no one was still using threaded wheels on their serious slot racing cars; it was all set screw wheels.

 

In contrast, it should be noted that the use of threaded wheels on various Ready-to-Run (RTR) cars and kits (not intended for serious commercial racing) persisted through at least 1968.

 

Hope that helps!

[don.siegel]

Steve, from my experience, I think you way over-estimate the number of racers using set-screw wheels. 

 

True, the really serious guys were using them by 65 or 66, when they were available, but I think most of us didn't use them until at least 1968 - I pretty much stopped serious racing in mid-68, as a typical neighborhood racer, and I don't think I was using set-screw wheels at the time; probably still mostly using the Riggen threaded models. 

 

What the hot guys in SoCal, or the serious Midwest club racers (Peter Hagenbuch was recommending setscrew wheels pretty early) used was one thing - what we were using in the raceways was another. I would say more like 9/10 threaded until 68.... 

 

Don 

[BWA]

I believe Russkit was the first Commercial Slot Car kit manufacturer to use set screw wheels almost exclusively from a very early period in it's kits.

[don.siegel]

Yep, absolutely Al - even their first kits of the Ferrari and Cooper F1 cars had setscrew wheels on the back - but threaded jobs on the front. That was early 65. After that I believe they were all setscrew... 

 

The first ones I remember reading about in the Racing MIdwest column were from a small manufacturer called RVM I believe. Probably just in 1/32 at that time for the local market. 

 

Actually, besides Russkit, can't think of another major manufacturer that used setscrew wheels - well, there was Tamiya in Japan, but their rears had the set screw in the middle of the wheel to save space on sidewinder models. There must have been some others from the 60s, before they became common, but can't think of any offhand.. K&B had the posi-lok wheels in 65 or so... 

 

Don 

[olescratch]

When I build a chassis, I continue to use threaded axels with nuts, never ( I know never say never) had one come loose yet.  If the axels using set screws don't have flats, you will strip the screw trying to keep them from coming loose.  Just my 2 cents.

[Bill from NH]

John, wheels held on axles with set screws will run truer than wheels run on threaded axles using jam nuts. I never run an axle without flats when using set screws. A flat increases the surface area for a set screw to "bite" into. A Dremel with an abrasive disk is the easy way to make a flat, but you can buy axles with flats too. I ran mostly threaded axles when I started slot racing in the late 60s. Today, I might use them on vintage cars.

[Hworth08]

We used threaded wheels till the anglewinders in late summer of '68.

 

Sort of a local thing maybe but our Milli Miglia fiberglass track got very messy with glue so only Tiger Milk was allowed. AJ's and Riggen made 7/8ths X 7/8ths tires that worked best but only with threaded wheels. The wider tires really helped.

[Jocke P]

Thanks guys, I Think these rims would look great on a Lotus 49, but I will have to change to cell rubber as no Silicone tires are allowed.
Lets see if I can throw something together that fits the Danish requirements...

[BWA]

Auto Hobbies was also an early purveyor of setscrew wheels, but, I believe only 3/32 axle, 1/32 scale sizes.