pic: 179 Is riding on 4.5"

[Swampdude]

Originally Posted by Billfred

I just found this thread again, and I remember how effective they were (grumble grumble ). Out of curiosity since the picture of the wheel doesn't make a means obvious, how were the wheels driven? Live axles? Dead axles? Custom hubs? Fairy dust?

better view
Yes the wheels ran on dead axles. We welded a flange to the hub of the rim and had to clean out the Id (from weld deformation) on a lathe to re-seat the bearings back in there. The flange and sprockets were 3/16" aluminum cut on a waterjet. One thing I liked about these was that you could squeeze the bearings by tightening the wheel shaft, and not cause binding - so the wheel spun freely. The dual sprocket wheels just used spacers and longer bolts off those same flanges. Very heavy duty wheels, I'd like to do that again.