Help my design rim that will work like a roller bearing to move frozen drum cars

Hi

I want some help on designing a full size tire/rim to roll a car with stuck drums ,

I am sure I am not the only one that can use the design ,

Since I often end up with "barnfinds" "yardfinds" "swampfinds" that have been sitting too long with stuck brakes or the rear axle is stuck,

I would just like to take off the tire / rim and install a "roller bearing " rim so I can move it and get it on the trailer,

one plus would be if it has a "real" rubber tire so it could be flat towed , but OK if only rolls to the trailer and up the ramp

So starting with a stock steel rim with the correct bolt pattern , or I could use an aluminum wheel , what would you do ?
We can cut, weld , machine the rim and add stuff to it like an outer "layer"

it also needs to be liftable (40 pounds or so) and close to the same offset so it will fit under the wheelwell.

and not so precision that a little dirt or mud will freeze it up

The Harbour freight wheel dollies will proably not work as they will not roll on dirt. gravel etc

one idea is the rim inner center with a thinner ring welded to it , then some "bearings" and a motorcycle tire / rim as the outer......

Maybe there is something used in industry that I do not know about that will work !

Thanks for your help

 

Look into tow hubs. Guys used to use them when flat towing a car to the drags.

 

towing hubs. Kev typed faster than I could find a picture

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Neat idea.

 

Towing hub plus a wheel, but of course on many cars you could not fit a wheel moved out that much. Perhaps carry two sets of wheels, one with some sort of minimal wrapping, one with real tires...or perhaps 1970's collapsible spares that could be blown to different diameters as needed.
A nice design feature of towing hubs is that the inner plate would be easy to drill for multiple bolt circles.

 

Never heard of tow hubs before, but now I totally want some! That would make it way easier than reinventing the wheel (literally). Those and some super skinny space saver style spares (for clearance reasons) and you could move anything!

 

These? ^^^

Here is a thread on slantsix.org where a guys had some made up for him...

http://www.slantsix.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=48189&sid=d9a9436c003f6795dad848b768200eb2

 

if you used tow hubs and a wheel from a modern car, you should be in luck.

most modern cars have wheels with a tremendous amount of back space. That will make up the difference of the offset of the tow hub.

another option is to use a mini-spare. They are narrow and also have mostly back space.

 

^^^^^^^

This, right here!

 

Or FWD wheels like Toros and Eldos

 

15 inch tire on a 14 inch rim, fill the tire with old softballs before mounting the tire.

 

Thanks for you ideas so far , I have a set of tow hubs areound here somwhere , but I think they will push the wheel out too much , and they do not make them in 205mm - 8 inch pattern ,

a long time ago I remember in an old OFF Road mag that someone welded spindles into old bolt-on wheel adapters, good idea if your wheel wheels or fender is not in the way, SEEMS THE LINK ABOVE READ THE SAME MAGAZINE !

I do like the idea of a 14 inch rim with a 15 inch tire , at least its an idea if you are away from home and need to cobble up something quick , wonder if softballs would work ?

I also thought of using 4WD locking / unlocking hubs for towing hubs , you could lock them if you needed to drive onto a trailer , park it etc

Anyway keep then ideas coming .....

 

You are talking of strange bolt patterns and whatnot. Also, if you go to grab a dirt-floor barn find with frozen drums, flats, etc, just getting the car jacked up and fighting with rusted lugs, etc... There is a better way if you will be hauling for years to come.

Get a decent strong trailer with the biggest winch you can afford. Hook a cable and quickly drag it up with 4 flat tires, 4 frozen drums, etc.

I am being forced to do this right now. I just don't have the strength I used to. Hook on to it and be done with it. Run a low snatch block at the rear of trailer to winch it off at your home.

 

OK....new idea , just to move it on the trailer, not drive it

14 inch rim, skinny 15 inch tire , put something on the rim so that spray insulation foam will not stick to the rim and spray foam into tire , grease / oil the rim so it will slide......

or take 14 inch rim , slice a 16 inch space saver rim and out it over the 14 inch rim , maybe put ball bearings between them so it rolls, weld the 16 inch rim back together over the 14 inch rim ......and put a 16 inch space saver tire on it.....

yes I can use brut force , I have a trailer and winch , but sometimes that will not work, or you cannot get it back to the car, the large bolt pattern I need is the same as Ford anglia and early Fords.......

 

I don't know what your terrain is like there. Out here, we usually have trees if a car is in a tight spot that can't be backed up to. We just put 100" 3/8 premium cable on a 10,000 Lb winch. We do have one 4000 Lb car, 4 flats, sitting under a damp barn for 30 years. Can't get a trailer backed up to it, so we will do a 90 degree pull to a tree about 30 feet away, using a snatch block.

We will pull it straight out 20' to clear the barn, then hook directly to the front end and literally drag the nose 90 degrees to face the trailer.

I just can't do the bull work in a big rush anymore. I am only wanting it up on deck with little effort, for the long drive home. Once I am home with decent tools and in no rush, it just seems more logical?

If yours was stuck between buildings with nothing to snatch to, then it is a bigger problem

 

don't forget the dish soap.

makes a wonderful lube on the ramps and trailer deck to allow stuck/flat tires to slide with ease

 

Get three young relatives, a tilt bed trailer, winch, jack and blocks of wood:

 

How about skis instead of tires? Just to get it onto your trailer. That would be easy to make. Just bolt a triangular plate (plywood?) to the axil, then attach a steel ski to the bottom of it.

Or, strap a ski to the wheel that's already there. Then you wouldn't even have to remove it. Weld a small loop for a tie-down strap to pass through to each end of the ski. That would fit anything.

(But you wouldn't be able to push it by hand or flat tow it, if that's what you're after.)

 

How about some form of this...
Edit: I tried to submit a picture of some parallel tow dollies. That's those little wheels you see on the back of the tow trucks. It shouldn't be too hard to make using the rear axle from some front wheel drive vehicle.

 

The tow hubs with front wheel drive wheels (lots of inward offset) or small skinny spare tires for clearance are good.

Or, you could use something like they have, or used to have, for tow trucks. A dolly with 2 8" or 10" wheels on each side connected by 2 pipes. Comes apart so you can jack up the back of the car, stick the dollies under the wheels, and connect together with the pipes.

Or, if you just want to load a car on a trailer there are those 4 wheel caster dollies for moving a car around in the garage. For soft ground you will need 4 sheets of plywood, or part sheets. Set the dollies on the plywood, winch toward the trailer, put the second sheet in front of the first, move the first sheet to the front etc.

I moved a car engine on a flat dolly with casters on it, over a gravel drive way using plywood, or aspenite scraps this way. It rolled as easily as over a cement floor.

 

um... wow?

 

You need to get a bigger winch and learn how to use it correctly with a block and tackle.

 

I put a motorhome up on an implement trailer with roller conveyor and a winch one time. I made plywood skis to fit under all 4 wheels, (dual rears) jacked up each corner laid the conveyor under the wheel, placed the plywood ski between tire and conveyor. It got a little complicated when going up the ramps, but I got it done, safely, by my self.
I've often thought a 2 wheeled dolly with a long tongue, so you could jack up one end of the car and balance the car on a pair of cross bunks would be handy. If possible make it bolt or pin together system so it would be easy to slide under the car then assemble.
Another idea I had was a trailer similar to what is used for hauling LP gas tanks. Basically an arch shaped frame with no floor in it. back it over the car, jack up the car, slide cross members over the side rails of the trailer and under the car, let the car down onto the cross members and drive away. Might be a trick keeping it under 100" wide and getting it around a full sized car.

 

If you want to get a car on a trailer with locked up wheels, get a winch and pull it on. It seems that you are going though a lot of work to get the job done.

I have loaded many dead cars with a hand operated cable winch. Now that I am older and lazier, I have a 9000 lb. harbor freight winch which will move anything that I have tried.

Don't have wheels on it? Use a floor jack under it and pull it on.

If you are bored and looking for things to reinvent, go for it.

Neal

 

Seems the tow truck industry has had this subject covered for the last hundred years or so..... From what I understand, they pick up cars that don't roll, maybe even daily. And they usually work alone. Except for the Lizard Lick Towing guys.

 

A tow hub is basically the same thing they use on the front of most modern rear drive cars and trucks these days. It's a hub assembly that bolts to a spindle with 3 or 4 bolts. Something like a 4th gen Camaro front hub assembly. Then all you need is a flat plate to fit your bolt pattern to go between your drum and the hub.
Here is another one for an all wheel drive GMC truck...this one isn't as thick and is 6 lug. If this type is used you would probably have to have a large bolt through the center though to hold the bearings together.

 

2nd that! That's how we have always loaded cars with frozen wheels. We have an electric winch big enough to drag just about any car on the trailer. We even drug a 42' Ford on the trailer without any front or rear suspension, just on the frame.

 

The hubs that txturbo showed is what I was thinking if you go by some shop that has some in the scrap pile you pick them up for a 6 pack if the bearings are just rough it will still work for loading and unloading but not going down the road. If you want to buy new look at some of the earlier ones say that fit a citation or similar and put a bolt through the middle of it to hold it together and they are cheaper.