wagon wheel repair

[littlebow]

the steel rim on my wagon has come lose and I was wondering if anyone has any idea’s on how to fix it . I had thought about putting it in the creek for a couple of days , ant thought would help . thanks

[jac]

Hi.. Puting your wheel in the creek will unfortunatly only be a temporary solution. What actualy happens with these old wheels is the tyre/rim gets rolled bigger as well as the wood shrinking slightly. I remember my grandfather saying they used to drape wet sacks over the wheels or do as you sugest and roll them into the duck pond but either way sooner or later they had to go to the blacksmith for a “cut and shut” job.. effectively cut a small piece out and weld it again then reheat it and shrink it on again
John

[OldKat]

Unfortunately, I think John (JAC) is right. About 25 years ago, when I had driving horses before, I had a spring wagon that had the steel tires on the wooden wheels that kept coming loose. I did the soaking thing and it helped a little, for a few months. Then I drilled the tires out everywhere that a bolt came through the tire and the wheel felloes & replaced them with a larger stove bolt that I counter sunk into the steel tire (that stuff is harder than a wood peckers lips, by the way).

That allowed me to suck the felloes back up to the tire, but it allowed the spokes to loosen in the felloe a little; not good. I used it that way for about a year, but was never comfortable that I wasn’t going to blow out a spoke. I then took the wheels to a shop that rebuilt wheels and had the whole tires replaced with a rolled channel tire that has a solid rubber tire drawn into it. I also replaced the box in the wheels with one that has roller bearings instead of bushings and cut the steel axles and welded stubs on that would accept the bearings. Did the last two things myself. Came out pretty slick.

Wish I could tell you that it has worked well every since, but about two weeks before I finished repainting the whole thing all three of our horses were struck by lightning and killed. I never used that rig. I still have it sitting up on blocks in a shed, guess I ought to get it out and see what 25 years of storage has done to it.

[littlebow]

thanks , yep I read that soaking is only quick fix , so I drove a wood shim between the fello’s , seem’s to have work till I have the time to take them off . thanks again

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