Antique Axle - What are these off?

Currently on Brisbane Marketplace. What a beautiful set of wheels. What are they off (the owner does not know)/

Lang

Make good garden art

Very unusual curved spokes and then as duals. Solid cushion tyres as they are known in the industry and new woulod still be available. Interesting brake set up too from what I can see.

Quite a striking setup. Surely with effort like that in the design there would be a symbol or writing to give away their history.

Hard to be sure without knowing the size. The hub caps indicate a lighter truck so I would suggest a 2 ton Albion -eg LB24

'Cushion rubber" tyres were introduced in the 20's but were not that common as they had a low mileage expectancy. They had hollows within the tyre to provide a bit of bounce. These ones are solid rubber, obviously well worn.

email sent Lang

Definately British ie. English or Scottish. I have seen the same pattern on a truck many years ago but have forgotten the make. If not Albion then Leyland or Thornycroft, just possibly Dennis. With the internal brakes, I would date them to around the First World War period but could be from about 1910 to early 1920's.
These do not look like Cushion Rubber to me, I think they are the much more common Solid Rubber tyres. These were arguably the only tyre available until pnuematic tyres were developed. Solid rubber tyres are still used today in certain applications, some forklifts, Hot Mix asphalt spreaders etc. These ones are earlier than dual wheels, they have two rubber tyres on one wheel.
They are too unusual to let them go for scrap and should be saved but having said that, I have many items I have saved, only to find no interest in them from anyone else. For example Yellow Knight truck parts, Thornycroft trucks, early Morris Commercial engine, and a bit of other stuff.

There is nothing new under the sun. Ford Focus wheels.

Hi Morris, this style of tyre is known in the industry as a cushion tyre and yes it is solid rubber all the wy through. The construction is tread rubber and available a smooth, smooth crowned and treaded. I worked with forklift tyres for 10 years and went through the tyre manufacturing plant in Ireland watching them being compounded, laid up and cooked.
I know the term 'cushion' does not sit well when you do a cross section of these tyres but they do use a slightly softer copmpound inside the tyre that the tread. Tread rubber measures 68-72 Shaw "A" reading and the core measures 58-70 Shaw "A" reading. It is that silly slightly softer compound that gave them the name 'cushion'
Later in time they started updating the copounding in the manufacture of 'solid' rubber tyres. These are the ones that look like pneumatic tyres and fit onto a flat base rim even standard type spring flange truck rims of the correct width. These used a harder rubber where they sit on the rim, the new upgrade went very soft in the core of the tyre and standard tread compound on the outter circumferrence of the tyre. I sold sets of tese into PGH at Punchbowl Sydney as the management were tre of down time with punctures. The Union were not happy and refused to run 'solid tyres' so after we fitted the tyres we glued some valve stems in place. They worked them for a few months before the glue let go on the fake valve stem and was noticed that there was no punctures happening so the drivers were working full shifts. Once the penny fell there was no going back as they had been working very well and no complaints about bad backs and they got to work full days on their shifts which made me a bad boy each visit.

Cobba, thanks for that inside knowledge which is very instructive. In the context of the hard rubber truck era we are talking about different albeit similar animals. Currently there are two expert company's plus others in the UK offering new rubber for traction engines and trucks and none of them use the technology you refer to, nor do they use the original system of a bonding layer of hard material between steel band and rubber. An American firm does use a mould for the vulcanising and they look great but only in one USA size. Some people in the UK are now using polyurethane as it costs about half but does have issues related to heat build up. Possibly the difficulty of technology transfer lies in the ratio of circumference/tyre thickness.

There is a mob who bond rubber in Brisbane and the results are pretty good. A number of people have had Bren Gun Carrier track wheels done with success. They really get a flogging with side loads and high speed with the carrier steering being done by bending the tracks for normal driving and only lock on full wheel travel. I believe you have a choice of material in the same molds.

Lang