1908 Buick - wheel rim

[Paul White]

Hi all,

 

A friend is currently restoring a 1908 Buick and we were discussing some elongated holes in the rim as distinct from the screw holes. I was wondering whether anyone out there knew the purpose of these holes?

 

Cheers

 

Paul

[Layden B]

Evenly spaced all the way around?

Tire locks?

[Paul White]

Hi Layden,

 

yes, they are evenly spaced between the screw holes in the rim

 

Cheers

 

Paul

[Paul White]

Hi Layden,

 

Are you able to tell me how these tyre locks work?

 

Cheers

 

Paul 

 

[Layden B]

Early tires were made from natural latex rubber ( think of latex rubber gloves), it is very soft and thus on hard cornering or under-inflation the tire could roll off the rim. To prevent this, tire locks were installed. A real difficult and time consuming process. Hard enough to deal with the valve stem but 4 or more locks! Higher air pressure and stiffer tires made them unnecessary. Putting the nuts on false studs into the wooden felloe is an interesting touch and probably what is going on with the Cadillac. The holes thru the rim are not round to keep the lock oriented to the rim ( the lock stem has flats on 2 sides). Second illustration shows a typical wire wheel installation. Similar thing was done on singletube tires. Illustrations from Dykes Encyclopedia 1911 first edition. Locks were obsolete by then.                                               

[Paul White]

HI Layden,

 

Thanks again for all your help and your time in providing this information

 

Cheers

 

Paul White