demountable rim fit

[Allan]

I had to pull a Hayes wire wheel today to retrieve a couple of broken off spoke ends that were rattling around. I took these photos to illustrate how a good rim fits on a good felloe.

The fixed lug stands well off the outer face of the felloe. Between the lugs it is easy to fit not just one, but two credit cards. On the wider inner land on the felloe, the rim is wedged tightly, with no gap at all. I believe that all fixed lug rims should fit in the same manner.

I know drawings show contact between rim and felloe on both inner and outer edges of the felloe, but that does not happen in reality. Those felloes with the straight up outer edges certainly do not contact the rim regardless of manufacturer/rim combination.

Allan from down under.

[Altair]

I know that you are a very knowledgeable member but is it possible that the wheel and felloe are not compatible ie: different manufactures, there were at least four different makers. I have a rack of 30 X 3-1/2" rims and they are all different. I was at a swap meet and a vendor had a large trailer full of "T" rims and I had to dig through them to get 4 rims as close as possible and they are still a bit different from each other. The only common denominator is that they are 30 X 3-1/2. When they are on the car and not beside each other it is hard to tell but they are still different. Some times that is the best you can do after 100 + years.

[Allan]

There is no mis-match here. This is a Hayes wire wheel with a Hayes branded rim. They are made for each other. One of the other wheels on the car has a non Hayes rim and it too has the lugs standing off the outside face of the felloe with the same gap between the rim and outer land on the Hayes fellow.
Allan from down under.

[TWrenn]

Gotta admit til now I've never seen a wire spoke rim on a demountable! That's what I love about this hobby...something new always pops up just about every week. To the untrained eye like mine, one would think that's a horrible "mate-up", as it would seem all the weight is on those 4 (or 5?) lugs?

[Scott_Conger]

Tim

the weight is borne primarily on the back flange of the felloe...the same feature which determines/controls the runout and concentricity of the rim.

In far too many instances, the car has been rolled on the bare felloe, thus flattening the flare some. This causes the rim to never wedge on, and the lugs are now so close to the felloe that they mount flat against it. THIS is when you're actually hanging from those 4 bolts and the rim is forced to follow the runout of the felloe

[TWrenn]

Ahhhh Scott...danke!! Part of what can't be seen then. Thanks for the edification!

[Steve Jelf]

...is it possible that the wheel and felloe are not compatible...

From the encyclopedia:

Initially, demountable wheels and rims supplied by
Kelsey and Hayes were not interchangeable, apparently
even within the same brand. With the introduction of
“Ford” wheels (apparently made by Firestone and
Cleveland companies) all brands became alike so that
any rim could be used on any wheel. It would have been
possible (but not necessarily true) that more than one
manufacturer’s wheels could have appeared on a single
car.

[Allan]

Tim, the first of my photos illustrates what Scott states. That is not a gap between the rim and felloe, but a shadow . The credit card shows the rim tightly wedged on the inner land on the felloe.

Allan from down under.