Where did all the old Dayton style spoke wheels go?

[BigBad]

They used to be all over the place some years ago. Now all we see are aluminum and steel disc type wheels.

What happened? Since they were cast, my guess is they were quite heavy, but there must have been some other reasons for their (almost) demise.

Were they trouble to align correctly? I remember seeing a lot of trucks with wobbly drive wheels back in the day... What's your insight on this?

[KJ790]

They would wobble if you didn't know what you were doing, and they were dangerous if you didn't know how to remove them properly. The rim itself was held on with wedges on the end of each spoke, which was tightened into the rim with the nut. To take them off you had to loosen the nuts, then pop the wedges loose with a hammer. If you took the nut completely off and the wedges were not loose then they could pop out at you with a bit of force. You could also get your finger caught in there if your had was in the wrong place when the wedges popped loose.

The other downsize is that you can't change rim size without changing the whole wheel. 20" spokes could only take 20" rims and 22" spokes could only take 22" rims. With disk wheels, the hubs are universal, so if you want to switch rim sizes you can just swap them.

[dad vader]

One of the reasons they went away was due to the truck and tire manufactures and there warranty's The disc wheels run true with no work. Steer spokes(that were not trued properly) would create uneven wear and the truck manufacture would be responsable for warranty on tire to keep a customer happy. Not to mention most spokes were set up to run tube type tires with three piece split rims,very dangerous..... The tire manufactuers were pushing tubeless.

For note The 22.5 tubless rims could be run on 20" cast hubs and the 24.5 could be run on the 22" hubs. There is also a weight savings of about 25 lbs per wheel position,if you ran steel discs,the aluminium wheels came later as did the hub piloted wheels which makes them run even more true and have less chance of failure then the stud piloted wheels(i.e. the ones with inner and outer nuts.)

I currently work for a Volvo truck dealership in northeast Illinios. And worked for an International dealership for 15 years before that and havent had to do tires since I started there in 1990.But years of doing tires before that,I was never so happy to start seeing less and less of the split rim,tube type tires. I was always nervous to do them,after I saw one come apart in a tire cage and it pretty much destoyed the cage.

Edited December 16, 2013 by dad vader

[randx0]

Any body have pictures of what is being discussed ? I am more of a visual learner .

[dad vader]

I dont know how to post pictures or add a link,I am computer stupid.... But if you copy and past this into your browser address bar it is a good article to help out.....

http://dailydieseldose.com/dayton-or-budd-the-eternal-question/

[randx0]

Thanks ,I didn't understand the wedges part now I get it .

[Casey]

Not sure if this is a Dayton wheel or not, but is this a "split rim" wheel?:

[Petetrucker07]

The heaviness, the trouble with alignment and from what i heard, not fact, safety were the issues. A lot of shipping container chassis' still use and as far as i know still made with the Dayton or East coast wheels. The 10 lug rim, aluminum and steel give a somewhat uniformity to the industry. As shown in Caseys pic. There are many types of "spoke" rims and ways of mounting. The 10 lug is the same across the board, just different decorative holes, Freightliner triangle, pete oval, and so on.

[Mackvision]

Spokes are still pretty common in the northeast on vocational trucks and kind of a tradition. They are hard to keep alighned,and balanced properly...................................................Mark