10" Wheels

[Maurini]

Recently been haveing some trouble sourcing 10" wheels. The ideal wheel would be 10" centre-lock (if they exist), but any information reagrding finding 10" and/or 10" centre-lock would be appreciated.

Thanks

Marc

[Maurini]

Recently been haveing some trouble sourcing 10" wheels. The ideal wheel would be 10" centre-lock (if they exist), but any information reagrding finding 10" and/or 10" centre-lock would be appreciated.

Thanks

Marc

[BStoney]

make your own centers to get the centre-lock or bolt circle you need...plus they'll be stiffer and lighter than an off the shelf center, (typically.)

[Maurini]

I have also been looking at making our own centres, but I am still having problems finding a good 3 piece 10" wheel that a custom centre could fit into.

Any info is appreciated,

Marc

[drivetrainUW-Platt]

Keizer makes 10" wheels, they are cheap, quality is questionalble, but if you go with your own stiffer centers I think you would be ok.

[Big Bird]

We've been using Douglas 10" ATV rims, and bolt in our own centre. Also, early in the piece we bought some Weld rim halves that bolt together - you can mix and match sizes to suit your particular offset requirements. There are other brands around too, just have a bit of a search on the net.

Cheers,

[SpdRcr]

I can also vouch for the poor quality of keizers. 13" not 10".

Are you making a switch to 10" from 13"? If so, what justifications did you make to conclude the swap would be worth it?

[mario_rbr]

That's a good question, I see many people enthusiastic about changing from 13" wheels to 10", maybe is just that good teams used them in fsae '06 comp, like helsinki and rmit, I think that if you are going with 10" wheels you have to know for sure that your car won't be over 450lbs, another thing is the powertrain desing, I think it affects that too, I'll check it out. Anyway be careful...

[JerryLH3]

It's sort of a whole design philosophy. We use 10" wheels and guess what? We use a single cylinder and our car was just a couple ticks over 400 lbs. This was only our second year in formula, and the simplistic lightweight design helped us immensely over last year's performance (42nd this year, 96th last year).

[SpdRcr]

I'm not going to disagree with your simplistic light weight formula, but the same results can occur with a 4 cylinder with 13's.

Has anyone done any testing directly comparing a car with 10's and 13's?

I am currently a fan of the 13's because it gives the suspension team flexibility and the choice in tires is greater, but this isn't the best reason to tell a design judge. Has anyone discussed this directly with a design judge? How'd it go?

[BeaverGuy]

I haven't discussed with the design judges but I did overhear a discussion about 10's vs. 13's that included a design judge and the judges have essentially said that you can get the packaging and geometry you want with 10" wheels. They essentially reiterated this in the design finals overview in '05 when they discussed the high points of RMIT's and Penn State's cars. Both of which had 10' wheels.

[Big Bird]

I think I've already posted a few times already on these forums about the 10" wheel debate, so won't repeat myself here. However I'd just like to (politely!) question SpdRcr's query re whether teams had directly tested to compare 10's against 13's.

We certainly thought about doing so in 2003 when we first went to 10's, and built our wheel centres such that our old 13's would bolt straight on. But when we thought further it started to seem like comparing apples with oranges. We based a complete suspension design based on the geometry of the 10's, and bolting on 13's would alter C of G heights, roll centre placements, etc.

Is it really a fair comparison to consider how a 13 inch wheel works when bolted to a geometry designed for 10's? Isn't the design advantage of the 13's the extra real estate within the rim to place ball joints, braking packages etc?

From the opposite point of view, simply bolting 10's to a car designed for 13's just aint going to fit - unless you were very conservative with your brake and upright sizing.

I just think this is a case where simple scientific reductionism isn't going to give us the answers we are after. Too many variables to deal with. If you really are a die-hard reductionist the only "fair" scientific comparison would be to design complete chassis and geometries appropriate to the differing wheel sizes - and then pit them against each other. And when it all boils down to it, that would end up looking a lot like what we were all watching in Michigan a couple of weekends ago......

I think this is more of a case where engineering judgement has to play a role in understanding what your goals are and determining what best suits your purposes. 13's suit Cornell and UWA just as well as 10's suit ourselves and Penn State. Both sizes have pros and cons, and the good engineering designer selects the option that aligns best with the team's global philosophy.

Cheers all,

p.s. afternote - Penn State didn't have 10's at all. Research before you write, Geoff.....

[Scotty]

Here is someone you might want to look into.

http://www.hiper-technology.com

His name is Clancy Schmidt, The name of his company is HiPer Technology.
He has been a good freind Of Mr.Taylors for a good while and is a great guy to deal with.

[SpdRcr]

Thanks Big Bird. You brought a couple basic things I over looked, C of G heights, roll center, etc. It really is like comparing apples to oranges.

With that being the case, it seems that as long as you have valid reasoning: "good engineering designer selects the option that aligns best with the team's global philosophy." then the judges will understand.