Model T Wire Wheels

HOTROD_WILLIE

Senior Member
I found some wire wheels. Can someone help me identify what the wheel fit. Thanks for all the help
 

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Didn't you have these wheels posted someplace else, like Facebook or the Model T Ford Club of America forum? If they are the same wheels as I recall got several replies as to what they might be.
 
The hubs are relatively small indicating light duty. They look more like some early quadricycle wheels. Ford used mostly wood spokers till the last two years of the model T production. Those wheels don't appear to have any rotational locking feature and likely bolt up to an axle with bearings inside the hub much like a bicycle wheel.

There were a lot of aftermarket wire wheel manufacturers in the model T era like Houk, Buffalo, Pasco, and Universal just to name a few and one thing they all seem to have in common is that they are made to fit on a hub that has a rotational locking feature. This makes the spoke hub larger in diameter for the inside of the wheel and smaller in diameter for the outside to accommodate the locking feature on the inside flange of the axle mounted wheel hub. The outer nut is used for quick detachment of the whole wheel. Some are wrench types and some are hammer knock off types.

The modern McLaren wire wheels use the model T hub modified with bolts to hold the wheel on as well as lock the rotation.
 
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