We sent a tired road wheel downtown for vulcanizing. They regularly do the wheels on those massive modern tracked tractors. They took a long time to get it done, and in the end, the estimate of $120 proved to be a little low. It ended up costing us something like $270. While the rubber looked OK, it did not have the taper that a carrier wheel should have, and I think they may have made it a little too large. I'm not sure it would even fit in the suspension.
I ended up getting some really good used wheels that I used, but will try this wheel out on the carrier that we run the most here at the museum and see how it works out. I may have to profile the wheel with a grinder to get a little bit of the taper on the wheel.
I would be interested in the tire mold. The forklift places will know which compound will give the best service.
|