Road Wheels with Plain Bearings

[ajmac]

Has anyone experience with this British wartime option? It is detailed in the Loyd manual but says they when encountered they should be replaced with Ball Races. Was this a Britain only measure when we were running short of Ball Bearings?

[Ben]

I've got some the same. My understanding is that it was due to a shortage of ball races. knock it out and weigh it in, it'll pay for the new bearings!!

Ben

[RichardT10829]

You can run 50mm ID bearings, you just need to make a shim (if budget is tight) it's about 4.50 for a 50mm bearing as supposed to 30 - 60 quid for the 40mm one

[kevin powles]

Hi, you can pick up the correct 40mm 6408 bearings for £12 on ebay. Cheapest option than making the spacer.

Kevin.

[RichardT10829]

What quality are the bearings like Kev ?

[kevin powles]

Rich, I bought enough for two carriers, they look ok, I will put a branded SKF on the inner front idler.

Kevin.

[Lynn Eades]

Richard, they'd have to be pretty bad, not to last longer than your supply of track.
Al. No personal experience with them. I understand they were used extensively in various types of carrier. (my carrier had RHP strippable semi thrust ball bearings in it)
I think all the manuals have referred to plain bearings, much care required in burnishing them, and in service they were to be replaced by ball bearings.
I think some of the Australian carriers used them, and that some British carriers went to North Africa with them fitted.

[motto]

When WW2 broke out, Australia had no ball bearing production capability at all. In 1942 money was allocated to set up a single row ball bearing manufacturing facility as part of the Ordnance factory Echuca dedicated to the production of bearings for defence purposes particularly in vehicle applications.
In 1945 funds were requested for the purchase of tapered roller bearing production machinery from the US.
It's quite likely that some of the Australian carriers were fitted with locally made bearings
I have very little knowledge of what happened to the plant post war but suspect it was sold off and continued to operated for some time as a private company. i remember coming across bearings made in Echuca in packaging carrying the name of UBCO.
The manufacture of bearings in Echuca would have ceased many years ago as with so much other manufacturing capacity in Australia.

David

[ajmac]

I found two different brands of ball race, one with a steel cage and one with a Brass cage both I would presume are wartime. Although I consider the plain bearings historically significant they are all too badly worn to use in anger. Well they could be used but the wheel would rock a little so I will replace all with ball races. I have cleaned up one plain bearing to keep out of interest and the rest will go for scrap during the week. Does anyone have any spare spacers and seal assemblies? I am hoping the Loyd range wrecks will yield some small spare items for the bogie builds.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

I can see the plain bearings working well in slow-speed load carring applications.
These days Carrier restorers sometimes have to compete for wheels with people restoring static machinery etc.
Maybe they would be glad to fit those plain bearings Carrier guys are tossing out?

H.

[listerdiesel]

Originally Posted by Hanno Spoelstra

I can see the plain bearings working well in slow-speed load carring applications.
These days Carrier restorers sometimes have to compete for wheels with people restoring static machinery etc.
Maybe they would be glad to fit those plain bearings Carrier guys are tossing out?

H.

Hanno:

In all cases, we have taken wheels with scrap tyres and left good ones in the system, we have never used wheels with good tyres that could be re-used by a Carrier owner.

In any event, 1940's rubber is a bit past its sell by date and anyone contemplating using such needs a word of caution.

The bearing sizes are Imperial, not metric, so the ID is 1-1/4" for a genuine bearing, the 50mm ID is what we used on our engine trollies. They are about £6.80 each if you buy 10 off ebay, size is 6310 by memory.

Buying unbranded bearings is a bit of a leap into the unknown, but bearing sources are so widespread now that you are probably going to be pushed to find a bad bearing.

We have two engines on the wheels now, the first set were re-used on our second trolley, but we plan to ship those over to Roy next year before the Nuenen show, so that we can collect a re-tyred set from him.





Regarding using plain bearings on the trollies, we find that the extra drag makes the trollies hard to move, they go over a ton each. Roy's new tyres have been good, no problems at all and the rolling resistance is low compared with rubber.

Lastly, a picture of our trailer/RV that we carry our largest engine round in and where we live and sleep while at shows:



This was taken this Monday as we were about to leave Little Casterton in Lincolnshire.

Regards to all,

Peter

[ajmac]

Road wheel and return roller bearings are listed in the 1944 Loyd carrier manual I have and are listed at metric parts rather than imperial, just to be clear.

[Lynn Eades]

Yes Peter, As Al said, the original bogie wheel bearings are metric. 14 of them are 110 x 40 x 29 ( 6408?) and the front inners are 110 x 50 x 29 (6310) (from memory?)

BTW, your gen set looks great! and I wouldn't have any problems with you using good wheels.

[ajmac]

Originally Posted by Lynn Eades

BTW, your gen set looks great.

indeed it does, it was manufactured at the factory in which we still build gen sets today, a little larger though, upto 15MW and powered by Gas Turbines.

[listerdiesel]

Originally Posted by ajmac

Road wheel and return roller bearings are listed in the 1944 Loyd carrier manual I have and are listed at metric parts rather than imperial, just to be clear.

Yes, not sure why I went off on that tack now, as the 6310 is a Metric bearing....

Apologies!

Peter

[listerdiesel]

Originally Posted by ajmac

indeed it does, it was manufactured at the factory in which we still build gen sets today, a little larger though, upto 15MW and powered by Gas Turbines.

Both engines are Ruston & Hornsby Lincoln, but the driven ends are both Mawdsley, Dursley, Gloucs.

The vertical diesel is a 1YB dynamometer set, supplied new in 1959 to Huddersfield Education Committee, the horizontal is a Ruston 1ZHR with a Lister Start-O-Matic alternator/starter, this was made by Mawdsleys as well. The engine came out of Abingdon Technical College.

Peter

[ajmac]

This is four Ruston Gas Turbine 'Tornado' Gen sets in Libya that I was working on a few years ago. All built in Lincoln at the old Ruston & Hornsby site. The locals would address you 'Mr Ruston' rather that learning your real name :-)

[Richard Farrant]

Originally Posted by ajmac

The locals would address you 'Mr Ruston' rather that learning your real name :-)

If they knew what you were up to in your private life, they might have called you "Mr Rusty"