Armoured Vehicle Road Wheels

[rob love]

We have a small half pallet of roadwheels in the storage shed at work. They will see -35 or worse in the winter. I don't expect any degredation of them, but then again ask me in 20 years.

[Robin Craig]

On the Hagglunds BV206 roadwheels at work the rubber chips at very low temperatures during operation.

We are going to try a company called Polymark in Ontario to rebuild ours in polurethane. I am very leery of how this is going to work having been burned by another company before.

Polymark understand our concerns and will be doing a first off before we commit to any quantity, this is how we should have gone before.

We have proven the polyurethane is a more durable product after testing one done by a friend.

[45jim]

www.safetechnology.com/downloads.asp?fid=35652

Here is a nice article of how and why synthetic rubber components on tracks (and road wheels) fatigue over time and use. It has nothing to do with different coefficients of thermal expansion. This article explains the failure mechanism and how cracks form. Rubber is selected for a good engineering reason and if substitution with plastic (such as polyurethane) were a viable option it would be in common use, and it is not.

As the plastic is stressed beyond its design parameters it will shear. We tried many different rubber compounds on the Leopard to try and extend the life of these components and polyurethanes were deemed not suitable. Proceed with caution.