I know there are many who have made their own cat-trax. I am in the middle of this project and have everything I need except....the darn wheel hubs - which I mistakenly thought would be easy to find. I already have some nice, large, lightweight turf tires with the standard four-bolt hub setup. But, I have no hubs. I don`t want to use the big, heavy steel hubs. Though easy to find, steel is overkill, rust-prone and too heavy. I was really hoping to find some plastic hubs with a plastic (delrin) bushing or bearing.

I`ve exhausted my options in looking for these to no avail. Can anyone help?


Dave

Just to let you know how the "production" wheels are done.

The hubs are nothing more than a rim that has a 4" deep through hole. This hole diameter is about .5" larger than the shaft/axel. Some delrin rods (1/4" dia) are stuck in between the shaft/axel and the ID of the hub to act as bearings. This hub is all Aluminum and so is the shaft/axel. Both are anodize so less prone to corrosion and very light.

Basically, the wheel itself is the hub. It's very simple. But, as you noted the trick is to find them somewhere.

If you are looking for trailer type stuff try Northern Tool this might be a good place to find some plastic hubs.

Good Luck

Now that I think about it, you could make your own hubs to mimmick the set up I described in my last post. All you need is a flange and a short piece of pipe to make that delrin bearing section. You would then attach the wheel to the flange. You may have to do some welding but it could work.

Let me know if what I said makes sense.

Nick,

Yes, your description makes good sense and is a design I had not thought about previously - thanks. As for the link - no luck there. I have probably explored 50 such links since August. Any idea where to get the delrin rods? I guess nylon would work well too.

I don`t want to get into welding, or any steel at all if I can help it. I guess could make the 4-bolt flange plates from aluminun and mount an aluminum axel shaft into that. However, there must be a ready-made assembly out there for this purpose. I just have to find it.

Another question Nick, are the delrin bearing rods packed in tightly or are there spacers of some sort?



Dave

For the delrin rods, go to McMaster-Carr. They are an industrial supplier. You can get the rods in many different diameters. Get the standard length (I think it's 36") and just cut them to the required length. Use Dlerin, it will last longer than Nylon. You may find what you are looking for in here.

You can also try MSC

I hope this helps,

Thanks Nick,

I edited in another question re: the delrin rods but you were posting simultaneously and missed it.

any after-thoughts?

Dave

They are not tightly packed in, but there are no spacers either. When you pack them as close as you can, there is about a half of a diameter space between two of them.

So, if you have 10 rods for bearings, and you try to jam an 11th one it, the space availabel to do that is only half of what you need.

To make this work, you will need to calculate how many 1/4" or even 3/8" dimeter rods can surround your axel. Just remember to leave an extra .5 diameter so they can roll well.

I assembled mine back in June, so I am going from memory on the sizes.

Nick, sorry for another question, but is there some sort of sealer or gasket on each end to keep dirt out?

Dave

Not really. Now that you mention it, the bearings are held in place by a delrin washer that contacts the hub and is backed by a regular SS washer. These are then backed by a cotter pin. This "stack" goes on both sides of the wheels.

The nice part aboutthe Delrin, is it can take a beating from the dirt and still work well.

WOW! You all must be reading my mind. I want to do the same thing. Where did your big wheels come from? Anyone have a design for doing this? I tried googling hometrax and got nowhere. I was figuring on taking big PVC drain pipes in 10' lengths and just using them as rollers. BUT it did not seem really very likely to be successful. I LOVE the idea of making my own wheelset. But I am going to need more design ideas than what I have now! THANKS!

Richard

Hello,
I built a home-made set of beach wheels and used a set of rear lawn mower tires. For the hubs, I used aluminum parts from a outdoor handrail supplier. I took two flanges and epoxied 3" PVC and bolted them together. I then made a larger flange out of outdoor plywood which is coated with epoxy and painted. The lug bolts have washers on the back which locks the wooden flange to the aluminum hub. I used a plastic caulking gun tube as the bearing between the hub and the shaft. It's worked great for three years now. I realize that it'll be difficult to come up with the same parts, but maybe you can find something to substitute. Here are some photos.
I can take my wheels apart for easier storage on the trailer.

WOW!

That looks great! In our town we have the old-fashioned New England dump, and there are frequently all kinds of cool slightly used items. For example, you can pick up a working computer or TV, a really awesome bike, etc. at the cost of lifting it out of the place where it is stored.

I will start hunting for some of the parts, and probably purchase the others from catsailor. I think the wheels might be the one part that is hardest to locate. But the world opens up when you can use a lawn mower wheel set.

THANKS JACK!!!

I was looking at these wheel/tire combos, but they were just too expensive in the quantities (2) I wanted to buy. That's why I just broke down and bought a pair of "production" trax. When figuring in my time and the material cost, it was way cheaper to just buy them.

http://www.roleezwheels.com/

http://www.hobiecat.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=2426

For the "Home Trax" (I like that name) with golf cart wheels and tires.

The common golf wheel is the right diameter for a piece of 2 1/2" thin wall electrical conduit, attached to the wheels with a 2 1/2" conduit connector. On the outside of wheels fabricate a flat plate or use a 3 1/2" to 2 1/2" reducing washer for a nice flat surface for the connector locknut. Set the wheel/tire with connectors between the hulls to gauge length of cut 2 1/2" conduit (measure twice, cut once). Slide a 2" schedule 40 PVC conduit inside the 2 1/2" conduit. Pin through the PVC on both ends with bolt, or other method, to hold in place. Here's a rolling chassis ready for cradles clamped to the PVC. We've seen used golfcart wheels and tires from $8 each with rusty wheels and 50% tread. The kid's old outdoor toys seems to be the "hot" source of cradle material.

Richard,

I purchased 18 inch X 10 inch turf tires for about 20 bucks each at a place called Princess Automotive.


Jack,

Thanks for chiming in, I read your post a while back and actually saved the picture. I like your solution a lot, especially for it`s simplicity. The info you have provided is VERY much appreciated. A couple of questions I have are: does your bushing/bearing design roll freely enough to keep you happy? Do you lube it? Have any dirt problems? Also, which part of the hub bolts to the rim of the wheel - the wood or the steel flange. My tire/wheels are just a standard 4-bolt attachment and I am not sure from the photos what rims you have.

Double thanks on the railing supplier idea. Finding the flanges has been tricky.


Dave

Hello,
I just found this forum last week, posted a question, and got an answer pronto. So I think I can return the favor here and offer you guys this idea.
I have built some pier fishing carts out of pvc pipe. Being on the gulf coast we want everything to be non-steel.
Anyway, I found a source for lawn mower turf tires 13 x 5.00-6 on orange plastic wheels. Not brittle shiney plastic but the dull tuff plastic. They have 3/4" bore flange plastic bushings. Price is good at $12 from Burdens Surplus Center

Now for bigger wheels for soft sand here is another alternative to the rollezee tires. ATV front sand tires on aluminum wheels. You can buy brand new pair on alum. wheels for $150 delivered via ebay. They are bald except for the center rib. They make smooth ones too but the are more rare.
You can always find 40+ pairs of new and used ones in ebay for less.
They are 22" x 8" on 10"dia. rims. Do an ebay search on "sand tire*" or "dune tire*". If you want even more flotation you could get a pair of used rear paddle tires and cut the paddles off to make them smooth.

Dave,
I haven't had any trouble with the bearing surface at all. I figured that since I had almost no money in the caulking gun tube bearing (slit to fit the diameter), I could easily replace them. However, I'm still on the first set. The wheel rims bolt through the holes that you see in the wood flange. I needed to add that flange, since the bolt pattern for the wheels was larger than the aluminum hub I built, plus, it kept everything centered up nicely.
Jack

Jeeperman,
Thanks for the wheel ideas. But what is a "paddle wheel"?

Jack,

That`s great. Thanks a lot. I would not have thought of either the railing supplier or the caulking tube bushing without your suggestion. When I was originally thinking of a bushing, and looking at various materials (pvc pipes...) I always ran into the problem of finding the perfect diameter bushing - which as you know, is no small problem. The devil is in the details. Your fix solves this nicely.


Dave