Wheel question

[Tinman]

I was looking over the regular wheels models that came with the far 12mm wheel. It seems they were all made in 1968 or later. Could the fatter wheel have been influenced by the introduction of Hot Wheels or could it have been to make the wheels seem more realistic? Opinions please.

[MatchboxFreak]

Since Nick Jones does not list wheel thickness variations for Regular Wheels on his listings, some members may not know about the differences. If you have any samples of fat wheels and thin regular wheels at hand, can you post photos for people to see?
Thank you
Kurt

[Tinman]

let me see what I can do about that ...

[Tinman]

This is going to take a while, the more I delve into it the more I discover there multiple different thickness of wheels, even in the same diameter. I just measured a 13d wrecker and it had front wheels were 3mm wide and the rear wheels were 3.5mm wide. You could see the difference even before measuring, diameter was the same on each. The classic thick wheel (which prompted the thread) is 4.5 mm wide and clearly noticeable on the models when used.

Taking photos of a couple of models with the wide wheel answered my question regarding the wheel's time line. In the photo with the 48 Dodge dump truck and the 71 Ford heavy wreck truck: The Dodge is very early model. It has the long base, the small axle braces, no tow guide and an interesting unlisted feature. The right side light is detailed and the left side light is not detailed. So the model probably dates back before 1968 (perhaps someone else has input on this). The unlisted feature of one detailed and one not detailed side light is interesting because it demonstrates (IMHO) that the side light detailing issue is one of die failure/wear.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Like you have shown on the #48 and #71, I had always thought the fat wheels were for the heavier vehicles but then to find two sizes on the #13 Wrecker is odd.

I would also imagine (and this can be checked), all models at the start of the black plastic wheel introduction would see cars fitted with the same size wheels and then the trucks etc had the same size wheels, a fatter version of the car wheel, interesting.

Ghosthunter.

[MatchboxFreak]

Thank you Joe for the added photos
This looks like it could be a new topic for investigation.

[DrJeep]

Thanks for starting this, Joe - wheel width has been discussed lots of times but never brought together in one place. I haven't looked through mine very thoroughly but here are a couple of interesting models.

First, a 13d wrecker with one 11.5 mm thin wheel (3.1 mm) and three 11.5 mm thick wheels (3.5 mm). This one has a decal, not a label, so it's relatively early.

IMG_7940.jpg (231.51 KiB) Viewed 3381 times

Next, the 63c Dodge crane truck. It's been noted by Sebastian that the first run of these had narrow wheels. These 12.5 mm wheels measure 3.4 mm and have a rounded profile. The later truck's flat wheels are around 1 mm wider.

IMG_7939.jpg (298.87 KiB) Viewed 3381 times

I'll look through some more later.

[DrJeep]

And the 10d pipe truck. Again, 11.5 mm wheels. On the left, all wheels measure 3.1 mm. The centre model has a mixture: front axle 3.4 and 3.5 mm, 2nd axle 3.5 and 3.1 mm, rear two axles all 3.1 mm. On the white-based model the wheels are all 3.4 to 3.5 mm wide.

IMG_7943.jpg (426.44 KiB) Viewed 3364 times

[Tinman]

It looks like there was a plan to place the fat wheels on specific trucks. It also seems that some of the wheels may have been mixed up either accidentally (easy to do since they are very nearly the same diameter) or due to shortages. I've just checked through stored gallon baggies of various 1966 to 1969 beater trucks that are associated with fat wheels an through bags of dodge wreckers, pipe trucks and 1e Mercedes trucks. My (non-scientific) study shows a few things: They did a really good job of keeping the fat wheels off the 1e Mercedes trucks and at some point in time the pipe truck went from thin to fat wheels. Mix ups did occur and the Dodge wrecker seemed to be the most common recipient of the mix ups.In other revelations: Lesney sold millions of Mercedes trucks and trailers, pipe trucks, dodge wreckers, eight wheel cranes, combine harvesters and grit spreaders (among others).

[DrJeep]

They did a really good job of keeping the fat wheels off the 1e Mercedes trucks

I have a fair share of the millions of Mercedes and trailers and mine all have thin wheels too. I wonder how they were so disciplined with this one? I think the 44c refrigerator truck may also have missed the fat wheels.