Strong Wheel!
Wheeleze are drag racing specific, wheelie bar wheels that have the following properties: first, Wheeleze will not 'push' your car because they always rotate smoothly and evenly. As such, they don't push, dig or skid; they will rotate freely and evenly when others won't or can't.
This should cause you to ask, " Why is it that others won't rotate properly and yours will?" The answer, which we will address, is what caused us at St. Barsabas, Inc. to develop Wheeleze.
THE PROBLEM
The majority of wheelie bar wheels are little more than grocery cart wheels. They have large ball bearings that are captured in a mild steel race/seat. As soon as this wheel is "shocked" the seats dimple. At best these wheels do not rotate evenly and freely ; at worst, they do not rotate at all and you get 'push'. Not good, as your car is now steered or pushed in an undesirable fashion.
THE SOLUTIONS
We at St. Barsabas avoided this condition by addressing two problems. First, we addressed the bearings. Each Wheeleze wheel has two self lubricated, precision bearings that have a dynamic load rating of over: >1,500 lbs./ft, PER BEARING, for one million cycles. Each wheel has two bearings so this load capacity is doubled to over: Cr>3,000 lbs./ft. With two wheels this becomes a load capability of over 6,000lbs./ft.
A typical Pro Stock car puts about 600-800 psi on the wheels, this is a cake walk for these wheels.
The bottom line is that you can not dimple these seats with a typical drag racing application; better yet, the more you use these self lubricated bearings, the easier they turn and they NEVER require lubrication of the bearing.
NOTE: We are constantly striving to improve our product and, as such, we have gone through two iterations of bearings with the latest, up until 10/25/04, being a NSK bearing. The NSK in question had been produced in Japan. NSK has stopped manufacturing this bearing and our standards require a bearing of equal or BETTER performance. We found a better bearing!
As of the above date we have gone to a KYK bearing. It's performance is better than the NSK and it is more costly. We do not care, we want to make the best product available and we want a product that will last you for as close as possible to the life of your car. We are confident that we can do this in RWD situations and we know that we can give FWD cars a minimum of two seasons.
Trust this fact: it is difficult to make a wheel that will live for the entire quarter mile and go through the traps at speeds of >180MPH with down force, very difficult but we have been successful by using the highest tech polymer and additives and the best bearings money can buy. And no, we will never lessen the product quality and they will always be made in America.
The next problem we addressed was the wheel itself. A wheel has to be strong, light, wear resistant and distortion free. Wheeleze uses a polymer that is designed for high rotational load and wear application. Physically, the tensile strength exceeds 7,000psi and the polymer modulus is one of the highest available. What this means to you is a wheel that is strong, light and turns freely without distortion or flexing; however, it possesses high wear characteristics. We know they wear well and we guarantee them for two years in any drag racing application; even in pure quarter mile wheel standers!
Your car is high tech, wouldn't your wheelie bar wheels be better than grocery cart wheels?
Wheeleze are available in a standard size which is four (4) inches in diameter. One and one quarter (1.25) inches wide and the bearings have an inside diameter of one half (.5) inch.
Wheeleze can be made in almost any size too. Contact us if you need a custom application.
Finally, there is only one thing we will not change about Wheeleze, the color. They are only available in "Jeffie Orange"; no exceptions.
NEW WHEEL (2004) SOLUTIONS
Recently you may have seen a new wheel out there that is 'thinner' than our Wheeleze which is 1.25" thick. The new wheel is thinner. The theory is that the new wheel offers less rolling resistance and, as such, offers a better wheel. Maybe yes, maybe no: read on.
Let's look at this logically. First, a thin wheel must be hard to take the load and a hard wheel will allow force to be transferred to your third member which will partially unload. Do you want this to occur? Second, a wheel must have butter smooth bearings to avoid dig/push when you go over a 'marble' on the track. Unless it is butter smooth in it's rotation abilities any wheel will 'catch' on a foreign object and push. Third, simple logic here, what rolls over an object easier, a slightly wider wheel or a narrower wheel? Right again, a slightly wider wheel, a bit more surface area greatly helps going over an object.
However an important thing about Wheeleze, that is not often known or discussed, is their ability to track LATERALLY! We have documented cases of a car leaving and being up on the competitive wheels. The bars are swaying side to side and the wheels are sliding too. Sliding is bad.
Wheeleze will bend 45 degrees, if necessary to keep the car tracking straight. That is they will stay planted and bend before sliding. They then instantly return to their normal position. A hard wheel, thick or thin, will slide. When the sliding stops, if still on the wheels that is the direction you will come down in: straight, towards the center line or wall. Who knows? It depends on the way you are pointed by your wheels.
Which way do you want to go?
Lastly, WORLD'S FASTEST STREET CAR was doing an article on chassis recorders. While testing they switched wheels to Wheeleze and they found out that the Wheeleze actually helped to prevent the third member from unloading; put your power on the ground. And no, we had no idea that they were doing the article or going to test our wheels with the chassis recorder.
In closing, we always invite questions and we invite you to view the TORTURE TEST we did on the product.
Now what do you really want on your car?
"3/8" Spacers Now Available:
"3/8" precision anodized spacers available at an extra cost. Spacers are made of 12L14 steel with yellow zinc dichromate finish to resist corrosion.
3" Wheeleze Available:
A 3" Wheeleze wheel specifically for the needs of NHRA/IHRA single wheel nitromethane and Lucas Oil Series cars is available exclusively through:
McKinney Corporation
4710 Fastline Drive
Lafayette, IN 47906
(765) 448-4800
Parts Tech Hotline (800) 542-3088
www.mckinneycorp.com
These wheels are designed as per McKinney's specifications based on his professional experience for these particular requirements.
PRICE:
$139 a pair plus shipping: 1/2" bolt
$154 a pair plus shipping: 3/8" bolt with three piece bushings
