this hasn't much to do with land sailingbut I'm looking into building a "billy cart " over the winter months when i can't get out sailing,,I am hopeing to build it to australian billy carts assocation specs, and they state that 24in wheels are the largest size that are allowed I was thinking of using bmx wheels now my question is if i was to fiber glass the wheel centerwould that add greatly to the strength of the wheel or not and is there a thread on here that shows you how to do such as i'm not real flash with fiber glass. yes I know what you're all saying going from land yachts to billy carts,, poo but it's just 1 more thing on my to do list,and no i don't want to just join a couple of planks of wood togeather with some old pram wheels,, been there done that when i was a kid

you can break them

SJK said...
Ai, I didn't read about breaking one before. How did it come? Extreme usage, or did it come from the way it is built? Is it possible that the holes in the spokes caused them to not have enough strength?

I got bumped by another yacht wheel, and the pin holding his wheel snagged onto my rim .
the sheer leverage of my rim diameter meant that it lifted his yacht whilst rotating,and the wheel just ripped itself to pieces. the fibreglass bearing hubs were all ok the disks were fine, the glassed disc to rim part was undamaged,but the narrow glue jointson the rim were the fail points,with about 40% failure of the "glue" which was cotton flock and 60% tearing of the glass layup.
that is why i build the wide flange glassed to the rim now.
the replacement design is only 200gms heavier but much stronger