How did the Appliance roto-lug system work?

[djwarner]

Found a set of Appliance Wire Wheels on ebay and couldn't resist. Awaiting their arrival. The seller said the 14x6 wheels had a 4 x 112mm bolt pattern and included a picture of the roto-lugs in a box.



I will probably replace the roto-lugs with eccentric washers made by Gorilla lugs, but I am curious about how roto-lugs were installed. Did they affect the wheel offset?

BTW any hints and helps about the wire wheels would be appreciated.

[Arne]

No affect on offset. The inner "nuts" are the threaded things you see in picture with the offset hole in the end. The outer nuts are large, thimble-like nuts. There should be one large diameter washer for each inner/outer pair. Inner nuts had ⅞" flats at the base, the outer nuts were 15/16" and on the wire wheels needed a VERY thin wall socket. Was generally best to carry the actual Appliance wrench set, few other wrenches would fit.

The Rotolug wheels typically had a base bolt circle that was midway between the common circles used for that size wheel. For 4 lug wheels, that was typically 4¼" (108mm), and 5 lugs normally had 4¾" (120.7mm). The eccentric action of the inner "nuts" could adjust the circle by ¼" either way.

The 14" Fine Wire wheels were a slight exception. Due to the size of the center hub, the base circle on those was 4¾" for both 4 and 5 lug versions.

The use was simple - thread one inner nut on each lug. Thread it all the way on the stud until it bottomed against the hub, and then back it off slightly to index it for the desired circle. In the case of the Fine Wires and your Z, you would back off each inner nut until the arrow that indicated the fat part of the eccentric pointed straight out, away from the hub. Then slide on the wheel, washers and thread down the outer nuts.

Converting to the later kits with eccentric washers is a good idea in multiple ways. Simpler, cleaner and easier to use.

[djwarner]

Arne,

Thanks for the info. From examining the photos on ebay, I believe these are 70 spoke cross well lace units.

A fellow club member had wire wheels on a TR3. Said he needed to have the wheels trued about every 6K miles. Is this common?

[Arne]

Arne,

Thanks for the info. From examining the photos on ebay, I believe these are 70 spoke cross well lace units.

Fine Wires were all the same, cross-laced but 100% tubeless as the spoke ends go into a welded ring on the rim, not through the rim itself. It was a completely different type of wire wheel, in it's day.

A fellow club member had wire wheels on a TR3. Said he needed to have the wheels trued about every 6K miles. Is this common?

Not on the Appliance wheels, no. Much sturdier than the old Brit wheels. (And I've owned both.)

One last thing to note - those wheels are really heavy.