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Landships II -> Landships WW1 Forum -> References -> The Dreadnaught wheel - another pedrail
Post Info TOPIC: The Dreadnaught wheel - another pedrail
Rectalgia


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The Dreadnaught wheel - another pedrail
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There have been various mentions of pedrail wheels due to their proposed and actual military use.  The 1907 patent GB 190711303 of the "Dreadnaught" wheel by Frank Bottrill seems to be have been mentioned just once (and a little dismissively) in the forums (here), possibly because there were earlier pedrails and this one only saw agicultural use.  The wheel may also have also called the "Botrail" and was supposedly an advance on the earlier Boydell wheels in terms of flexibility and operating life.  Bottrill further developed the wheel in his 1912 patent GB 191208844.  I have noted references to a November 1906 patent but have not located it yet.

In any event, the most famous vehicle to use the wheel was the one-off "Big Lizzie" and her trailers (photo).  This machine was recovered and restored in the late 1980s and there are many pictures and details about it on the internet.

To summarise, Big Lizzie was commenced in 1915 at Richmond and started work in 1917 (haulage then soldier-settlement land-clearance in the 1920s), around Mildura, having taken most of 1916 and most of 1917 to get there.

From the Red Cliffs & District Historical Society:

Specifications

  • Prime Mover - 10.36 metres long, 3.35m wide, 5.49m high
  • Weight - 45 tonnes payload 10 tonnes
  • Turning Circle - 61 metres
  • Trailers(2) - 9m long, 3m wide, 2.13m high
  • Payload - 35 tonnes each trailer

Mechanical Details:-

  • Power Unit 44.74 kw (60 hp) Blackstone water cooled single cylinder crude oil engine.
  • Bore, 228 mm, Stroke, 450 mm, 215 RPM.
  • Single flywheel, 2.13 m diameter, Weight 3 tonnes.
  • Gear Box 3.15m long, 1.37m deep, 0.91m wide.
  • Oil Capacity 430 Litres.
  • 4 forward speeds 3.2, 2.4, 1.6, 0.8 km/h.
  • 2 reverse speeds 0.8, and 0.4 km/h.
  • Crude Oil 19,800 litres.
  • General purpose water 3,400 lts.
  • Drinking water 1,000 lts.
Not directly relevant to Landships - but another of the "extreme environment mobility" developments along the way.




-- Edited by Rectalgia on Friday 24th of September 2010 07:48:28 PM

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kieffer


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a great picture of Lizzie, Steve! With the words radiator, fuel tank etc. no room for classical failures like filling up the fuel tank with water...

regards, Kieffer

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Ironsides


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Heres the US patent... nothing else yet... pdf format

Bottrill 1907

Cheerssmile

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CharlieC


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Nice anvil on the front of the vehicle - make your own spares? hood ornament?

Regards,

Charlie

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Rectalgia


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That is a *serious* anvil.  Pity there's not a man alongside it to give scale - but the rungs on the ladder help.

One website says she towed an entire blacksmith's shop (on trailer) during the journey to the river which took over 18 months.  If I was guessing I would say that the way the steel cables were attached to the wheel rim and to the "feet" represented a bit of a weak link, requiring fairly frequent repairing of shackles or whatever.  Even so, some commentators feel it was a marked improvement over earlier designs with regard to reliability/durability.  In any event it seems that even when the serious travel was over (560 km, around 7 hours by road these days) there still needed to be a bit of "smithy" impedimenta readily to hand.  Bit like carrying a tube repair kit on a bicycle I suppose.

Steve

[edit] Uh, eedjit, (scale) it is set up "bench high" of course.


-- Edited by Rectalgia on Saturday 25th of September 2010 11:59:19 AM

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kieffer


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I removed this post as Steve already answered the anvil theme


-- Edited by kieffer on Saturday 25th of September 2010 12:05:30 PM

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