Do not buy cheap wheels - whatever you do.

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xray328
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Joined: Fri Nov 14, 2008 9:17 pm
Location: Shorewood, Illinois

Do not buy cheap wheels - whatever you do.

Post by xray328 »

We bought wheels on harbor freight - 56 of them to be exact to build 13 cars for our first ever cubmobile race. They seemed liked they'd be "good enough". Come to find out, the bearings are so terrible that the cars won't even roll down hill. They wobble pretty bad too. They were $3.49 each, so I guess we got what we paid for, but even for $3.49 they should roll down hill.

The bushings are 5/8" so we spent big money on 5/8" threaded rod, castle nuts and washers. Now it's all trash.

We're going to try to sell the wheels on eBay or craiglist for $2 each. I think they'd be fine for hand carts and such, but not for this application. At least we should get some of the money back.

Anyway, my point of all this is to not buy cheap wheels.

We gave them the "lighter fluid treatment" to get as much of that thick grease out as we could, but they still suck. Some are even missing some of the ball bearings. In the words of another leader "These are the crappiest bearings I've ever seen."

We considered replacing the bearings, but to get 5/8" bearings of a decent quality it would cost $4 each x 2 per wheel x 4 wheels = $32 x 13 cars = $416.

For the price of the cheap wheels, and 5/8" hardware we could of almost gotten the comtech wheel package without any of the frustration or wasted money.

I bought them back in November when they were on sale and put them in the corner of my garage. Of course its past the refund date, so we're stuck with them.

Now I've spent $250 of the "boys" money with nothing to show for it and the race is in a month. Talk about feeling like a heel.
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sporty
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Re: Do not buy cheap wheels - whatever you do.

Post by sporty »

Thats a bummer to hear, that even after working on the bearings,that the wheels still do not perform properly.

All I can think of, is use a steeper hill to offset the poor performing wheels.

Other than selling them and getting some other wheels. Thats allot of wheels to sell or replace.

Sporty
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