Safety support for pneumatic tires

Claim 1

A safety support adapted for positioning on a drop center type wheel rim mounting a tubeless tire comprising: a resilient elastomer ring nested and secured within and around the rim drop center; a series of unitary arcuate sections of 90* approximately spaced apart and arranged end to end and extending upon and around said ring; a plurality of fasteners extending radially outward through said rim and ring retainingly engaging said sections respectively; and an arcuate elastomer strip upon and around the outer surface of each section, with the strips of said sections in end to end registry and normally spaced inward of the tire inner annular wall when inflated, a distance less than 20 percent of the distance between the tire inner wall and rim and adapted to supportably and yieldably engage said tire inner annular wall on deflation of said tire, said sections being yieldably and resiliently mounted upon said rim, each section consisting of a pair of arcuate channel elements of U-shape in cross section, and secured together, defining inner and outer concentric flanges; each inner flange bearing against said elastomer ring; each outer flange supportably engaging said elastomer strip.