Military wheel-tire assembly

Claim 1

In a wheel-tire assembly for a military vehicle; the wheel having inboard and outboard flanges; the tire comprising a tread wall, spaced side walls, and bead areas fitting within the wheel flanges: the improvement comprising an imperforate rigid armor wall extending from the outboard flange of the wheel alongside the associated side wall of the tire; said armor wall having an outer circular peripheral edge (27) spaced radially inwardly from the plane of the tire tread wall by a distance (A) that is slightly more than the expected radial deflection (B) of the tread wall during service on the road and over rough terrain, whereby the armor wall will at all times remain out of contact with the road or terrain surface; said armor wall being formed of armor material resistant to penetration by small arms fire, whereby said armor wall partially protects the tire from puncture due to enemy small arms fire; said armor wall diverging a significant distance away from the adjacent tire side wall in radial directions measured from the wheel outboard flange to the tire tread wall; the divergence of the armor wall from the tire side wall being sufficient to define a free space (30) sized to accommodate normal lateral flexure of the tire side wall during service operations, whereby the armor wall has no restraining action on tire flexure; an annular flexible sealing strip (32) having one peripheral edge thereof secured to the aforementioned peripheral edge of the armor wall, and another peripheral edge thereof adhesively secured to the tire side wall at a point near the tire tread wall; said sealing strip being effective to preclude entrance of debris into the free space used to accommodate flexure of the tire side wall; a series of circumferentially-spaced paddles carried by the armor wall for engagement with soft terrain to minimize tire slippage; each paddle being located on a radial line measured from the wheel rotational axis; means (42) swingably mounting each paddle for pivotal motion in a radial plane normal to the direction of tire motion, whereby each paddle is adjustable between a retracted position within the armor wall rotational envelope, and an extended position projecting radially beyond the armor wall rotational envelope; each paddle having a width dimension (C) normal to the tire radial cross section, and a thickness dimension (D) parallel to the tire rotational plane; the width dimension of each paddle being significantly greater than the thickness dimension whereby each paddle presents a substantial face area to the terrain after tire sinkage into the terrain; each paddle being swingable from its retracted position to its extended position through an arc that is slightly greater than one hundred eighty degrees; edge areas (48) of each paddle being contoured to forcibly engage outer surface areas of the armor wall for releasably retaining the respective paddle in its retracted position or its extended position.