Agricultural tires and wheel assemblies therefore

A wheel assembly for use with agricultural machinery such as row crop planting machinery and grain drills for reducing the amount of soil thrown into the air in the use on said machines, said wheel assembly comprising

• a molded plastic wheel half having one side thereof constructed and defined with a shallow side for preventing the build up of soil on said one side when utilized on one of said preselected agricultural machinery, the opposite side of said plastic wheel half being molded with a circumferential tire mounting clinching lip defined thereon and a flat, tire mounting ring for receiving and mounting the base of a tire thereon and a central aperture extending through said wheel half, a bearing hub coaxially surrounding said aperture and extending axially outwardly of said opposite side of said wheel half for providing a substantially full length bearing retention for said wheel assembly, and means for reinforcing said plastic wheel half constructed and defined integrally with said opposite side of said wheel half, and extending from said hub to the base of said tire mounting ring for transferring any load shock from said tire mounting ring to said hub,
• a metal wheel half adapted to be assembled and secured in a side by side relationship with said said plastic wheel half, said metal wheel half having an integral cup shaped configuration having a substantially flat side with sidewalls and a central aperture defined to be coaxial with said bearing hub for said plastic wheel half when said flat side is mounted in abutting relationship with said opposite side of said plastic wheel half, said cup sidewalls having a preselected configuration corresponding to the configuration of a preselected tire for mating with the tire when mounted on said wheel assembly, and
• fastening means for securely and releasably locking said wheel halves together in a manner for preventing wheel movement under wheel side loads subjected to said wheel assembly.

An agricultural, semi-pneumatic tire for use with agricultural machinery utilizing wheel assemblies comprising a plastic wheel half and a metal wheel half assembled and secured together, the plastic wheel half having a substantially flat configuration on one side of said wheel assembly and a peripheral clinching ring means defined to extend axially inwardly of said flat side and a metal wheel half having an integral cup shaped configuration on the opposite side of said wheel assembly from said one side thereof,

• said tire having a smooth outer crown and straight sidewalls integral with said crown and further constructed and defined with a clincher base having an undercut for tightly engaging said peripheral clinching ring means for said plastic wheel half and gripping said wheel half at said clinching ring means, said clincher base being further characterized as having a clincher nose dependent from said base intermediate said sidewalls and arranged and sized for tightly engaging said wheel assembly between the outer peripheral junction of said wheel halves, the remaining portion of said tire base being configured for mating with said wheel halves whereby dirt infiltration between said clincher tire base and said wheel assembly is substantially eliminated, said inner walls of said crown, sidewalls and base including the clinching nose being shaped to define a hollow chamber for said tire.