N-Wheeled Vehicles

Ignoring the tracks, this is clearly a one-wheel vehicle. This means of steering (one wonders how effective it was) was adopted to avoid the difficulties of steering with just the tracks, which as any tank designer can tell you, involves complicated clutches and differentials.

Note the red directional pointer above the front wheel.

Like the Holt Midget-18 above, this tractor had twin tracks riding on two rows of large steel balls, instead of pins and rollers. The water-cooled engine ran on petrol (or somewhat heavier 'distillate') and had magneto ignition with Newton Automatic spark advance. '12-20' meant a 20 HP engine with 12 HP available at the drawbar.

You can read the instruction manual here. It gives no clue what 'Ball Tread' refers to, but it seems to mean just the use of ball bearings in the tracks, which is emphasised in the manual. Manufacture of the Yuba ceased in 1921, and by 1931 production of ball-tread tractors ceased completely.

The Ball Tread Co. began building tracked tractors in Detroit in 1912. The tractor shown here is believed to have been the company’s first product. The company also produced an 18-35 model. In 1914, the Yuba Construction Co. of Marysville, California bought out the Ball Tread company and relocated operations to California.

This machine had the very unusual set-up of just one track running underneath the vehicle. At first sight looks as if it might be another case of just one wheel plus tracks, like the Killen-Strait tractor above, but there could very well be another wheel behind the engine. I am suspicious and am searching for other photographs.

The Bean Trackpull also had a single central track. You can see the advantage; if you can make it work you've immediately eliminated dozens of track parts. There are two steering-wheels; the top on does the actual steering by swivelling the rear wheel assembly (how effective was that?) The lower wheel apparently operated the clutch. The engine was rated at 6 to 10 HP. According to their adverts, Bean claimed this machine was the equivalent of six horses.

On the basis of we-don't-count-tracks-here this is a two-wheeled vehicle, but I want to keep it next to the central-tracked Beltrail Model-B.

There is more info here.

The Trackpull was aimed at orchards and vineyards; it could move between trees planted closely together. The picture shows how the rear wheels could be set at 90 degrees to the track, so the machine could turn around in its own length.

Economical motoring. Date of picture unknown.

With the hood up. Location and date of picture unknown. This AC Sociable dates from 1912.

Location and date of picture unknown.

This French tricycle is vaguely reminiscent of a tractor, with its headlight peering out from between protective bars.

The machine remains unidentified. An image search has yielded nothing. Can anyone help?

Photographed at the annual Griffith Park Sidecar Rally, year unknown.

This looks like a lot of vehicle to carry just one person.

This beautiful image was sent to me by one of my correspondents. Three Japanese ladies sit in a remarkable three-wheeled vehicle, now identified as a German Phanomobil. A few thousand of these vehicles were produced between 1907 and 1927. There is an excellent site describing the reconstruction of a Phanomobil here.

The engine is mounted over the front wheel and drives it by a chain. Clearly the whole thing is swivelled by the tiller, which must have been hard work. Given the distance between the tiller and the pivot the turning circle must have been rather large. The cylinder on top of the tiller looks as if it is a telescopic sight for accurately aiming the vehicle, but it is actually a lubricating oil tank.

This early machine was the forerunner of the Cyklonette described below. It was designed by Franz Louis Hüttel; (1862-??) he went on to design both the Cyklonette and the Phänomobil. (also below) The front wheel is driven by a leather-covered rope; this can be slackened by a lever on the right side of the handle bars to act as a clutch. Somehow leather-covered rope doesn't sound as if it would be free from slipping.

The 4-stroke engine has an automatic inlet valve. The carburettor is of the surface type; the induction stroke pulls air out of the top of the fuel tank, through an elegantly curved pipe leading to a brass drum with 2 handles; presumably a throttle, and a mixture control which admitted extra air. Surface carburettors relied on simple evaporation, rather than atomising nozzles, and were not very effective; they were essentially extinct by 1904. Ignition is powered by a battery in the box below the seat and behind the fuel tank. Another curved pipe leads down to the top of the engine cylinder, the automatic inlet valve being inside it. There is pedal drive to the rear wheels by a block chain.

There are some biographical details of Franz Hüttel here.

Until now this machine was billed as a Phanomobil. It looks very similiar to the machine in Japan. (above) It has a chain drive on the left side of the front wheel, just like the Phanomobil. I suggest it would have fooled anybody.

However, I am informed it is actually a Cyklon Cyklonette, made from 1904 to 1924. This is a still from the film Die Drei von der Tankstelle (1930) meaning "The Three from the Gas-Station". There is a brief Wikipedia page.

Of the film: "The gas station attendant Heinz Rühmann from the gas station Kuckuck dedicates himself to a three-wheeled cyclonette. This economical vehicle was built in Berlin between 1904 and 1924".

Many thanks to Nils Moh for pointing out the error and providing the information.

The location is unknown.

This is another still from the film, presumably set at the Gas-Station of the film title.

This still gives a better picture of the Cyklonette.

This car has now been identified by Paul Dunlop as a three-wheeler made by Robert Reynold Jackson & Co Ltd in Notting Hill, London. Fifty of these cars were ordered for use in Costa Rica, where the unmade roads were so deeply rutted it was impossible to steer a car as the front wheels could not swivel. The idea was that the front wheel would travel on the ground between the two ruts and so be able to steer. It has not yet been confirmed that the cars were successfully delivered.

The vehicle was considered unusual enough to attract some attention in British and German periodicals in 1910. Normally Jackson made conventional four-wheel cars, often with parts imported from De Dion in France.

The signboard in the background carries the address '26 High St, Notting Hill Gate', presumably close to the location of the Jackson factory.

The Jackson Company has a page in Graces Guide.

Mr Jackson also has a bio page in Graces Guide.

Another view at the same location.

Source: Unidentified magazine

The Tsar tank was probably the biggest three-wheeler ever built. It was prototyped by Imperial Russia, but proved wholly impractical.

This image (I am not sure if it is a model or a rendering) gives a much clearer view of the Tsar-tank's construction than the few photographs that exist. There was a circular turret on top of the main body; it appears to have four guns at 90-degree spacing, so presumably did not traverse. The turret is too small to hold a decent-sized gun, and the field of fire is restricted as the turret is below the top of the front wheels. There is also a turret with at least one gun underneath the main body, with an even more restricted field of fire, and two further guns mounted in sponsons on each side.

The rear wheel, or roller, looks as if it may be divided in three, so technically you could call it a five-wheel vehicle. I think it's clear however, that this is basically a three-wheeler.

There is more on the Tsar tank on the unusual tanks page.

This unique motorcycle is powered by a 499cc De Dion engine. The radiator is the round thing with the vertical pipes. The actual cylinder is on the other side of it. The first stage of the drive is a chain, and the second stage is another chain on the hidden side of the machine. It has a surface carburettor and coil ignition. It has no clutch and no gearbox, which must have compromised the performance. Apparently it could reach 35 mph in 1901.

The exact meaning of 'compensated steering' is opaque, but there is a link from the front fork of the bicycle to the front fork of the mini-motorbike assembly. Note that the mini-motorbike swivels freely with respect to the bicycle, and is directed by steering the front wheel.

The machine was built in 1901, by W. (Billy) Slinger, an electrical engineer from Settle, Yorkshire. It took six years to build; and no others were constructed. Just what Mr Slinger was aiming at is unclear. The man in this picture is J P Smith, who owned the machine in 1949.

There is more info here here.

J P Smith of Keighley sets off on his Slinger 1901 at the start of the 22nd Pioneer Run of the Sunbeam Motorcycle Club. According to my calculations this was in 1958 or 1962, but I am ready to be corrected.

Amazingly the machine still exists. You can even see a video of J P Smith riding it taken during the 1955 Banbury Run, on YouTube. It appears the whole mini-bike at the front swivels as a rigid unit, but it is hard to be sure. YouTube gives the date of construction as 1903.

The grey box contains the petrol tank in its upper section, as shown by the location of the petrol pipe. It is not known what was in the lower section; water for the cooling system, perhaps?

Pretty good proof that it still runs!

This is the Slinger at the Finish Line of the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run in 2019. It is now owned by Mr Daniel Ward, who is presumably pictured here. Since he is unlikely to have pushed this awkward machine very far, I think we can assume it completed the Run under its own power.

It is not on the list of entrants for the 2022 Run.

The Peugeot Triporteur was essentially a three-wheeled single-cylinder motorbike for carrying small loads. This is an original example that has been faithfully restored; it dates from early 1953.

The earlier 53TM 100 cc model could carry 120 kg in the crate at the front; the later 55TN 125cc model could carry 150 kg. Maximum speed was 45 km/hr. Production was from 1939 to 1959.

The engines were 2-stroke with flywheel magneto ignition. Lubrication was by petroil mixture. There was a 3-speed gearbox by operated by a lever on the petrol tank. Primary and secondary transmissions was by chains.

This example appears to have a duct for air-cooling around the cylinder.

Contemporary advert for the Peugeot Triporteur.

The Brough Superior Austin Four was a limited-production motorcycle designed and manufactured by Brough Superior of Nottingham, Britain; it was built from 1932 to 1934. Only ten were built, of which nine survive. Unusually, it was powered by a proven Austin 4-cylinder sidevalve, water-cooled motor of 747cc. Brough increased the Austin engine displacement to 797 cc and replaced the cylinder head with a light alloy version which gave more horsepower, presumably by increasing the compression ratio. The rear wheels were shaft driven from a standard Austin 7 three-speed gearbox, (plus reverse) with a crown wheel and pinion mounted between the two rear wheels. You might think that twin rear wheels would make the handling tricky, but the Museum Staff have not so far found any evidence for this.

The twin rear wheels make it a three-wheeled vehicle, though legally it was still classed as a motorcycle because the rear wheel centres were less than 24 inches apart. The machine was primarily intended for sidecar work, which would presumably yield a four-wheel vehicle.

The Brough Superior Austin Four has a Wikipedia page.

This is an M4 T10 mine clearing prototype built by the USA in 1944, based on a M4 Sherman tank. The original intention was to install engines in the two front wheels, but initial testing was done without them. It weighed 52 tons, and the front wheels were 8 feet in diameter, while the rear roller was 6 feet in diameter. It's nickname was indeed 'tricycle'.

I'm prepared to call this a three-wheeler because the 'rear wheel' appears to be a single roller running the width of the vehicle. The big open-tread front wheels were designed to set off landmines, like the mine flail vehicles of WW2.

There are a good number of imaginary vehicle pictures that have been created by Photoshop, and you have to be careful. This looks like it could one of them, but research confirms it is genuine.

The front wheels were driven by the tank sprocket-wheels engaging with internal teeth on the inside of the wheel; these can just be seen on the wheel at the extreme left. The star-shaped teeth on a shafts engaging with the metal tread were for clearing the wheels of debris, incuding explosive debris. There is another such shaft for the rear roller. I originally said they were for propulsion; many thanks to Bill Todd for pointing out this infelicity.

The prototype was reconfigured to use the tank's internal engine, and the underside was reinforced with 25mm steel plate. The M4A2 had 55 inches of ground clearance. The total width of the cleared path was 153 inches. (the front wheels had a width of 36.5 inches each) The tank could only reach 3 km/h when mine clearing, but on the road it could make 10 km/h. In June 1944 the T10 was tested, but it became clear that it was just too heavy to be practical.

The idea never got past this single prototype.

This is a three-wheeler of a rather different stamp. It is powered by a big V-twin engine at the front (yes, I suppose that is obvious) that drives the rear wheel.

There is a Wikipedia page on Morgan.

The Lomax three-wheeler is a British kit car in the same configuration as the Morgan, with two wheels at the front and one at the back. It has a fibreglass body mounted on a Citroën 2CV or Citroën Dyane floorpan. In later versions a steel tube chassis was introduced to replace the floorplan. The first Lomax 223's were powered by a Citroen 2CV 602cc engine, which is a horizontally-opposed air-cooled twin.

The Lomax is still in limited production at Cradley Motor Works, but production seems to be winding down.

The Lomax has a Wikipedia page.

This is another attempt to combine the advantages of wheels and tracks. It was a conversion- a rather radical conversion- of a Wolseley touring car. Here the wheels are raised so the vehicle travels on its tracks.

Source: Miltary Transport of WW1 by C Ellis and D Bishop, Blandford Press 1970.

Here the wheels are lowered for road use. The track system is rigidly attached to the car body. The design was not a success, proving complicated and expensive; there were doubts about its stability. The idea was tried again in 1927 on what might be regarded as an armoured car, but that also was not proceeded with.

Source: Miltary Transport of WW1 by C Ellis and D Bishop, Blandford Press 1970.

You can see a video here of a car with the front wheels set at right angles to the usual direction of motion. When the front of the car has been swung out sideways, the front wheels swivel outwards to the normal configuration.

The car is believed to be a Citroën B12 Torpedo, and the location Paris. However there is another video that gives the location as Arras in France.

This sort of thing has never caught on, presumably because the extra weight and complication was too great compared with the limited number of times it would have been useful.

Source: Pathe newsreel issued 2nd May 1927. More info here.

There is no sign of any extra mechanism around the stub axles; this suggests the wheel-swivelling was done by altering the effective length of the track-rod. (tie-rod) There is also no sign of front-wheel drive, which suggests that the car was swivelled by causing the rear wheels to turn in opposite directions, requiring an extra gearbox.

A related concept is the zero-turn lawnmower, which can turn around on the spot. Some of these have five wheels...

Shown here with the wheels down.

This remarkable vehicle certainly has four wheels, but it also has a pair of caterpillar tracks. It also has a complicated history.

The vehicle was designed and constructed by the German engineer Joseph Vollmer, who was at the time co-owner of the German Automobile Construction Company (DAC). The manufacture of tanks was forbidden in the German Reich due to the Treaty of Versailles. To evade this, the the GHH (Gute Hoffnungs-Hütte) steelworks group, based in Oberhausen had acquired the Landsverk company in Landskrona, Sweden. Vehicles and engines were designed and then sold as complete factory drawings against future royalty payments.

The FM30 had a 150 HP engine, weighed 11.5 tons and could exceed 45 mph (75 km/h) on the road using its wheels, and 20 mph (35 km/h) across country using its tracks. To convert to tracked operation, both sets of wheels were raised until the top of them were level with the tank deck. The transition to wheeled mode took about 30 seconds and could be done on the move. The armour was proof only against small-arms fire.

Shown here with the wheels up.

The armament was a Bofors 37mm gun (122 rounds carried) and 6.5mm machine-gun. (4000 rounds carried) For some reason the machine-gun was mounted in a short fat cylinder. Note the hatch on each side of the turret.

Perhaps predictably, the dual-drive system was complex to manufacture and too fragile for military use. Tests took place in 1935-36, but the single example was relegated to training until 1940. It has been preserved and can be seen in the Swedish Arsenalen Museum in Strängnäs. Their website is here.

There is a very short Wikipedia page for the FM/30.

This Swedish armoured car design resembled the German one just below in that it had four wheels in normal use, plus two spare wheels which were mounted so they contacted the ground in rough country and prevent the vehicle getting stuck; it's another case of 'is this a 4 or 6-wheeled vehicle'?. The four main wheels were driven and steered at each end.

The wheels in the picture are hidden behind the pentagonal armour plates. The rear of the vehicle is towards the camera, and tyres contacting the road can be seen at each end- but the middle pentagonal plate has no tyre visible under it. The phrase 'rear of the vehicle' is a bit of a doubtful one in this case: the FM29 had a driver and controls at each end, allowing for some spectacularly rapid retreats.

You may be worried that this armoured car appears to be equipped with a pair of torpedo tubes. In fact the two circular hatches cover the headlights; the headlights at the 'rear of the vehicle'.

Only one example was ever completed; the design proved too big and heavy, and too expensive.

Many thanks to Tulle Rönnmyr for bringing this vehicle to my attention.

The FM29 demonstrates its ability to deal with a hump, though the spare wheels aren't actually doing anything at the moment. It also gives a very good view of the front and back driving positions.

The disc wheels formed part of the protection of the crew. The engine can be seen at the rear of the vehicle. (To the right)

Many thanks to Tulle Rönnmyr for bringing this vehicle to my attention.

The Austrian ADMK Mulus was a light machine-gun carrier vehicle that, like the Stridsvagn FM/30 above, could proceed either on its tracks or on its four wheels. It does not qualify as a tankette because it had no armour at all.

The front wheels could be swung upward on their gear-driven suspension arms. They could then be removed and put into brackets at the rear of the vehicle. The rear wheels could also be removed, but this was a more complicated process that required driving the tracks up onto blocks.

It has been written that a unique feature was that the front arms acted as a framework for the driver's seat, but so far no information on how this worked has been found.

It was first produced in prototype quantities in 1935, and continued in production until 1938. Total production was 334 units; 302 of them in 1936. The Mulus was taken over by the German army after the 1938 Anschluss, but does not seem to have had much use, probably because it was underpowered, only having a 20 HP engine to move a 1.5 ton vehicle. Some were used in training for Operation Sealion.

The Mulus has a short Wikipedia page. In German, but Google Translate does a good job.

• Weight: 1.56 tons
• Engine: Daimler air-cooled 4 cylinder 20 HP
• Speed: On tracks 10 mph, on wheels 27 mph

Here a two-wheeled trailer is towed.

The RR7 was another wheeled/tracked vehicle from Austria. It was developed in 1936 by the Swiss Saurer Company to serve as an artillery tractor. The changeover from wheels to tracks could be done while the vehicle was moving at a slow speed.

After testing, an order was an order was placed in 1937, but only 12 vehicles were built before the 1938 Anschluss. After this manufacture continued, and a total of 140 units were built; there might have been more, but the RR7 had poor handling and was difficult to steer.

The new German name for the RR7 was Sd Kfz 254. It had a 4-cylinder 70 HP diesel engine.

There is a short Wikipedia page on the Sd Kfz 254.

Between 1936 and 1943 the Wehrmacht was supplied with Einheits-PKW (German for 'standard passenger cars') in the three versions; light, medium and heavy. These vehicles were supposed to provide cross-country mobility. They proved too complicated and expensive, their place being taken by the Volkswagen Kubelwagon, which proved capable of dealing with rough terrain despite only having two-wheel drive.

Shown here is the middle-weight version. On each side a spare wheel was mounted on a bearing, so it could rotate freely if it contacted the ground and so prevented the chassis grounding. While this feature seems rather ingenious, it must have failed to earn its keep as it was removed in 1940 to simplify the bodywork and make more room inside.

So- is that four wheels or six?

Many thanks to Bernd F and Pavel Panenka for drawing this machine to my attention.

This is very much the same as the middle-weight version, though the spare wheels are recessed further into the bodywork.

So- is that four wheels or six? Nobody's counting the two wheels on the gun being towed.

Many thanks to Bernd F and Pavel Panenka for drawing this machine to my attention.

The Haywood special was designed to exploit a feature of the rules in the International Six Days Trial held in Wales in 1938. The trials were intended for motorcycles and motorcycle-sidecar combinations, the latter having three wheels. According to the rules two wheels counted as one providing they were less than a foot (30 cm) apart. The special was based on an Austin Seven, and was built by three men called Lloyd, Hughes & Williams, and hence the LHW.

No information has so far been found as to how successful this scheme was, or what their fellow-competitors thought about it, but the Museum staff are on the case.

The car has been preserved and is currently owned by Iain Richardson.

The Austin Seven axle was cut down until only the differential remained.

A contemporary picture of the Haywood LHW Special.

The Home Guard was a local defence organisation formed in Great Britain at the start of the Second World War. This one-person ambulance was intended for the transport of victims of war gases. (a threat which never materialised) It looks like a delivery tricycle with a much extended load carrier, supported by an extra wheel at the front.

It is not entirely clear how the steering worked. It looks as though the front section swivelled with respect to the rear of the tricycle, and moving it to change direction would need a lot of muscular exertion; the front wheel appears to be simply a castor. The wheels make up a diamond pattern like that of the Sunbeam-Mabley at the start of this section.

There is an odd-shaped box on the front, of unknown function.

Note curtains that can be let down on each side to keep out gas. Also, with gas in mind the rider is wearing his box respirator on his chest.

This picture is about on the Net, with claims it was the first ever ambulance; this is of course nonsense.

The Pininfarina-X project showcased its low-drag body design, with a drag coefficient of only 0.23, far superior to the ordinary cars of the time. Batista Pininfarina worked with aerodynamics expert Professor Alberto Morelli. To achieve such low drag the front of the car had to be narrow, leading to this unorthodox layout with one wheel in front, two at the side, and one at the rear. The front wheel did the steering and the rear wheel all the driving.

A 1089cc Fiat engine was installed at an angle in the rear of the car. This odd arrangement was made necessary by the rear three wheels being close together. This must have made for an assymetrical weight distribution and one wonders if that affected the handlng.

The project was a successful technology demonstrator up to a point, but a single front wheel was never going to be acceptable in mainstream motoring. The car was eventually bought by a collector and still exists.

You can find more information here.

This is from a Mythbusters episode. Interestingly the jolting gets less as speed increases because the wheels are bouncing from one corner to the opposite one, the intermediate corner not touching the ground.

There is a YouTube video, posted in 2016.

It is slightly disturbing that this is far from a unique occurrence of square wheels. Typing 'square wheels' into YouTube produces scooters, bicycles, tricycles, tractors, motorbikes and skateboards, all with square wheels.

Presumably the ultimate Perverse Wheel would be an equilateral triangle.

While there could be argument about some of the vehicles in this section, this is I think beyond dispute a true five-wheeled car. Details are sadly lacking but it appears that the amount of load taken by the fifth wheel could be adjusted as the vehicle moved along.

The inventor claims "the elimination of compensating gears and complicated mechanism". I suspect 'compensating gears' means a differential on the driving axle; close examination of the photograph shows there is a chain drive to the fifth wheel, but no chains going to the rear axle. It therefore appears that the fifth wheel was the sole means of propulsion, which might be expected to cause problems with traction. It is not easy to see what good having a variable load on this wheel would do; using a block-and-tackle in the mechanism suggests a certain lack of mechanical sophistication. In all, it does not appear to me to be a good idea.

Source: Popular Mechanics March 1911. Many thanks to Kerry Stiff for drawing this machine to my attention.

The Phelps Tractor was not unique in its rein-control. The Detroit Tractor (which judging by these photographs really was built) had a more practical internal-combustion engine. It is not clear why the towing pole was so long- it may have been something to do with using unmodified horse-drawn ploughs, etc.

I appreciate that neither of these configurations qualify as a 5-wheeled car, though they might as 6-wheeled and 4-wheeled. But I thought it best to show them here for comparison with the Phelps tractor just above.

The Detroit Tractor Company was an overshoot of Baker & Baker of Royal Oak, Michigan. It was set up in March 1913 to build Baker tractors, but a few years later moved to Lafayette, Indiana where this machine was built. It was described as 'a line-drive tractor of the universal frame design'. Presumably 'line-drive' refers to the rein-control system, but I don't understand about the 'universal frame design'.

From an automobile trade journal 1913

The Smith Flyer was a four-wheel buckboard with a Smith Motor-wheel attached at the back. It seems to have been intended for fun rather than serious transport.

Nonetheless, I feel obliged to point an obvious snag. The fifth wheel is clearly hinged to the back of the vehicle, to allow it follow irregularities in the road. Thus only the weight of engine and one wheel is available for adhesion. The traction abilities must have diabolical.

It is often cited as the cheapest car ever sold, but that means stretching the definition of 'car' to breaking point. It was no competition for the Model-T Ford, which could be had for a few hundred dollars more.

The caption is informative. However, in the list of its desirable features (I like the 'natural woodwork') there is no mention of... brakes. There is no mention of suspension either; there wasn't any beyond the flexing of the chassis. It does however have front and rear mudguards.

I marvel at the idea of raising the whole engine and wheel to declutch; this is less practical with a V8. There is no mention of a throttle control, which would have required a Bowden cable; it says 'Control is under the thumb on the steering wheel', which I take to mean an ignition cutout switch. And there certainly wasn't a gearbox.

Sorry about the moire. Nothing to be done at this stage.

This magnificent photograph captures a Smith Flyer superbly. The Smith Motor-wheel with its distinctive two mounting horns, has in this case a belt-driven 4-blade cooling fan.
The diagonal wire attached to the engine is presumably the 'clutch control' for raising the engine and wheel off the road.

Pictured at what appears to be a tractor rally. This restored Flyer has a 5-blade belt-driven cooling fan.

This shows the conventional application of the Smith Motor Wheel; you bolted it to the side of your bicycle converting it into a sort of tricycle. The Smith Motor Wheel first appeared in 1914.

The Smith Motor Wheel was an ingenious design. The disc wheel was driven directly from the cam-shaft, which was geared down 8:1 to give a suitable drive ratio. However the camshaft of a 4-stroke engine must rotate at half engine-speed; Smith got round this by having four lobes rather than one on each cam. This ingenious idea was borrowed from the Wall Motor Wheel, invented in England in 1910, of which Smith had bought the US manufacturing rights. The Wall Motor Wheel used a 4:1 reduction ratio and a two-lobed exhaust cam; the inlet valve was automatic.

Once again an earlier implementation of five-wheel parking has been discovered. Lowering the fifth wheel and turning it in either direction was done by wire cables and a pulley on the engine. No further details currently known.

Source: Popular Mechanics for Dec 1924, p892

It has emerged that the Brookes Walker Fifth Wheel (see just below) was not the first of its kind. This picture is taken from a video posted on Facebook by Road & Track magazine. The mechanism is activated by the driver pulling a rod out of the dashboard. Quite what is activated is currently unknown, but probably hydraulics. Close examination shows that the fifth wheel is driven by a chain.

The mechanism works quickly and smoothly, and looks like a first-class job of engineering.

You can see the video here.

The only information in the soundtrack is that the inventor lived in California; this is confirmed by the licence plate, which also gives the date of 1933. The car is a four-door Packard.

The activating control pulled fully out of the dashboard.

The text pretty much says it all.

Source: Popular Science July 1933, p12

The huge barge-like cars produced in the USA in the 50's were hard to park in spaces of limited size. Here is one attempted solution; a fifth wheel that lefts the normal rear wheels off the road and allows the back of the car to go sideways. It could be argued that the car was a three-wheeler during this operation, as only three wheels were actually touching the road. A hydraulic cylinder lowered the fifth wheel, which was then rotated by a friction roller driven from the rear axle.

For a long time nothing was currently known beyond the existence of this photograph. It can now be revealed that this Cadillac is using the Park-Car concept invented by Brooks Walker in the 1930s. US patent 2,139,341 was applied for in 1932 but only granted in 1938.

Now you may object to carrying around the weight of an extra wheel just to help with parking. But the beauty of the concept is that it doubles as the spare wheel, and the only extra weight is that of the raise/lower mechanism.

There is a video of the fifth wheel in operation on YouTube.

The fifth wheel 22 swings down on a radius arm 25, actuated by the hydraulic cylinder 31. The big spring 38 looks as if it is intended to retract the fifth wheel if the hydraulics fail.

The fifth wheel is driven by friction roller held against its tread; this is driven by the chain 45, from the shaft 43. This shaft is driven by another friction roller 41 bearing on the rear tyre 40.

I have my doubts about this drive system:

• There are two friction rollers here that need to have a good grip on their respective tyres. How well is that going to work in the wet?
  
• The friction roller 41 bears not on the tread of its tyre but on its sidewall. Tyre sidewalls are not designed for that sort of duty and would quickly wear and become dangerous- on the inside sidewall which is hard to inspect.
  
• Finally, what about the differential? Once both rear wheels are of the ground, trying to apply power through tyre 40 is just going to make the opposite rear wheel spin uselessly.

This installation takes up most of the room in the boot (trunk) and apparently the petrol tank has also had to be moved- quite a major rebuild.

From a Life article, 17 Nov 1952 (The issue that reported the victory of Eisenhower over Adlai Stevenson)

This photograph shows chain drive to the fifth wheel, alleged taken from the propellor shaft, though it is far from clear exactly how that worked.

Not to be pedantic, but I can only see one hydraulic cylinder here, at bottom right. The other tubular things are parts of the bracket holding the fifth wheel.

From the Life article of 17 Nov 1952

From the Life article of 17 Nov 1952

Multiple-exposure photography demonstrates the parking process. The car on the left can get into a much smaller parking space by swinging its rear in.

From the Life article of 17 Nov 1952

This 1953 Packard Cavalier was converted by Brooks Walker and used as his personal transportation; it still survives. This time the fifth wheel lives outside the boot, (trunk) which leaves the luggage space intact. Presumably moving the petrol tank was also not necessary. Definitely a more practical proposition.

According to the latest information I can find, the Packard is currently owned by William Swaney of Pennsylvania, who bought it in December 2005. The hydraulic system has been rebuilt, and is fully operational, so the car can go round in complete circles if the owner so desires.

The first Lowell Kinetic Sculpture Race was held in 1969 in Ferndale, California. Local artist Hobart Brown modified his son Justin's tricycle by adding two more wheels, though it's hard to see much trace of a tricycle here apart from the two big wheels. There is pedal drive to the front wheel by a chain.

The little wheel at the back seems to be collapsing under the strain.

There was a 2003 article on Hobart Brown in the North Coast Journal.

The Brown pentacycle is preserved in the a kinetic sculpture museum. I think it's this one.

That bent wheel still hasn't been fixed. Perhaps it's part of the artistic effect.

The caption says it all.

Don Clausen has a Wikipedia page.

This pentacycle was designed with one specific application in mind; it was to ride along the abandoned track of the French Aerotrain project. It does look as if this is a unique case where five wheels really are required. Two of the balloon-like wheels support the rear of the pentacycle on the ground, while the single wheel at the front supports it on top of the big concrete rail. The two wheels on vertical axles guide the pentacycle laterally.

There is more info here.

The machine was in course of construction by Michael Salerno when this photograph was taken; the chain is missing. A sequence of photographs describe the construction process on Flickr.

There seems to be no suspension so the question arises of how often all five wheels will be touching the ground.

This image is also on a site promoting the music of Jaapur and Machoo here. They have a track called Pentacycle. Don't listen it, it's bad. In fact, it's terrible.

The machine in one version of 'finished', with handlebars. They were later replaced by a miniature ship's wheel.

Note the fancy backrest.

This modification was done in Egypt. The car is an old-style Renault 5. I use to have a Renault 5TS, and it was a good and fast car. But I was tempted away by the Peugeot 205 GTi; (1.6 litre version) lovely car, wish I still had it.

There is a video of the fifth wheel doing its stuff on YouTube. It was uploaded in 2014

Early cars were naturally based on horse-drawn vehicles, but this design takes that philosophy further than most. The horses are here replaced by a 4-wheel tractor unit.

This remarkable vehicle has now been identified as the landau of Grand Duke Alexis of Russia, drawn by a Heilmann electric tractor circa 1898.

That is the same Heilmann who produced a remarkable steam-electric locomotive.

Here's one way to arrange six wheels on a car. This wheel configuration is very rare, and was thought to be unique until the Lorraine Dietrich car (below) was discovered. When the middle wheels encountered a high spot in the road, the car had an unhappy tendency to rock back and forwards.

The Pullman car was not a success. It crashed into a telegraph pole within a year of its construction, very probably due to instability in the steering behaviour. Its parts were used in more conventional cars. The year of building is usually given as 1903, which seems to indicate it was prototype built before Pullman went into mass production in 1905.

Pullman went bankrupt and ceased operations in 1917.

The car was powered by an unidentified 75 HP engine. Its wheelbase - presumably measured between front and rear axles - was 168 inches. The Horseless Age wrote:

"The wheels are mounted on lengthwise members, which are pivoted to the rear springs in each side. By this mode of support much less shock is transmitted to the body of the car than is ordinarily the case, since inequalities in the road, causing a rise or depression of one of the four wheels, will raise or depress the body spring by only half that amount, provided the other wheel on the same side remains on the level."

This six-wheeled car was produced by the Socièté Lorraine Dietrich apparently in 1908, though one source states 1903/4. The makers described it as an 'omnibus'. The rear section was stated to be a fourgon or baggage-van.

It had a 40 HP engine and a maximum speed of 55 to 62 mph (90-100 km/hr) and according to some accounts driven by the four rear wheels. This needs confirmation- the chain drive to the centre wheels can be seen just to the left of the tyre, but not so any chains to the rear axle. However if you had rear wheels, surely you would drive them? Other accounts suggest that the rear wheels were steerable, but not driven.

The first and third axles could slide axially, which was claimed to allow a very small turning-circle, equivalent to that of a car half the length. It sounds like that might make for some interesting handling. However contemporary writers enquired anxiously about the true size of its turning circle.

Just above the driver's position, a speaking tube can be seen. This allowed the passengers to give the driver instructions without the inconvenience of opening a window.

Thanks to Pavel Panenko for bringing this vehicle to my attention.

Another view of the Lorraine Dietrich six-wheeled car. It was commissioned by Baron Herrmann von Eckhardstein, [1864-1933] who was first secretary at the German embassy in London from 1891 to 1901. Though never the ambassador, as the first secretary he performed most of the functions of one.

The car boasted a silver sink with hot and cold running water, electric lighting and heating, and a dashboard fitted with every imaginable instrument. The fourgon actually held a fully equipped kitchen in which Emil, the chef, prepared gourmet meals. Entry to this kitchen was naturally via a tradesman's entrance at the rear of the car.

The car is said to have had a wheelbase of 3.80 metres; this is presumably the distance between adjacent axles, rather than the overall wheelbase. The six-wheel suspension was based on a patent owned by Turcat-Méry, motor manufacturers from 1899 until 1928.

This diagram of the six-wheel arrangement was published in a book in 1910. There are four linked leaf-springs on each side. The inner pair of springs pivot on the chassis at their centres.

The sprocket for the chain drive is shown as a circle just to the right of the centre wheel; the chain is not shown.

The six-wheeled car appears to have been preceded by this unconventional six-wheel lorry.This is one of the many Lorraine-Dietrich lorries that brought supplies to the 400,000 troops engaged in the Grandes Southwestern maneuvers in France in 1907.

The four leaf springs visible are arranged as in the diagram above; in this case the driving chain sprocket is ahead of the centre axle. No drive chain to the rear wheel is visble.

The centre wheels are bigger than the front and rear, and their tyres are bigger too, supporting the idea that only the centre wheels were driven. Also, different size wheels at the back would have required a different gear ratio to drive them. Add to this that if the rear wheels HAD to be steerable, to get an acceptable turning radius with the axle layout, applying power to them as well is going to give you all the difficulties of front-wheel drive technology- specifically a need for constant-velocity joints. Perhaps this is why the idea did not thrive- it limits you to just driving the centre axle, which is not going to give good traction.

This six-wheel prototype was built by Turcat-Méry in 1905. The patent involved was actually granted to Charles Lindecker of Briancon in France. Presumably Turcat-Méry had bought the patent or taken out a licence to exploit it.

This photograph shows the middle axle in a hole; note how the inner ends of the springs on the front and rear axles have been raised, reducing the load on them.

The patent shows four methods of interconnecting the suspension of the three axles so that they will take equal shares of the load even if the ground is uneven; all are the same in principle but the fourth method, shown here, is the simplest mechanically, and the one used by Turcat-Mery and Lorraine Dietrich.

Here the springs 4 do double duty as balance levers, transferring loads to and from the front and rear axles; they are pivoted on the chassis at their centres, indicated by two small circles. The centre axle is located by the radius arm 9; when the centre axle encounters a hole, it tends to sink, which causes springs 4 to swivel on their pivots and raise the inner ends of springs 3 by means of the little links. This reduces the load on the front and rear axles.

The load distribution could be changed by varying the lengths of the suspension components.

I am very doubtful if 'Tire trouble and expense actually reduced' was a realistic claim.

The only Sexto-Auto ever built.

It's all very well claiming that there is 'No shock, no jolt, no rebound', but how is that actually accomplished? Even if we accept that four wheels at the back give a much superior ride, the front two wheels are entirely conventional and so you would presumably get the usual amount of shock, jolt, and rebound from them.

This bizarre vehicle was built by shortening a heavy touring car, by moving its rear axle to just behind the gearbox, removing the rear wheels, and fixing it to the chassis side-members. The rear springs were reversed and rested on the front axle of the fire engine. That is the middle set of wheels visible; they were chain-driven from what had been the car rear axle.

The original front axle of the fire-engine swivelled, and this was presumably retained to avoid a long rigid wheelbase, so it was effectively an articulated vehicle. It was built because there had been a spate of serious accidents when people tried to tow fire-engines with cars.

From the Melbourne Herald (Australia) for Monday 23 Oct 1916. See here.

Thanks to Ben Hurkett for drawing this to my attention.

Here's a rather better picture that hasn't been through newspaper rotogravure.

This Norwegian car was a one of two six-wheelers built in the years 1916-1917 by Hans Clarin Hovind Mustad, one of the earliest automotive pioneers in Norway.

The front wheels steered, the middle wheels were both steered and driven, and the rear wheels simply driven. This car is supposed to be the first to be fitted with directional headlights swivelled by the steering, though it is not mentioned on the Wikipedia page.

The wheelbase between the front and rear axles was 4.37 m and the weight was about of 3 tons.

One of these cars is said to be in the Norwegian Museum of Science and Industry in Oslo, though it appears not to be viewable on their website.

Yes, it can deal with three bricks.

The Clarin-Mustad shamelessly displays its front beam axle. Such axles were common in early cars because of their simplicity, but the disadvantages are the lack of independent wheel movement and the high unsprung weight as the whole axle is unsprung.

Based on the standard H6 Hispano-Suiza, this unique car was built for Constantine I, the King of Greece. Regrettably he had to abdicate in 1922 before taking delivery, and it was bought by the film director D. W. Griffith for $35,000. It appeared in the 1933 film "My Lips Betray" and some war films. It is now at the Forney Museum in Denver.

The car is believed to have been built in Barcelona, and the body designed and built by Leon Rubay.

The H6 in general has a Wikipedia page.

I don't think there is any rational way you could call this a 6-wheeled vehicle, but the very prominent nose-roller on this half-track relates to the French vehicles further on in this section. Of course once you let in tracked vehicles, you could have endless discussions as to whether you should count just the big wheels/sprockets at each end or all of the track roadwheels as well. Let's not bother.

The P16 was developed in 1924 by Citroën from the earlier Citroën-Kégresse Modèle 1923. Both employed the Kégresse track, A Kégresse track uses rubber or canvas in a continuous flexible belt rather than interlocking metal segments, as in conventional tracks. Adolphe Kégresse was a French military engineer.

This half-track was classified by the French as an armoured car rather than a tank.

The GAZ-21 6x6 was a Russian off-road prototype based on the GAZ-21 civilian saloon car. Very little information is available.

Referring to Wikipedia's List of GAZ vehicles we also find the GAZ-AAA - 6x4 2-ton truck, produced from 1934 to 1943. It was a three axle version of the GAZ-AA.

The Mercedes-Benz G4 Type-W31 was a six-wheeled staff/command car built for the Wehrmacht in 1934, designed to cope with off-road conditions. Only 57 were built, of which only three completely original specimens are known to exist, one of them belonging to the Spanish royal family.

All versions had eight-cylinder inline engine, driving the rear four wheels through self-locking differentials. The rear wheels were attached to two rigid axles suspended by semi-elliptic leaf springs. The first three years of production had 5018 cc engines delivering 100 HP. Later engine capacity was increased to 5252 cc and then 5401 cc.

This car has a Wikipedia page.

Thanks to John Bevan for drawing this car to my attention.

It should be simple enough to say how many wheels a vehicle has; and then you come across something like this. Does this count as six wheels or eight?

This vehicle is a VLTT (Voiture de Liason Tout Terraine) Lorraine 72, built under licence from Tatra by Lorraine-Dietrich for the French forces. Images of this vehicle and others with the same chin-mounted axle are not hard to find if you know what you are looking for, but nonetheless none of the sources examined by the Museum staff even mention the very obvious extra wheels. It appears the idea is to make crossing ditches easier, as the extra wheels would help the front of the car to rise up the far side of the ditch.

Presumably the two chin wheels were not powered, as they have no tread on; they are purely to stop the vehicle burying its nose in the ground. There also appears to be no room under the extended starting-handle for any drive mechanism.

We have met the Lorraine-Dietrich company before, making six-wheeled lorries. See 1908 above.

At least one VLTT 72 has been preserved; location and date of photo not currently known.

The rear of the preserved VLTT 72.

This vehicle, a fast troop transporter, was also built under licence from Tatra. Testing began in 1934 and the VDP 24 was issued to the services in 1937.

Now there are four wheels on the chin axle, much more heavily constructed. So is that six wheels or ten?

Here the chin wheels are treaded. It is not currently known if they were powered.

The weight was 3.78 tonnes loaded and 2.72 tonnes empty. Length was 4.84m and height 2.08m. Ithad a four-cylinder engine of 4710 cc giving 55 HP and a maximum speed of 65 km/hr. It could carry ten men in total. It had no built-in armament but two hatches in the roof allowed for possible mounting of AA guns.

VDP srands for 'Voiture de Dragons Portés' which Google translate renders as 'Car of dragons worn'; this is unhelpful. I think it means 'car for mechanised dragoons'.

The Lorraine 28 radio truck was a variation on the VDP 24. Here is one taking part in a parade in Paris in the ominous year of 1938. Note white-wall tyres on both the big and the little wheels.

An inherent problem with this idea is the need to carry around two sizes of spare wheel.

This military vehicle, the Skoda 903 (page in Czech) was developed from the Skoda Superb. (1934-1949) for the Czech Army. Three were built initially; a later version was built in 1939, totalling 42 vehicles..

The Skoda plant at Mladá Boleslav is the largest production plant in the Czech Republic.

This Russian military prototype, the GAZ-AAAA, had six normal wheels plus two more just behind the front pair. Images of this vehicle are very rare, but there is a YouTube video that shows the GAZ-AAAA in action for a few seconds around 38:35, and this image is taken from there.

Presumably the extra two wheels are spares; those carried on the middle and heavy Einheits-PKW did double-duty as while they did not normally contact the road, they stopped the vehicle grounding on humps. These extra wheels are close behind the front pair and it is hard to see how they could have fulfilled an anti-grounding function.

Referring to Wikipedia's List of GAZ vehicles it appears that only one prototype was built.

This Laffly S35T artillery tractor also challenges definition. Do you call this six wheels or ten?

It has six normal wheels, two little wheels on the chin like the Lorrain vehicles- plus another two little wheels between the front and middle main axles, presumably to stop the chassis grounding on bumps. The first vehicles were delivered to the French army in 1937.

All six of the main wheels were driven, but only the front two steered.

The Laffly Company, founded in 1912, were major manufacturers of of heavy vehicles like trucks and buses in the 1920s and 1930s. Laffly made other military vehicles with one or two extra little-wheel axles, such as the S15 and the W15 TCC.

This picture of a Laffly S35T demonstrates that there were four wheels on the chin axle. So, do you call this six wheels or twelve? I am assuming the axle under the cab carries only two little wheels because of restricted space. The little wheels had no suspension, but were rigidly attached.

This Laffly S35T is still in the hands of the French- note the caps on the men. After the fall of France they were used by the Germans.

The main wheels are here fitted with snow chains. Since it's not winter (the men are in their shirt-sleeves) I wonder if there some traction problems.

This is Professor Fate's Hannibal Twin-8 car from the 1965 movie The Great Race. Jack Lemmon played the evil Professor Fate, opposite good guy Tony Curtis. (I saw it when it came out and I remember it as a good film) Sources differ as to whether three, five, or six were built, which is at least two more than some of the machines in this gallery. However it seems likely that only two of the cars were fully functional.

Unusual features are that the bodywork really can be raised 9 feet above the chassis by hydraulic rams, and there was a fully functional smoke screen generator. However, the retractable brass cannon pointing out of the front is not likely to fire anything other than a small pyrotechnic, and the nose that could be made to glow red-hot (for melting snow drifts) was just a lighting effect.

This machine is worth studying, because it was rather more than just a movie prop. The Hannibal Twin-8's were custom built by Warner Bros from the ground up at a cost of $150,000 in 1965 money, which was about three times what a house went for back then. (It is not currently clear if that was the cost each or for the three; I suspect the latter)

Power is from a Corvair flat-6 with a 3-speed manual gearbox; all four of the rear wheels are powered by a chain drive. The Hannibal Twin-8 remains in its original and un-restored condition just as it was last used on the movie set. It is still fully operational, and it actually runs and drives. It even has a 1965 assigned VIN and could be titled, registered and driven over the road.

The exact significance of the name is obscure. I seem to recall that the fictional car was supposed to have twin engnes, but attempts by the Museum staff to confirm this have so far failed. As for the '8' surely they didn't mean twin V8 engines?

There is a video of Jack Lemmon extolling the features of the Hannibal Twin-8 on YouTube. The car appears at 0:40.

Demonstrating the Hannibal Twin-8's ability to rise above things. I'm not sure if you can safely do this while driving along...

The high point of the P34 story was the 1976 Swedish Grand Prix; Jody Scheckter and Patrick Depailler finished first and second in their P34's. Scheckter remains the only driver ever to win a race in a six-wheeled car.

However various handling problems emerged and Tyrell's design for the 1978 season had four wheels. One P34 has survived and is often seen at historic racing events.

Looks like daylight under that rear wheel.

There is a Wikipedia page for the P34.

There were various versions of FAB-1; this late version is at a show in Toykyo in 2013. Note Parker driving and Lady Penelope in the back.

In case you're wondering, 'Fab!' short for 'Fabulous!' was a common exclamation in the Swinging Sixties.

This tractor unit is in service with the US and British Armies, usually hauling tank-transporter trailers.

Both front and the rearmost axle are powered and steer. Production commenced in 1992. The M1070 has a Wikipedia page.

The Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle (SPV) is a fictional 10-wheeled attack and pursuit vehicle that featured prominently in Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's science-fiction television series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. (1967) Only the first, third and fifth axles were powered, and these carried larger wheels. The maximum speed was a rather unlikely 200 or 250 mph, depending on episode. A notable feature was that the crew of two faced backwards (for better crash protection) and drove using a television screen and front-mounted camera; this was an awkward decision as it had to be explained several times in the series.

The SPV was usually manned by Captain Blue and Captain Scarlet; Captain Blue was a skilled SPV driver, but Captain Scarlet crashed several times. Fortunately he was Indestructable.

The SPV has a Wikipedia page.

Built by Jay Ohrberg. (see below) Unfortunately no technical details are currently available.

Four wheels at the front and six at the back.

Built by Jay Ohrberg. (see below) Unfortunately no technical details are currently available.