From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Cause of steering wobbles, attributing it to the imbalance of tyres and inner tubes.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 29\1\ Scan155 | |
| Date | 7th September 1911 | |
| COPY. Sept 7th.1911. To Mr. Wormald. RE. STEERING WOBBLES. When Mr. Hanbury was here on Monday he made some interesting statements in regard to steering wobbles and consequently have made some careful balancing tests and the result has led us the following conclusion. Our steering is so sensitive that before we can get over the trouble, we shall have to make our steering less sensitive or get the tyres more perfectly balanced. There is a slight error in the wheels, but nothing of importance; it is about 3 to 4 ozs. The inner tube itself is 12 ozs. out of balance. The outer cover itself is 7 ozs. out of balance. In this particular case the errors were practically the same distance from the valve so they would total to 1 lb. 3 ozs. This is quite sufficient to make unpleasant steering wobbles. Of course it could be largely counterbalanced by altering the position of the slots in the outer cover, so the weight was made to compensate that part of the inner tube which is out of balance. My object in stating these details is to show that we cannot guarantee our cars not to have steering wobbles unless something is done to obtain a better constructed tyre. The chief errir lies in the overlap on the join in the inner tube. (Signed) W.H. | ||