Using balance weight clips for aero wheel covers?

[brucepick]

Hmmm...

If using the balance weight clips as a device to somehow anchor a DZus fastener to a wheel - one could use a pair of those clips to hold a small U-nut in place.

U-nut = similar to a J-clip. Normally it slips into a rectangular hole to give you a place to thread a screw into. Used in plastic panels and for license plate holders etc. The U-nuts are threaded for machine screws; I've used them for M6x1 metric. The other kind isn't truly threaded, they have a funky hole that takes coarse threaded screws.

Anyway, two balance weight clips might hold a thin flat aluminum bar stock piece; a U-bolt would go into that. Screw the wheel cover into the u-bolt.

OR - Modify the U-nut so that you hammer it directly to the wheel rim. No wheel balance weight needed.

[BamZipPow]

Have you seen this tech which is similar to what yer proposing?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dSHc4nWzDPc

Aerodynamic Truck Products from AeroTech Caps

[crashnzuk]

I don't think it would work as part of the hubcap, but if you drilled and tapped holes in a complete weight (wheel weights are now steel instead of aluminum, at least in CA), you could hammer them on the wheel and screw your cover to them. Put 3 of them evenly spaced with mounting holes in the cover to match. Seems like it could work fairly well.
Travis..

[t vago]

I just ordered a set of 25 each 5 gram steel wheel weights to see if they can accept a thread. I think these weights will easily be able to hold pizza pans as wheel covers.

[t vago]

Got the wheel weights today. They're just clips. There's no "meat" on them at all.

I am thinking to buy small screws and attach them to these clips, so the screw heads are facing the wheel. After that, I should be able to use nuts and spacers to attach the pizza pans to the wheels.

[t vago]

So, went to the local hardware store earlier today. Got some inspiration of using these tee nuts along with the wheel clips I got yesterday. I refuse to call them wheel weights. I am going to attempt to use 3 clips per wheel, spaced 120 degrees apart.

(click on each image to enlarge)



For each tee nut, had to flatten two of the three spikes.



After that, chopped off part of the tee nut, along with the third spike.



Drilled a hole in the wheel clip, beveled out the hole, and the tee nut fits just fine. There is going to be a slight gap, as the tee nut is going to be sandwiched between the wheel and the wheel clip.



The clips themselves are stainless steel, so drilling a hole in one of them was fun. Remember to keep plenty of cutting oil on hand, use an extra tee nut as a guide for drilling the pilot hole, drill using a slow speed, and press a bit harder than you would with drilling through ordinary steel.