How To Measure Wheel Offset

 To help determine your skid steer wheel offset we put together a quick guide on how to accurately determine your wheel offset before purchasing. It's easy to assume that all skid steer wheels have the same nave plate (bolt plate) depth as the other, but unfortunately this is not always true. Although some skid steer machines share a standard size wheel, it's best to measure this for ourselves to assure that we are providing you with a wheel that is designed for your machine.

 In the image to the right you can see we used a straight edge (1x2 board in this example) to lay across the top of the our skid steer wheel with the valve stem facing upward. Next we use a measuring tape to determine the distance between the Nave (bolt plate) and the bottom edge of our board that is resting on top of our wheel. We measure this in inches not millimeters. Doing this will allow us to accurately supply you with the correct wheel for your machine.

 The terms inset and outset are used to describe how much a wheel mounting surface differs from the centerline of the skid steer wheel.

 When the skid steer wheel mounting surface is positioned off of the centerline and toward the machine, the wheel is outset. This causes the tire to move away from (out from) the side of the machine.

 When the wheel mounting surface is positioned off of the centerline and away from the machine, the wheel is inset. This causes the tire to move toward (inward) the side of the machine.

1. Determine the centerline of the wheel. Measure the width of the wheel and divide it by two. See image to the left.

2. Measure the distance from the outside, top (stem side) of the wheel to the face of the wheel mounting surface. Place a flat bar across the wheel and drop a ruler down into the wheel until it hits the face near the bolt holes as seen in the image at the top right.

3. Subtract the centerline measurement in Step 1 from the measured distance in Step 2. A positive value is an outset. A negative value is an inset.