The earliest reference from a Victa ad (for self-lubricating wheels)
occurs in late 1956 - but I am unsure whether this is a reference
to a change to oil impregnated metal sintered bushes; or to the nylon bushes
used with the plastic wheels. My best guess is the latter.
We also have a quote from a March 1957 Victa newsletter, in a past thread, which narrows the intro down a bit more:
VICTA CUTTINGS - MARCH 1957
WE ARE SURE YOU LIKED .... the new polythene wheels fitted to your most recent delivery of mowers. these attractive and durable wheels are fitted with nylon bushes, which require no lubrictation in the lifetime of the machine.
Complete with coloured hub-caps and black rubber tyres they are undoubtedly the most attractive mower wheels on the market and are yet another VICTA selling feature for your sales team to add to their list of victa advantages.
That's from
THIS thread, which is worth working through for detail stuff on the Rotomo's.
However, the stub axle diameter remained the same, and metal and plastic
wheels should have been interchangeable (I think). There was a change from
split pin to circlip fasteners though. My best guess is that the circlip
axle ushered in the plastic wheel. There was no interchangeability be-
tween the components of both wheel types (the tyres were different).
It would be logical for the change of wheel type and fastener to have occurred at the same time. Unless it happened earlier - unlikely that we'll ever know for sure.
Yup, the early Victas, up to the end of the Model 5 series, used 1/2" diameter axles. The later models used 9/16".
Victa must have expected the axles on the Model 4 and 5's to wear as quickly as the earlier steel wheel models did.
The OPE business my family took over in 1973 had NOS Victa parts dating back to the 1950's in stock. I recall that among these was a box of 1/2" stub axles, with circlip groove, to suit the Model 4 and 5's. I don't think we ever used more than a couple of them.
