Tom Sheppard's Wheel Claw

I've been intrigued by the wheel claw adaptor since first seeing photographs of it in Tom Sheppard's "Vehicle-dependent Expedition Guide" and again in "Quiet, for a Tuesday". So, I e-mailed him recently to enquire further.

As I expected from Tom, he was gracious in his reply, took some photographs and sent them to me. The wheel claw adaptor is bespoke and can't be bought anywhere off the shelf.

He said that he did a bent aluminium bar lash-up and went along to a local agricultural blacksmith with it. Every wheel claw has to be tailored for the particular wheel it's used on. The shelf for the bottle jack needs to be above the hub centre to counter wheel rotational forces. You can see from the photograph that it will only work on steel wheels; aluminium wheels do not have a lip that is deep enough. The wheel claw was made up with 13mm steel bar. Tom has plastic hose taped around it to stop it scratching the wheel rim.