In this video from Jorn-Harald Paulsen, He demonstrate how to use the Cartoony Wheel Rig v1, to create and rig wheels.  His requirements for the rig is to be clean, fast flexible and animation friendly.

This current version of the rig works, but can’t be pushed as far as he would like it to.  The current verison is basicly just a lattice of clusters and a nurbs-        
circle and all of the extra-controllers are connected to    the circle through MotionPath-nodes.

You will find the main controllers: contact-controller for floor contact, two controllers for rolling of the wheel and a main-controller for translation/rotation/scaling.

Dowmload: Click here to download Cartoony Wheel Rig v1 for Maya.

Cartoony Wheel Rig v1 for Maya