Do these tires make my tractor look fat?

I run this old C and the Kosch side mount mower over about a hundred acres of pasture, old fields and roadside every year. Either I am losing my judgment of conditions, or things have gotten much wetter over the past ten years. Anyway I have spent way too much time on the wrong end of a chain.

Over a year ago I asked on this board about putting duals on this tractor. The general ageement was that it could be done for flotation, not for brute force traction. That is all right because all I do with this tractor is mow and rake. However, nobody offered to make any donations to finance the project, so it went slowly.

Last year I choked up the cash for a pair of new 12.4x36 six ply tires. This in itself seemed to make a difference, because they are a little bigger, and I left out the chloride when I mounted them, so the whole rig weighs less. This summer I cleaned up and painted my spare rims, bought some tubes, and re-mounted the tires I took off. I dug another pair of wheel disks out of the fence row, and bought a set of axle clamps for them, as the originals had disappeared.

The next thing was to replace one axle, which had been hacked off to protect gateposts and doorways from careless drivers. I did manage to do this through the PTO opening in the rear of the housing, without removing the transmission cover, but wouldn't recommend it to anyone with bigger arms than mine. I also removed one iron wheel weight from each side, as the extra wheel disks and rims should more than compensate for it.

I have been testing the resulting product for the past week, and I can say that it definitely does float a lot better. A bonus is that it rides better, it takes a much bigger hole for the duals to fall into than a single tire.

Now the sixty four dollar question is what can I do with the front end, that does not involve power steering or Charles Atlas shoulders and arms? A wide front, as made for these tractors, is not an option, they are tough to steer on good going, and they don't turn tight enough for my purposes. I had the front wheels in over the spindles yesterday, and was pushing a wad of sod and mud three feet in front of me. That is probably OK in my own pasture, but it doesn't look very good where I am mowing the fields around a retirement home that belongs to some guy form New Jersey.

Twenty years ago some fool that was working for my dad broke both spindles off the wide front on our Super C, so I welded up an adapter and bolted the narrow front off a junked out H under it. It works, but makes the tractor look as if it is about to take off. I think I will swap that in, it will at least get me into 16 inch tires, at no cost except the time to swap them.

I have been curious if I could do something similar to my F504. I would like to use cast wheels inside and out instead of "snap on" wheels. Looks tough.

Charles

They make it look purposeful!
Widen the rims and use radial lower profile (car) tires with less air pressure. It might steer a bit harder, but it will float better. Those cast front weights/wheels add to the issue.

Yes Harold but it only looks fat in the rear end. Better not tell her that. David..........

Ya know Harold, I'll bet ol' Mr. Haney (from Green Acres) could fix you up with some duals for the front end.

Just kidding really, admire guys with your patience.

you are worried how the dials look well look at the rest of the tractor it looks like it went through the civil war why worry how it looks if it does the job you want it to do then its ok

Why are you using front wheel weights if the frontwheels are causing too much wt problem. Those weigh 42lbs ea. If your front wheels are the adjustable rims you can space them wider an this will help. The Char-Lynn power steering unit would be easy to install. Just mount a power steering pump under the gen. Know of a couple done that way and they work well.

You don't really care how it looks--tire-wise, as long as it gets the job done.

The front weights are still on it because I have been too lazy to take them off, and because Dad always had them, and because all the other tractors have them, etc. etc. etc. But seriously folks, I often find myself using the brakes to assist the steering, as the fronts try to slide sideways. I haven't tried it without the weights, but I put them right back on the Super C in a hurry after I changed that front end. The same objection comes up to using a low profile car tire, about zero traction for steering, especially on grass or once the tread fills with mud. There is just no substitute for a rib front tractor tire. Even rib implement tires just don't grab as well. That is a good point about spacing the front wheels out. I am still experimenting with this, and I do appreciate your suggestions.

As far as a Char-Lynn power steering system, the M is first in line for that, if I ever get the money. The "Armstrong steering unit" does not work nearly as well as it did when I was nineteen. It seems like every time I get the cash together for it something else comes along that is more urgent.

Looks pretty sweet!

Widening the tread width on the front will help with cutting through the mud, not rolling over it. The weight on the tires is the same, and the contact patch with the ground is the same, so it will sink in the same.

The only way to increase floatation is to increase your contact patch in front. 40-50% of the tractor's weight is on those front wheels in your case. You've got acres of contact patch holding up 60% of the weight with the duals, but tiny fraction of that holding up the rest.

Going to 16" wheels will increase your contact patch by 20-25% maybe. You need to double or triple your contact patch to make a noticeable difference.

I've seen duals put on the front for added floatation. The camber of the front wheels means you'll have to use something smaller than the stock tire, maybe a wide 14" car tire. You'll have to fabricate the solution, because nothing commercial exists. The nice thing about this solution is that you retain the tri-rib fronts for steering, and the duals only contact the ground when the fronts sink in a little.

Just a thought here. This could be a bit stupid, so don't hesitate to correct me.

First, I agree with taking the front wheel weights off. They're adding to your problem. Try adding some frame mounted weights some distance behind the back wheels (a weight box or somesuch) to lift the front tires somewhat. That should make your tractor a bit easier to steer, too and should make the pivot point back on your dual rears, where you now have that extra flotation.

what about the fat single front wheel setup some Cs had? it is a ribbed tire, and might have a bigger contact patch than two little 15x3 wheels.
H rims are pretty much as narrow as the C, so i do not think you gain anywhere except circumference/ride height.
karl f

The money thing always comes up on the old tractors when you have a bunch of them. Next is time do do the fixin.

OK, it looks like it will work well, now what no one has mentioned is why dont you get rid of the belly mower and go to a rear mounted sickle,I had a old JD mower that bolted to my drawbar it had one caster wheel on the back,worked great and took the weight off the front and put it on the back where it belongs,also farmall had a mounted mower that hung where the drawbar mounts on the C,I just gave one of those away,shouldnt be hard to fine one,,,Jim