Just How Heavy Were They?

Last night I swapped the rears on my Farmall H from side to side because I wanted them dished out. They are "M" size (13x38) and fluid filled. Boy were they heavy! Neighbor used his bobcat and had a kinda wild ride when one of 'em lifted the back of his bobcat. I'm glad we weren't just trying to manhandle them. How in heck did a farmer do that in the old days when they didn't have decent tools, jacks, etc.?

In the early fifties, I changed or helped change wheels on an M Farmall. We used a railroad jack,a ten ton screw jack commonly available in that time frame,to lift the tractor. We used a chainfall, a block with two sized chain pulleys with a mechanical advantage of about 20 and a capacity of a ton. With a section of Richards-Wilcox hay track and trolley strapped to one of the barn beams, the wheels were lifted up and over the tractor, turned and installed on the opposite side. Barn loft beams in those days would carry the load easily. I suspect the wheels weighed between 800 and 1000 pounds.

Watched my Dad turn the dish from in to out every year on the Super M so he could mount the one row IH beet digger. Small Hydraulic jack and a rope block and tackle tied to the shed roof to handle the wheel. The front wide axle had to be moved ahead also. Set the wheels one day and mount the digger the next. Two days to get it off and the wheels set for field work again.

Brian

I had a set of 15.5 x 38 tires filled on m rims. They were almost a thousand pounds each. Thank God for the man that invented a forklift.

Red Man: When I was 30, I removed 15.5 x 38 tires and rims filled with chloride from my 560. Had no problems handling them on smooth clean floor, you just got to keep them upright. I then removed the hub, slid it to end of axle, set it on floor, turned it, picked it up and slide it back on axle. I did that by myself, with jack and wrenches.

Moving the hub and chloride filled rim as one piece is off balance and could get you killed even with a bobcat.

Back in the '50s & '60s we had a SM that had fluid in the tires. We also ran duals on this tractor which were original cast iorn rims. In the spring we woould remove the inside wheel & put the dual on with the concave in then put the original wheel back on. For cultivating we used a 448 cultivator on this tractor so the procedure was reversed. Then in the summer the duals were put back on to pack silage. In the fall the riaght side dual was removed for plowing.

To aid moving the wheels on & off the tractor we had a small strip of metal that had rollers in it that slipped between the wheel & axle and when things went righ the wheel was suppose to "roll" off the axle. Didn't always work that way.

Usually took two men to do the job but I have done it myself. Main thing once the wheel was on off the tractor was to keep it balanced with the weight slightyl towards you. We did this on concrete & a guy could roll the tire & wheel fairly easy. If for some reason it got away from you, you wanted to get out of it's way & let it fall. Once on the floor it took a tractor & loader to get it back up. I was 13 or 14 the first time I ever did changed them by myself & only had one wheel get away from me. Hate to think how many times I changed those wheels around. Little wonder I have back problems today.

When we changed ours for cultivating . We just turnd them around on the same side of the tractor. Even with th tread facing the wrong way they still worked fine. If you got stuck it was easier to back out.