TO :TRACTOR VET !! MORE Rim widening questions???

Good Morning Sir!

I was asking about widening 38 rims the other day for my Super M.You said the 12" wide are easier to do? Do you buy bands to add into them to make them wider?

Could I take more available 10" wide rims and add into them???


Last question,If I would end up using 34" rims,is there much difference in the widening process???

(I lost your original e mail the other day.

Myself i have never done a narrow rim , i have done several 12 inchers. as you have a nice flat area to split and ya split the side away from the hole for the valve stem . I have a weld shop that has rolls that make me the bands and they always make them and inch or so longer . Then ya just place them on the rim and tack then ya put the bead on the band and tack it . Oh one other thing here always put indexing marks on both sides of the cut and keep them aligned . I also like to keep a little air gap between the band and the rim and bead part of the rim so that when welding ya get 100% penetration. Then also weld both sides . Keeping weld build up down saves time grinding . I cut the rim mounted on the tractor and use a steady rest to get the best cut and as straight as i can the indexing makes help with keeping the cut in register . I prefer M I G welding over stick but i can do it either way. With mig i run l56 and AG 25 with stick i use 7018 After i have it all tacked together it goes back on the tractor and is welded there . I have split both 34 and 38 inch rims . On the newer style rims that have the double mounting ribs we split them down the middle between the ribs.. But on the old 12 inch rims on M's we just split the one side . On my S/MTA i put a 4 1/4 inch band in it to mount the 16.9's . You ask why a 4 1/4 inch band ?? well by the time you make the torch cut and grind you can loose more then a 1/4 inch easy i was a 1/16 th short of 16 inches when done .

What size should a 14.9-38 be mounted on? Been putting them on 12s for years with no problems and always get the power to the ground.

Mike, isn't this whole discussion about tires for an M or something like that?

34" tires will not work on an M unless you get a set of stamped centers off a 560 or 656. Then rim width is not an issue because those rims are 16" wide.

That is what I run on my 1953 Super M too Stuart.I have 14.9s on my 12" rims,but That is as big as I will go on the 12" rims.They work great!

I was asking these new questions because I recently bought ANOTHER Super M 52 that is missing several parts.The rear tires ans rims are shot and I have the opportunity here to maybe do something BIGGER.We will see what I turn up in the availabilty of rear tires and rims to use???? We all know what BIG MONEY these can be!!!!

(quoted from post at 06:26:16 02/14/12) What size should a 14.9-38 be mounted on? Been putting them on 12s for years with no problems and always get the power to the ground.

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14.9s put an even better footprint on the ground with a 14" rim. Any wider is too wide and you cave in the center of the tread.

When we do them here in WI we do them like The Vet. Like he said, 12s are easier than 10s because of the larger flat area.

Another way to do it is by taking two rims (generally 12s) and cutting them apart so you retain both flat areas. This will add the flat area of each rim to the finished rim width. Clear as mud?

Plasma cutters have made this job WAY easier than it used to be. It sure does make a nicer cut, better fit, and less welding and grinding. The other tip I have for you is to take some junk tubes and cut bands out of them to protect the new tubes. Same thing as a spoked motorcycle wheels, but I thought I would remind you.

14 inch says wright on the tire , install on 14 inch wide rims.

If you have a 14.9 on a 12 inch rim the side walls are sucked in and crowns the tire . Heck you could put 20.8's on a 10 inch rim but it will not be wright . But hey it is like this it is your tractor and you can do what ever ya like . I put the 16.9's on to go play with the boys . What i should have done was put the 14.9's on and forgot about playen . While i was waisting my money on tires that the rest already had they were choppen up there tractors to make more cubes , getting cams done installing huge carbs and running with out governors . So my massive 59 horse power did not stand a chance . To me my S/Mta was worth more to me more or less stock. The only thing done to mine by the org owner was all the M&W stuff 4 1/8 pistons & gov. what i did was a little tweaking of the dist and some fine tuning of the carb. It runs nice but it will not run with the bigger engines of the boys that came to play and were not farmers . I did build five tractors for other people that had more check book then common sense and one for my accountant that made a lot of people around here really mad as it made for two years of long season pulling for them being in the back seat instead of the ft. seat plus the fact that we built it with JUNK parts only thing NEW were the bearing rings and gaskets , total cost including tractor and parts and tires was just shy of 3500 bucks.

How much do you know about getting power out of a WD-9? Like how did they get 20 more hp out of a Super WD-9 than a WD-9? I know the pistons were 4.5 rather than 4.4, but is it all displacement or is there fuel system work etc?

The reason I ask is I have 4.5" pistons in my WD-9, but I might as well do the rest of the stuff to get 65 hp if it is easy.

I widen my 11" rims to 14" rims on my super M. Made a guide for the plasma cutter to set against the bead and rolled the rim till I cut it in half. Used 7 ga (3/16 metal) 3" wide rolled into a ring and put it back together. Welded it inside and outside with the mig welder. I then put duct tape over the beads on the inside so it would not pop the tube. What took the longest was grinding down the weld bead so you would not see it on the finished rim. Holds up good when I tractor pull. I put 15.5 x 38 back on mine.

Good Luck!

That is kind of a "loaded" question.we are talking a bout a diesel W-9 ????? The things that come to mind are reground cam,and more compression.More fuel.

A combination of relitively easy upgrades can really wake these engines up !

(quoted from post at 07:36:12 02/15/12) That is kind of a "loaded" question.we are talking a bout a diesel W-9 ????? The things that come to mind are reground cam,and more compression.More fuel.

A combination of relitively easy upgrades can really wake these engines up !

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Who would run a gas POS? And that is what the D stands for in WD-9

NICE !!!
And I DO understand what the "D" meant!!! lol

SAME response applies !!!!

EVERYTHING I said before is true. More cam,compression,fuel,Bore,ECT !!!! lol

BTW,You have "whored" M Y original "blog" out !!!!! This wasnt about W-9 ANYTHING !!!!

Seriously.I can get these up to expectations.

Yeah, it was a SLIGHT hijack. :lol: It was about pulling and the two people that know the most about getting power out of something were involved. :twisted:

Its all good!

I am a fan of the W series! I really have never built up any in line 4 cylinders like this,but My first step would be to have everything machined square,probably have the head milled,Have the block decked to get the MAXIMUM squeeze out of that compression.Reground camshaft.That aint too expensive.Something that is easily done at the "home garage" is smoothing out the ports in the manifold.

I would also be concerned as to getting more fuel to it also,but have not really ever worked with these at all.

I dont know how MUCH horsepower you are looking for,but we all know the MONEY is the ONLY limitations here!!!! You wanna buy a custom billet crank??? It can be had !!!!! Arias has made me custom pistons for Big Block Chevys my whole life.They will just as easily make them for my Farmall!!!!


I think in the future I will be experimenting with a 281 block to see what I can do with it???? I am not looking for a "record holder" engine,just a good power maker!

The skys the limit my friend!!!!