Farmall H Heavy Duty Rear Steel Wheels!

SadFarmall · Mar 31, 2012

After some research and a quest for eight 7/8 UNC bolts (easy to find BSW bolts here, but UNC is sometimes trickier) the rear steel wheels are fitted to my Farmall H. Front cast iron wheels, with 2" skid rings are waiting for bearings and seals before they can be fitted and the tractor put to work.
A couple of pictures attached, which bear witness to my madness, stubborn nature and fascination with old technology.
SadFarmall

Paul from MI · Apr 1, 2012

Looks like a really original H, even still has the heat shield on the manifold for kerosene. Sheet metal looks very straight too. Nice tractor, don't see them like that often.

Janicholson · Apr 1, 2012

Aggressive lugs on those Heavy Duty wheels. I like
the way they look. I also imagine tooth retention
and dental work needed if driven on hard clay. Jim

SadFarmall · Apr 6, 2012

Well, the plan is to use it on steel wheels for work putting in fences during and to pull harrows etc. during the Winter. In Summer, when we are cutting and raking hay, the rubber tyres will go back on. If I want to travel on the road, the rubber tyres will have to be fitted; don't want to be confronted by angry representatives of the Roads Board!
SadFarmall

mkirsch · Apr 6, 2012

It would be interesting to perform the same comparison of steel vs. rubber as was done in the 1930's to see if the tire manufacturers have been stringing us along for 80 years...

SadFarmall · Apr 7, 2012

Well, I am going to see how it all works. At the moment I have rubber front wheels on (waiting for a set of front wheel bearings for the cast iron ones). I'll keep you posted on how it goes.
SadFarmall

rankrank1 · Apr 7, 2012

(quoted from post at 13:06:48 04/06/12) It would be interesting to perform the same comparison of steel vs. rubber as was done in the 1930's to see if the tire manufacturers have been stringing us along for 80 years...

In 1934 the Allis Chalmers WC was the first tractor to be tested with pneumatic tires by Nebaraska Test (test #223). Actually they did a comparison on the same tractor with both steel and pneumatic tires.

It is all interesting reading, but any way you want to look at it the rubber tires were more fuel efficient on the same drawbar loads by quite a bit - not to mention operator comfort. In my opinion, the fuel savings would even be greater on a more modern tractor as you would have the luxury of more gears to choose from on a modern tractor in order to pull the rubber tired loads much faster. The test in 1934 used the same tranny gear for both tests as that was the rated working gear by the manufacturer (Of course back in the 1930's tractors often only had 2 or 3 gears anyway).

I have never operated a steel wheeled tractor, but I do use a couple of older steel wheeled hay rakes. My fields are realatively smooth, but some of the sounds that rake will make when it hits a bump literally make me cringe - and very thankful my poor body is not being subjected to that same shock load.

Farmall H Heavy Duty Rear Steel Wheels!

SadFarmall

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Paul from MI

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Janicholson

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SadFarmall

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mkirsch

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SadFarmall

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rankrank1

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