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Cement in rear wheels.....

B

banjoman09

Well-known Member
Hello all; looking for sound advice:) My Oliver 28-44 I bought last fall has "cement in rear wheels" I guess for added weight. Whoever did this - did a great job! Personally for using as a "parade tractor" I would rather take the cement out and paint the wheels as I do believe it has "flat spoke wheels" as the front has. Options? I'm thinking of renting a "jack hammer"; taking the wheels off and try to brake out the concrete; Uhggg...much work. Or I could try to find another set of wheels...which would also mean a trip to the tire shop and a big bill; thanks for your input.
 
I think a week of hammering is worth the expense of different wheels. Maybe someone wants the weight, and would buy the tires! Ask in the classifieds here! Jim
 
Keep in mind 2 possibilities:
1. that the cement was put there due to repeated flats that the tire still has
2. that the tires could get damaged in the process of removing cement.
 
Someone just poured concrete onto the center spoked part ? it might bust up easier than you think ?
 
My guess is a good air chisel will nock it all out in a day or so. I have used one on cement before and wants it starts it goes quit nicely.
 
If the cement was poured into the tires you do not have any realistic chance of salvaging the tire.

If it's just in the center spoke area, it'll be a lot easier to remove, and you've got a good chance of saving the tire and the rim.
 
What is your timeframe? If I encounter this issue, I would try the following: lay them on their side and use a hammer drill to put a bunch of holes about halfway through, taking care to try and miss the spokes. Then take muriatic (HCl) acid (used for cleaning brick) and apply it to the holes and let it do its work. It will dissolve the cement around the aggregate and weaken the concrete. Every so often re-apply and remove the loose aggregate. This is just a theoretical solution, however.

With a jackhammer you risk bending or gouging the spokes.
 
I think some folks got the impression that the concrete is inside the tire...

Like what was said, try knocking some out and I imagine the concrete will break out easily.
 

I am not understanding this....you have tires filled with concrete that would normally contain air? How will you remove the tire from the rim since you will not be able to deflate the tire?

My brother bought a pair of rear tires mounted on rims. The tires appeared to be in good condition and to be inflated. This was at a local auction. When he got the tires home and went about checking them they did not show air pressure on a gauge but yet appeared to be inflated. The tires had been filled with foam and there was no way to get the tires off the rim. In addition the foam fill was faulty had large pockets (soft spots) without foam making the tire/wheel unusable.
 
Try a breaker bar, a straight piece of steel round stock, 1 inch or so, 5-6 ft long, ground to a blunted point.

Just start pecking at it, it will start to crumble away.
 
This will sound crazy but i have done it with shovels,wheel barrows,etc. For your wheel "hope you have a front end loader" dig a nice eaven pit in the ground and cover with super heavy plastic sheeting. Very gently lay the wheel in the pitch. Go out and buy a bunch of cheep white vinegar at wally world. Around $1.oo a gallon. Cover the cement with the vinigar and let it soak for a few days. The vinigar will very slighty start to disolve the cemant and loosen it from the spokes . Be gentle till you get the hang of it. One of those bodyshop work air chisels with a paddle bit works great. The cement covered wheel barrow, cement rake, and some shovels all came ut perfectly cement free.
cvphoto32403.jpg
 
I love Jeffcat's super simple approach to building a tank. Dig a hole and line it with plastic. I don't think I would have thought of that in a million years. I am going to use that some day.
 
Can you remove the concrete around the spokes without removing the tires or damaging the spokes? I would price used wheels before investing a lot of effort into chipping out the concrete. It would not be fun to: remove the tires; chip out all the concrete; repair the rust and what ever damage you did removing the concrete; scrap, sandblast, and repaint the wheels; and remount the tires, only to find a nice set of wheels in better condition and maybe with better tires too for only a few hundred dollars. Is there an Oliver collectors club in your area?
 
If you have compressed air HF makes a pretty good air hammer that would do it. Getting the first cut would probably still be difficult but should come out in big chunks after that.
 
Go rent a electric demolition hammer with bits. Once you get started it will move along quite nicely. Harbor Frieght has demo hammers, so depending on rental fees, maybe prudent to buy one, I don't know. But once you get the concrete cracking and breaking from the impact vibrations you'll be on you way to spoke rims. gobble
 
How about a picture? I would really like to see a good cement job on your wheels.
Look for replacements and maybe you can make a trade. Who knows, there may not
Be anything like it in the whole world.
 
We have a early model Fordson F rusty yard art tractor on steel wheels that had the fronts filled with cement and large bands of cement in the rears. I left the rears as the cement had the date scratched into it, but I broke the fronts out with an IR air chisel. Did an hour or two for a few evenings and it was ok. Once you get a hole going the air chisel will crack the cement pretty easy. I didn't damage any spokes.
Chris
 
Jeff,
Vinegar is an acid.
Brick layers use HCL, (muratic acid or plumbers acid) to clean mortar off brick. HCL generates a strong chloride fumes, be careful not to inhale it.
If you use salt to melt ice off sidewalk, the salt will damage concrete.
From my chemistry days in college: Aqua regia is a mixture of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid, optimally in a molar ratio of 1:3. Aqua regia is a yellow-orange fuming liquid, so named by alchemists because it can dissolve the noble metals gold and platinum, though not all metals.
Formula: HNO3+3 HCl
 
The previous owner was an Italian ...... those guys know concrete, ever see a big crew pouring big jobs? Always an Italian guy heading things up. An Italian farmer who dabbles in concrete for wheel weights, very cool !!!
 
Good that you mentioned that Mike ..... I wonder if the mob still does that? Jimmy Hoffa would know but he's not sayin' nuttin' !!!
 
Yes,,, that is how they remove gold from circuit boards. The plain white vinigar is low enough power acid that will not rip up the metal of the wheel. That is why I said just the cheep crap. The picture of the cement rake that i found along the hiway and it had a prety good coat of cement. It is made of aluminium and the white vinigar didn't hurt it at all Soaking in big garbage bag with four gallons the acid took about four days. Taken the tool out and gently give it little taps with a tiny hammer to knock it loose. Then soak it a little more. Give it a try, really works.
 
My JD D from 1935 had concrete in the rear wheels. Rims had rotted spots so I busted it out with a jackhammer on the first one and repaired the rim. 70 year old concrete was hard enough I elected to buy another wheel for the other side. Very tough going. Missing the spoked was not an issue.

I'd vote to trade to someone who wants the weight.
 
Finding wheels for his tractor would be like finding a needle in a hay stack. They were not a popular model of tractor and very few would be left in any condition. Just luckey if he can get the cement out without dammaging the hubs so he can put new rims of a different size and style on it making new spokes. If he gets the concrete out chances are he will find the concrete is all that is holding the tube in place as the rim is likely to be rusted away that he cannot see untill the tire is removed. So either removing the concrete or finding replacement wheels is likely to be a very big job. I think I have seen a couple of tractors of that model at shows but no other wheel will fit. As long as tires hold air I would not mess with the wheels. Just allow enough trailer weight to haul it. If it was a common tractor like the Oliver 70 then I would say look for other wheels but I dought if there is over 200 of these tractors left in the states if that many and what is left most would be in collections and not in any parts yard. And I know some old cement cannot be busted as I have tried and had to give up. County wanted to remove an old cement culvert to replace in widing road and they could not bust it up to get it out so they ended up just making extensions on each side.
 
Thanks for the info- I will look closer tonight; I would guess it would be quite hard to find someone that would want these- and have a pair to trade back! Thanks!
 
The weights, if in good shape, won't help for tractor rides, nor will they really hurt anything. They may be conversation pieces, and appear to be period correct. I think I'd keep them. Another chance to NOT "while I was in there I should go ahead and fix..."
 
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