60"Finish mower wheels/tire replacements?

[SELKIRK]

Guys-I'm having a heck of time stopping my finish mower from rolling the front tires off the rims. I tried a number of things (tubes, slime, pt solid tires, etc.) with out solving the problem 100%. It seem the best way I found so-far is to mow in draft mode with tubed tires filled with max pressure. Even doing that it's a pain in the rear to roll the tires.

PT1430 with 60" finish mower.

Has any body tried some of the caster tires made for other mowers with any luck? See below.

175-133 - Deck Wheel Assembly, Lawn Mower Parts, Scag 48307; From Item Class

175-137 - Deck Wheel Assembly, Lawn Mower Parts, Bobcat 38510; From Item Class

175-500 - Elite 400 Wheel Assembly, Lawn Mower Parts, Bobcat 38510; From Item Class



Thanks
Selkirk

 

[RegL]

I put solid Exmark castor wheels/ tires on my brush hog and have not had a problem since. If I remember right, I had to spread the forks a little to squeeze them in.

 

[sweettractors]

Those tires look pretty wide. Will your wheel fork accept the that width? Our First Choice and Phoenix Finish Mower tires are solid and look narrower. Ken Sweet

 

[SELKIRK]

Those tires look pretty wide. Will your wheel fork accept the that width? Our First Choice and Phoenix Finish Mower tires are solid and look narrower. Ken Sweet

Just looked at my old tire. Size 4.10/3.50-4.
What size do you think would work?

Thanks
Selkirk

 

[MossRoad]

I have a 60" finish mower for out PT425. I roll pneumatic tires off of the rims all the time. I have had SOME success over inflating the tires, but eventually, they pop too. So, I went to a local store that specialized in hand trucks and casters. I found some solid tires that were the exact same size as the PT pneumatic tires. They came mounted on rims. However, the hole was 1/8" larger than the axle bolt on the PT. No problem, as the store had sleeves(bushings) that reduced the inside diameter of the axle hole perfectly.

I like these solid tires so much that I move that set of casters between my finish mower, snow plow and brush hog. Unfortunately, the company closed up and moved away shortly after I bought them or I would have bought two more sets for my other attachments.

I have yet to try tubes, but may do that.

 

[MossRoad]

Hey, the company I bought the solid tires from is still in business a couple towns over. Here is a link to their website. I will get my tire sizes some time this weekend and see if I can find the brand, etc...

Cass Hudson

 

[sweettractors]

Just looked at my old tire. Size 4.10/3.50-4.
What size do you think would work?

Thanks
Selkirk

I don't think ours will work, they measure 10 Outside diameter and 3 1/2 inches wide. Sounds like a good setup that Mossroad has going. Ken Sweet

 

[EddieWalker]

I had similar issues with the tires on my Landpride finish mower. After dumping a lot of money on repairs and even replacing the tires without any improvement, I went with solid tires. They are smaller, both in height and width, which was a concern that has turned out to be unfounded. No problem with the smaller size at all.

I had to replace the bolts that were used as axles with a larger size, and I had to drill out the holes to handle the larger axle and find spacers due the the smaller width.

It was expensive and time consuming, but now that it's done, I'm sure glad that I did it. It went from a constant headache to something that I never have to deal with again.

Good luck,
Eddie

 

[MossRoad]

Hey, the company I bought the solid tires from is still in business a couple towns over. Here is a link to their website. I will get my tire sizes some time this weekend and see if I can find the brand, etc...

Cass Hudson

Sorry I have not gotten the sized yet. I got called into work a couple times and the kids are finishing up 4H projects. Should be a couple days. Sorry again.

 

[toy]

I had pt put solid tires on my brush hog when I got the pt and I bought a finish mower off of TRACDOC and had a flat the first time I used it [popped the bead]. He had the tires slimed or some kind of flat sealant in them and I couldn't get them to seal back [got dirt mixed in with the sealant] ,instead of fighting those kind of tires I put solid tires on it also and have not had any problems since. I believe TracDoc is a fine fellow pter I hated to see him put his pt up for sell. I liked seeing him post from time to time.

 

[Gravy]

Toy,

You are right. TracDoc is a good guy. We're almost neighbors. Even though we'd never met, he stepped up when I asked him for snow removal backup. I still owe him some elementary welding lessons...

Gravy

 

[atwood]

I had pt put solid tires on my brush hog when I got the pt and I bought a finish mower off of TRACDOC and had a flat the first time I used it [popped the bead]. He had the tires slimed or some kind of flat sealant in them and I couldn't get them to seal back [got dirt mixed in with the sealant] ,instead of fighting those kind of tires I put solid tires on it also and have not had any problems since. I believe TracDoc is a fine fellow pter I hated to see him put his pt up for sell. I liked seeing him post from time to time.

My 425 came with solid caster tires both for the finish and brush hog mower. Normally they work Ok but sometimes the solid tire rolls off and it is a pain to put back on. Does anyone know of a trick or method to put these back on? Thankfully the casters are interchangeable between the brush hog and mower so I can at least finish the job.

 

[MossRoad]

I can't understand why you guys are rolling solid tires off of the rims. The solid tires I got from our local caster company have been abused and never hinted at rolling off the rim. Are the PT solid tires really solid?

 

[woodlandfarms]

My "solid" tires are hollow in the inside, and one shrappneled after a couple of years. but I got luck and they had replacement tires and just pressed a new one on.

 

[SELKIRK]

My 425 came with solid caster tires both for the finish and brush hog mower. Normally they work Ok but sometimes the solid tire rolls off and it is a pain to put back on. Does anyone know of a trick or method to put these back on? Thankfully the casters are interchangeable between the brush hog and mower so I can at least finish the job.

My PT finish mower came with a set of pneumatics tires that alway rolled off. PT changed them out to the solid tires. The solid tires PT has are some sort of foam and rubber compound.
Not the best things in the world. They really should put a set of tires like the ones that are made for a commercial caster deck.

I found the best way to install PT's solid rubber tire back on the rim, is to boil the tire in a pot of water. This makes it stretchy enough that it can go back over the rim. Just watch out, its hot as heck when they come out of the pot.

As rolling the tire off the rim, I have real sandy/soft soil and the tires roll when I change from forward to reverse. The tires just flex enough on the caster motion that they roll off.
It's real bad in float mode but also happens in draft if you get some dips/holes in the ground.
I really think the mower should be sold with a better/stiffer tire like the ones on commercial zero turn deck. I found some that should work and waiting for a tire question to be answered from the supplier before I order them. I let you all know if they work in the next couple of weeks.

Selkirk

 

[toy]

My 425 came with solid caster tires both for the finish and brush hog mower. Normally they work Ok but sometimes the solid tire rolls off and it is a pain to put back on. Does anyone know of a trick or method to put these back on? Thankfully the casters are interchangeable between the brush hog and mower so I can at least finish the job.

The tires on my brush hog has square shoulders, I have not had any problems with them. When I went to get the tires for the finish mower they mentioned that they had put solid rubber tires on some units that had rounded shoulders instead of the square shoulders and that some were having problems with them rolling off the rim if I am not mistaken. Any how the ones that I got for the finish mower has square shoulders also and I haven't had any problems with those either. I don't do a lot of finish mowing with the pt as I have a sears lgt riding mower that we use most of the time.

One problem that I do have with the pt mower is that the bolt axle on the rear will catch the chain link fence if I get too close to the fence and I like to get close so I don't have much weed eating to do. I have thought of a couple ways to prevent this from happening but haven't tried either one yet, I guess I need to get me a roundtuit so I can get in on it.

 

[toy]

selkirks method of heating the tires up sounds like it would make it easier to put back on, but once you get it back on it would be nice to figure out a way to keep it from rolling off again. Woodlandfarms mentioned that his had a hollow core, I don't know if mine is like that or not.

I don't know if this would be a solution to the problems with your tires rolling off the rim or not, but I was wondering if you could get two metal rings for each tire, have a hole in the center of the rings a little larger than the rims and have the outer side of the ring smaller than the outer circumference of the tire and drill mating holes through these rings and then maybe drill holes through the tires to match the holes and then bolt the rings on the tires. I don't know about drilling holes through the rubber tires though if that would be possible. Seems like I have seen racing slicks with the tires bolted to the rims to keep the rim from slipping inside the tire, maybe someone else might have a better idea, hope so.

 

[KentT]

Seems like I have seen racing slicks with the tires bolted to the rims to keep the rim from slipping inside the tire, maybe someone else might have a better idea, hope so.

They make "bead-lock" wheels, or you can get regular wheels modified to become "bead-locks". Using these wheels, the bead of the tire goes outside the rim of the wheel, then the ring bolts on, pinching the bead between the wheel and this rim.

This is done on tires/wheels where you run extremely low air pressure, allowing the sidewalls to flex. Wrinkle-wall slicks for dragsters are one example. High performance off-road vehicles (4x4, ATV, etc.) also use them because they often run very low air pressures when operating in either sand or on rocks...

If you want to risk ruining one of the caster wheels that have solid tires, you could experiment by drilling holes through the angled part of the wheel at the rim (where the bead normally seats), and put sheet metal screws through these holes into the center of the solid tire. I've seen this done with some success -- but if you ever roll it off, it will likely ruin the tire when it pulls chunks of material out where the screws went in...

 

[BobRip]

I put tubes in both finish and rough cut mower wheels. Five years and not a problem. I used to roll rough cut mower wheels off every five minutes.

 

[toy]

Kent t your description of the tires is a lot better than mine, I haven't been around that sort of stuff for a long time and back then I didn't want super traction I would rather to smoke the tires just as far as I could. Glad that I grew out of that those tires were expensive. But that is a starting point maybe for somebody to come up with an idea to keep from having the tires roll off the rims.