chim
Elite Member
\"Real\" R-1\'s becoming extinct?
The Ford 1210 I had planned on selling when the Kubota followed me home last year never got advertised, much less sold. It has been too handy to have around. It needs new shoes all around. This became real clear after an episode on a bank last week. The rears are original 1983+/- vintage, and I did replace the fronts about 8 or 9 years ago. The lugs on all four tires are more like "bumps" after many hours of service.
Anyway, I went to the local Firestone store to get a set of four new R1's just like the originals. The salesman showed me the replacements he had in stock, and man were they wimpy. The ribs on the 5-12 front tires couldn't have been 3/4" high. I told him nope, need the ones with the deep lugs. The originals looked like they had small shovels for ribs when compared with the new offering. He told me Firestone redesigned their small R1's, and this was it. When I asked him why the'd do such a thing, he said the redesigned tires were cheaper, and nobody wanted to spend the extra money to get the old style, so they were dropped.
Phone calls to 5 other places seemed to bear this out. One dealer did have a pair of rears (8-16) that were exactly what I was after, but no fronts. Snapped them up. Fortunately, my Kubota dealer was able to locate 5-12's for the front. He said he knew what I wanted, and he would get them in for me to look at. If they didn't suit me, no obligations. What a guy. Looks like I may be back in business.
Anybody else run into this?........................chim
The Ford 1210 I had planned on selling when the Kubota followed me home last year never got advertised, much less sold. It has been too handy to have around. It needs new shoes all around. This became real clear after an episode on a bank last week. The rears are original 1983+/- vintage, and I did replace the fronts about 8 or 9 years ago. The lugs on all four tires are more like "bumps" after many hours of service.
Anyway, I went to the local Firestone store to get a set of four new R1's just like the originals. The salesman showed me the replacements he had in stock, and man were they wimpy. The ribs on the 5-12 front tires couldn't have been 3/4" high. I told him nope, need the ones with the deep lugs. The originals looked like they had small shovels for ribs when compared with the new offering. He told me Firestone redesigned their small R1's, and this was it. When I asked him why the'd do such a thing, he said the redesigned tires were cheaper, and nobody wanted to spend the extra money to get the old style, so they were dropped.
Phone calls to 5 other places seemed to bear this out. One dealer did have a pair of rears (8-16) that were exactly what I was after, but no fronts. Snapped them up. Fortunately, my Kubota dealer was able to locate 5-12's for the front. He said he knew what I wanted, and he would get them in for me to look at. If they didn't suit me, no obligations. What a guy. Looks like I may be back in business.
Anybody else run into this?........................chim
