Tire Longevity

Egon · Oct 12, 2009

Considering the extreme wear and condition of most of the tractors i have resurected, plus looking at the hour meters.. for the ones that have meters.. or for the meters that were still working.. or looking at where they stopped.. I can say.. at least for my machines.. they had plenty of -work- hours on some of them. 3pt linkages with egged draft link holes, bent support and lift members, etc... telltale that high draft forces were encountered.

wear on running gear, bearings and moving parts and general wear / tear on drivetrain components, along with evidence of decades of repairs give proof positive that these machines were not bought, parked for 40-60 years, then sold to me.

I have one unit, a 58 ford that was used for public works around paving. had decades of layers of tar and asphalt products on the underside. had to use diesel and heat, and chipping hammers to remove it. the strata gave details to the era's change as you saw differeng aggregate like chip and slag materials in different layers.. also you could see evidence of lean mix layers like asphalt emulsions, vs tars.. etc. Being in the road contracting business myself for the last 22 years, it was almost like a trip to the past working on that machine.

Mind you I also have machines that saw very little use. For instance, a 55 ford that has the original proofmeter as far as I can tell from looking under the dash, etc.. it has about 550 hours on it now.. that's about 10hrs a year or so.

soundguy

Thats nice.

Do you have a maintenance history detailing the parts replaced and work done on the machines.

How many of those hours did you put on?

SPYDERLK · Oct 12, 2009

Soundguy said:
Considering the extreme wear and condition of most of the tractors i have resurected, plus looking at the hour meters.. for the ones that have meters.. or for the meters that were still working.. or looking at where they stopped.. I can say.. at least for my machines.. they had plenty of -work- hours on some of them. 3pt linkages with egged draft link holes, bent support and lift members, etc... telltale that high draft forces were encountered.

wear on running gear, bearings and moving parts and general wear / tear on drivetrain components, along with evidence of decades of repairs give proof positive that these machines were not bought, parked for 40-60 years, then sold to me.

I have one unit, a 58 ford that was used for public works around paving. had decades of layers of tar and asphalt products on the underside. had to use diesel and heat, and chipping hammers to remove it. the strata gave details to the era's change as you saw differeng aggregate like chip and slag materials in different layers.. also you could see evidence of lean mix layers like asphalt emulsions, vs tars.. etc. Being in the road contracting business myself for the last 22 years, it was almost like a trip to the past working on that machine.soundguy

1. How do you know the tires are original?
2. Are they steel?
larry

Soundguy · Oct 12, 2009

plenty of reference material exists to be able to ID vintage tires.

Also.. during those 'old days' the gov't mandated a change as to the way tire sizes were denoted... Finding tire sizes marked the old way dates them.. ie.. finding a 10-28 tire vs a 11.2-28 tire. the 10-28 is older.. though both are the same size...

depending onthe manufacturer you can also find clues as to what ere a tire came from as to printing onthe tire itself.. IE.. finding 'gum dipped' embossed on a tire ages and dates it.

I have no machines on steel.. though i certaintly wouldn't mind getting a 42 wartime model ford 2N to add to my collection.

soundguy

SPYDERLK · Oct 12, 2009

Soundguy said:
plenty of reference material exists to be able to ID vintage tires.
soundguy

How do you know a vintage tire is an original tire?
larry

ultrarunner · Oct 12, 2009

SPYDERLK said:
How do you know a vintage tire is an original tire?
larry

For me it's easy... Montgomery Wards has been out of business for decades.

Soundguy · Oct 12, 2009

SPYDERLK said:
How do you know a vintage tire is an original tire?
larry

At a certain point it becomes a point of minutia.. what's the difference in a 60 year old original tire that came mounted ont he machine.. or the spare you bought for it a couple months later.. or the replacement you got a couple months later when you got a hole in it????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

we are talking old, vintage, aged.. etc.

I'm sure if we find a sharp enough razoe we can continue splittingthe hairs and say.. start carbon dating the rubber to see if the front are older thant he rears or other such nonsense.

the point, flavor and meaning of the discussion was simple and has not changed.

soundguy

soundguy

Soundguy · Oct 12, 2009

ultrarunner said:
For me it's easy... Montgomery Wards has been out of business for decades.

yep.. depending on manufacturer.. it's easy to date to an era at least.

kinda like my montgomery wards 'western field' shotgun, made for wards and co, design by browning ( it's an A-5 copy ).. here's the kicker.. it was actually manufactured by savage, for wards, using the browning patent. a single proofmark finally helped me to pin downt he manufacturer, as there were multiple that made for wards. ( specifically, it's a store branded copy of a savage 750, which is itself a browning Auto-5 copy.... )

soundguy

Egon · Oct 12, 2009

Nothing wrong with Hobby Farms. Keeps lots of fellows very happy. Including myself!

Real farms do vary in size depending on location and product produced. In some places 13 acres would be a nice farm. In other places it would take that much room just to store the equipment.

But it gets interesting when hobby farms are shifted into the realm of real farms!

As for everything new is better that to is interesting. As I type this I'm sitting on a chair that was bought used in 1909. The desk the terminal and it's assorted accoutrement's are sitting on is the same age. The device I grind my coffee beans in is older than I am. Some of the utensils we use to prepare food are also older than I am. And I live in a house that is older than I am. If I were to go hunting or out for target practice the guns I would be using would all be quite a bit older than myself! Sooo what's this thing about age bit?