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Is tractor tire repair this expensive?

L

littlefarmer

Member
Had a slow leak in the rear tire of my 656 Farmall.

No fluid in the tire. Tire size 15.5 x 38. Called the nearest on-farm tire repair service. It came to $317.65, which I think is quite high.

Tube $125.65, Labor $100, supply $12, Service call $80.

I think this is high priced. What do others say?
 
Wouldn't have been any cheaper for me in my area of MN. There are three different tire places I use, distance of 30-45 miles away. Any one of the three would have been $300+ for your described situation. Just nothing cheap about tires anymore.
 
Sounds about the same as they charge around me. There is a difference in tube prices and quality, you get what you pay for.
 
Tube price is about right since if you buy it your self it will be around $100 so they tack on a profit. Service call at least in my area if you can even find it is $1 to $2 per mile. Labor charge starts the moment the guy leave the place. So price is about right for what things are now days. If you had taken it in you might have saved your self about half that
 
Yes. Sounds right in my area. They have a lot invested in people and equipment. Price a new tire truck. It will shock the heck out of you!
 
Sounds fair to drive to your place and fix a tire. What did he have in it two hours from the time he left the shop till he got back to his shop plus he has to pay for that truck.

For about 300 bucks you could buy a bread breaker and a couple of spoons and save the 180 dollars.
 
Consider yourself fortunate that you have a nearby tire shop willing to come to your place for only 300 bucks.

Look at it this way: you could have jacked up your tractor, removed the tire/wheel, loaded it in the back of your pickup and hauled it to the dealer for repair, then brought it back home and re-installed it. With luck you might even do it without injury to yourself. You would have spent a day doing all this and saved maybe 150 bucks. If a day of your time is worth less than 150 bucks, then I guess that would be the way to go.
 
I had a tractor tire repaired a lot cheaper than that, BUT, it was a tubeless tire, I took the wheel off the tractor, put it in my pickup truck and brought it to the repair shop and back and put it back on the tractor.

the price you paid was very reasonable for a for a farm call
 
Hi, about 4-5 yrs ago, I ran over a nail or something (I forget what it was) with my cat 416 bhl. I phoned local tire outfit. They came took the tire off, put it in my front bucket, he backed his truck up to it to load it. He took it to his shop and dismantled tire, patched tube, put tire back on my machine. All done in 2 hr. Over $200.i was happy.
Ed Will Oliver BC
 
It is indeed high priced, but repairing tractor tires is quite expensive anywhere unless one does it himself. We do all such repairs ourselves with just enough manual tools to do the job right.
 
Depends on who you call. One here would be at least that high,the other would do it for less than half that.
 
(quoted from post at 16:01:55 12/14/17) Had a slow leak in the rear tire of my 656 Farmall.

No fluid in the tire. Tire size 15.5 x 38. Called the nearest on-farm tire repair service. It came to $317.65, which I think is quite high.

Tube $125.65, Labor $100, supply $12, Service call $80.

I think this is high priced. What do others say?
Click to expand...

That is sounds normal. That is why we do our own tires.
 
~$50 at the local tire store if it can be patched and I bring it in. Seemed kinda high until I watched the young buck breaking the beads loose. Then the $50 seemed just fine.
 
Thats not a bad price for this neck of the woods. Last one I tried to get done they said maybe tomarrow afternoon they could look at it. I always do my own unless very busy or tired. Guys who break down tractor tires do earn their pay. Do a few then you can decide. I do my own so it can be done on weekends or after hours. I dont get many flats mon-fri 8-5. Al
 
I do all my own tires size 18.4x38 and under if they are dry.....My 560 IH with 15.5x38's needed
a tube and it was a little over $60....It took me 3 hours....I take the wheel off and drive my 1206
Farmall over the tire to break it down...Just in the past 3 years I've probably done 20 rear tires
for my antiques and pullers..
 

Do my own....$120 bead breaker paid for itself with one tire.
mvphoto7619.jpg
 
Do my own. I have a bead breaker like Eldon. I just got done putting a new set of tires on my backhoe. I couldn't get that breaker between the rim and tire due to the way the tire protected the rim. I had to use a handyman jack and a chain to make enough room to get the beaker in place. Tire size is 16.9-24. I can handle up to 18.4-42 those are a struggle though.
 
As a kid, back in the 70s I worked for a tire shop in MD. If we had to go out on a late fall or winter day and do a tractor rear tire in the cold, it was gonna be 3-4 hours, if not more. We were lucky to get $75 for the job. I think we under-charged all the time. There was no profit built into that job, and working a cold tire was the worst think in life.

Pay the $300+ fee, or do it yourself. You'll be happy to pay next time.
 
Since this question came up and got a lot of response, Ill ask another question to the guys doing there own tire work. What kind of bead breaking tool and other tire tools/spoons are you guys using? I am looking into getting my own tools, due to the fact I have a bunch of tire work and rim repair to due before next spring. As for the price of the tire work, that's going rate maybe even a little cheaper then around here in my area.
 
During hay season I had a guy out to fix a loaded rear tire on a full size tractor. It was around $225 if I remember right. He didn't have to replace the tube but did a good job of washing everything out and not getting saltwater all over the barnyard. Those tubes are just stupid money anymore. I will do lots of tires myself, but with my bad back and the arthritis in these hands I leave big rear tires to the professionals. I will still do implement and front tractor tires but my hands regret that decision sometimes. I did the six tires on the oldest grain truck with three piece rims and I think it took me three days doing a couple a day.
 
(quoted from post at 21:11:31 12/14/17) Since this question came up and got a lot of response, Ill ask another question to the guys doing there own tire work. What kind of bead breaking tool and other tire tools/spoons are you guys using? I am looking into getting my own tools, due to the fact I have a bunch of tire work and rim repair to due before next spring. As for the price of the tire work, that's going rate maybe even a little cheaper then around here in my area.
Click to expand...

For small tires I use a cheap Harbor Freight bead breaker bolted to the floor. If the tire is trashed I use the skidsteer and forks. Larger tires I have used the backhoe, skidsteer, or the beadbreaker shown above depending on circumstances. I have taken rear tires off the rim while on the tractor using the beadbreaker tool, but prefer to do them laying down so I can use my body weight to collapse the tire to get it in the drop of the rim. Also when remounting with a tube there is less chance of pinching the tube this way. I have a 30" spoon and a 3' chisel point bar to remove the tires from the rim. I use a pair of vise grips on the rim when mounting a tire, makes things easier. I use a bar of soap to lube the rim and bead. Skidsteer and forks definitely help when working on the bigger tires.
 
I just checked with my old tire/tube supplier. If I still had my tire shop-- A good 15.5x38 tube would cost you around $55.00, labor to fix your tire would have been $35.00-$55.00, service call for the truck from the shop to the tractor would have been $2.00 per mile one way. If you had fluid it would cost $20.00 to pump it out and put it back. A dry 15.5X38 should take about 45 minutes to fix if you do not have a corn picker or something similar mounted on the tractor. One of the easier tires to fix.
 
I have been doing most of my own tires now for decades ever since I was laid off from a tire shop. I started out using a time hammer which does work well if you can hit the same place 3 times In a row. My hammer has a special handle made to fit a left handed person. But now days I do my best to use my found in a junk pile truck tire bead breaker tool. It has 2 air cylinder one that clamps the break down foot to the rim and then a foot between 2 solid feet and the center foot pushes down on the tire and breaks the bead free. For a novice I recommend a slide hammer type bead breaker since you do not have to aim it and works well and one big key is good old dish soap and water poured on the bead before you start working on the tire and a couple of 3 foot long tire spoons
 
I'm almost 64 years old and I could take that tire off that tractor by myself in 10 minutes or less, and put it back on in 10-15 minutes, battery powered impact, oak blocks, 20 ton bottle jack, 2''X 6'' shim, tire spoon is all it takes. I have loader tractors to load it or I could back up a flatbed trailer and load it by hand, same with unloading it and standing it back up, nothing to it if you use your head 70% and your back 30%.
 
I'm really glad to see I'm not the only stubborn ol phart floating around. Exactly my program. I did weaken, with a smaller tire, and have my skidder tire done, side walls are as hard as a rock and I didn't have enough long pry bars or arms......................
 
The break down looks about right to me too for what it costs anymore to get stuff done.
I had a combo microwave and pizza oven quit working. Took it to a local appliance repair shop. Remind you I took it THERE ! I still got charged 1/2 of a service call which was like $ 50.00
The micro switch was not too bad and the labor charge wasn't either. Then 3 months later same problem ! called them and only a 60 day warranty. I'm going to tear it apart one of these days myself. The oven part still works so I put it off.
 
It never ceases to amaze me how people expect to get paid handsomely for what they do, but expect others to work for free.

Changing a big tire like that by hand is hours of pure bull work, and the tools to make it easy are not cheap. Either way has a cost associated with it, and if you're paying someone to do it, it ends up about the same.

Everyone should have to beat a rusty old tractor tire off a rim once in their lives. They wouldn't squawk so much about paying a professional to do it.
 
My 70 year old high school buddy and I did a loaded 28x16 rear.... just to say we had done one! I am not getting smarter... just older. Had an old brass washing machine pump to remove and fill the fluid. WE DID IT!!! But never again. Like the Army....."wouldn't do it again for a million dollars , but wouldn't take a million dollars for the experience"

Bill
 
Funny this just came up. My 656 is sitting in my pole barn right now with a flat loaded rear tire. I was contemplating calling someone to fix it this time but if it cost $300, Ill be doing it myself again. I have a pump and fittings to unload it. I use a slide hammer type bead breaker but have seen the type Eldon shows and wondered how well they work. I don't mind the smaller tires but wrestling the big rears is a pain! Getting old is not for wimps but I'm too cheap to hire it done.
 
I had new inner tubes put in a pair of fluid filled 12.4x38's about 5 years ago. The tires had been on the rims 40+ years and really didn't want to come off. I loaded them up in my pickup and hauled them to the tire shop, $25 to remove, $25 to install my new $50 Firestone US made radial rated inner tube and mount tire back on rim. I sand blasted the rims to bare steel and primed and painted them which was the big goal of the project.

A 15.5 tube would be slightly higher but I think $125 is WAY high. The cost to dismount and remount the tire/tube should be about the same as what I paid.
 
If no fluid I take the tractor wheel off the tractor and lay it on the ground..I then drive
my 1206 IH over the tire to break it down....If that doesnt work I go get the 1456 IH and
use it too..I use my front end loader to lift the tires and turn them over...There hasnt been
a tire I couldnt break down ranging from a 5.00x15 to a 18.4x38..If I hired all my tires done
I'd go broke...A tire store 20 miles away sells tubes for half the price of the local stores..I
have 2 cheap tire irons that I bought at sales many years ago..I have over 300 tires on my
farm..
 
Had a GE micro wave quit working so bought a new one. In the process of dismanteling the GE so to take to junk yard I found a blown 30 amp fuse. Installed a new fuse,put back together and it works.
 
I've done a bunch of old tractor rears with a slide hammer. Once you get the "knack," there isn't much too it. I DO highly recommend taking the wheel off the tractor. gm
 
Tube prices have gone way up the past few years, quality has gone down. More tubeless being used, less demand, higher prices....

Seems about right prices for here.

Paul
 
Last summer my vet came to the farm three times to treat a bull with breathing issues that baffled me. Once on a Sunday. Total $218.00 for the visits and meds.

A few weeks later, I patched the tube in a 16.9 X 30 unloaded rear. I do all my own tire work, loaded or not.(If you leave the rim on the tractor and have a bead breaker and pump, loaded takes longer but isn't harder.) I am 62.

Zeke B.
 
>I'm almost 64 years old and I could take that tire off that tractor by myself in 10 minutes or less, and put it back on in 10-15 minutes, battery powered impact, oak blocks, 20 ton bottle jack, 2''X 6'' shim, tire spoon is all it takes. I have loader tractors to load it or I could back up a flatbed trailer and load it by hand, same with unloading it and standing it back up, nothing to it if you use your head 70% and your back 30%.

I'm a mere 60. I recently replaced both loaded rears on my Ford, 13.6x28. I cheated and used an engine hoist to pick up those 600 lb mounted & loaded tires. I saved a grand or more versus calling a service truck, mainly because I was able to buy the tires and wheels direct from a wholesaler. But not everyone has the equipment or inclination to do it themselves. Those folks should expect to pay a little for the convenience of having somebody else do the work.
 

Depends on pricing, it usually takes the same time to do it at the shop or at the farm.

Bought two new rears, new tubes and fluid in and out. Way the pricing was it was far easier and not much cheaper to have them come to farm than mess with loading them on and taking them one by one to the shop.

One other tractor put on one new rear, emergency blow out, was able to jack tractor up and have hole at top so lost very little fluid. Lifted tire on pickup with loader tractor and took to shop, again the hassle and time wasn't worth what the service call fee would have been.

I did replace a tube in one rear myself, no fluid, wasn't that hard to do, tube was still about $100 and I got lucky the bead broken down easy. I found the larger rear tire far easier to work with than some 15/16 car tires.

I will not touch a 15" 12 ply flotation tire. Shop can do that. Not worth my time, need a GOOD tire changer to work with those.
 
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