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tire help

B

Brians 8N

New User
I am looking for some input on tires for a newly acquired Farmall H (I think it is referred to a row crop, it has the narrow front end) that has a loader on it. I need to replace all of the tires on it but I am not sure what tires to look for. I am going to be replacing the rear tires first. It currently has 15.5-38, one of them has no tread left on it and the other one is dry rotted and will not hold air. It does have a bucket on it but I think it is really big, around 5 feet long (I don't have the exact size of it right now). Can I go with a narrower tire or should I stick with the size I have. Considering the price of new tires and I really do not not know how the tractor performs (I just got it running but) I am going to be looking for used tires. I do have wheel weights for it but I am unsure if they are large enough or should I consider filling the tires with liquid.
I am new to the Farmall world and from what I am seeing, they are a well built tractor.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
 
We used those tractors and loaders for years without wts and so forth used
them for what they were made for now you guys want to pick up huge bales and
carry them around and so forth far beyond what the tractors intended use
 
12.4 38 tires are pretty much perfect. They are a step larger than the originals, but do not look massive. They are also pretty common and
reasonable. Goodyear field and road seem popular. There seems to be some interest in BTK brand tires. The 12.4s will look small at first, but
if you pull up images of Farmall H tractors, the fat tired tractors look just wrong. The H engine is probably rebuilt since it was new, and
likely has a displacement increase, so the slightly bigger tires will be good. Rim width might be a problem if the originals were replaced. A
10 or 11 inch rim width is going to set off the new tires well. Jim
 

What do you mean by "wts" I am not going to use this for moving bails. The tractor was given to me and I don't know anything about it or its limitations. All I can tell you is that it came with a bucket, a blade for the front, forks, tire chains and wheel weights. I don't know what this tractor can or can't do, it would be nice having a tractor with a bucket but this bucket looks so large I would think that if I put anything with some weight to it the tractor would become so unstable. Just curious as to why someone would have put such wide tires on it.
 
wts is short for weights, and yours has some. A large bucket on an H is only good for loose organic material, including non saturated manure,
and light wood being harvested. It is also great for snow. Not good for sand or soil, rocks or wet materials. Stability is compromised with
the heavy material I mentioned when lifting more than 3 feet above ground level. Never drive with the bucket higher than that unless moving
slowly to dump into a truck/trailer. The heavier the load, the less traction on the rear tires. So if you are modest in your expectations it
will serve well. If you put a rotary cutter (Bush Hog) on it, also use an overrunning clutch on the PTO shaft, or the inertia of the mower will
keep you moving forward, into things like fences and trees. The hydraulics are good, but not live, which means they do not work with the clutch
pushed in. I was raised on M and H Farmalls, and so were many other here. just keep asking questions. Jim
 
best to go with the tires the tractor was designed for. remember those big tires have less psi to the ground so you will have less traction
with weight in the front. best in liquid filled 3/4 full and weights on hubs, 2 is better yet on each side. this is due to it being a narrow
front. i dont like them and wont have one. mine are all wide front. i know of guys that have tipped them over loading round bales. and that
is too mush for these small tractors. good to push snow with though. weights alone is not enough to hold the rear down and you should not be
using it for heavy loads anyhow. i have a super w-6 here and with a round bale picked up the rear is very light and if on frozen ground or
grass you are not moving. i will not raise the bale more than a foot off the ground, too risky.
 
Thanks for the input. I have a lot to learn about this tractor. i will probably just leave the bucket off of it or make the existing one smaller so I wont be tempted to overload it. I am not quite sure what I'm going to do with this tractor yet. Can't drive it until I get rear tires and different rims for a narrower tire. I just got it started last weekend.
Would it be advisable to look for a wide front end for it?
 
your choice i would say, but just made u aware that a narrow front is not the best unit for a front end loader, and so u dont so tipping over
with it. its important to hold the back end down and dont overload the front.
 
Although you see a lot of comments contrary to what you're saying about the stability of a narrow front end the physics and basic engineering principles certainly confirm the validity of your advice. I'm guessing that those who disagree have never done the math to prove it for themselves. The higher pivot point of a wide front end adds a lot to the stability, especially when a front end loader is present.
 
Jim - I agree 100% on the 12.4x38 being the right tire for an H. We had 10-38's, the new 11.2x38 on our '39 H, way too small, 12-38 also 13.6x38 are right on an M, too big for an H.
The All Traction Field and Road is a FIRESTONE tire.
For some reason Dad always bought tractors with GY tires on them. Super M-TA had 12-38/13.6x38 GY Sure Grips, 450 had 15.5x38 GY Super-Torque 45 degree zig-zag lugs, and 4010 had new 15.5x38 GY Power-Torque 23 degree zig-zag lugs. The Super-Torques seemed to dig the best.

Whether or not a NFE tractor with a loader ends up on it's side is more a function of the driver/operator's skill or sense of how close he/she is getting to the tipping point. I have two NFE tractors with loaders out in the shop. Loader has been on one only 25 years, loader has been on the M over 60 years, neither tractor has ever been close to tipping over. A WFE can give an operator a false sense of security. How many people here have layed a WFE tractor on it's side or knows someone who has!
 
(quoted from post at 17:24:45 08/12/20)
Whether or not a NFE tractor with a loader ends up on it's side is more a function of the driver/operator's skill or sense of how close he/she is getting to the tipping point. I have two NFE tractors with loaders out in the shop. Loader has been on one only 25 years, loader has been on the M over 60 years, neither tractor has ever been close to tipping over. A WFE can give an operator a false sense of security. How many people here have layed a WFE tractor on it's side or knows someone who has!
Click to expand...
every person that laid one over will admit it was through carelessness
I prefer wfe but the hype is over rated like Evil says

OP all the IH loaders with the long channel arms cannot be used with a wfe
 
Rule of thumb for a narrow front tractor
with a front end loader: Never drive the
tractor with the loader bucket high
enough that you can see below the bucket.
Keep the bucket low until you are ready
to dump it. Example: If you are loading
a manure spreader, drive to the spreader
with the loaded bucket no more than 18"
above the ground. At the spreader, stop
& slowly raise the bucket to proper
height. Drive slowly forward & dump it.
Back up, stop, lower bucket to an 18" (to
get to raw material), adjust height as
needed & proceed to refill bucket. Then
repeat the previous process as often as
necessary to complete the job. You will
never tip a narrow front tractor if you
ALWAYS follow that procedure.
 
First are the rims of the double bevel, or are they the drop center ones. The reason for asking is I don't think there were rims for the drop center with enough width to put properly fitting tires of 15.5 on them. So maybe somebody changed the wheel casting to the double bevel off from a 300 or such. This could make his changing them back to 11or 12 inch tires more costly. If they are of the double bevel style I would just keep the bigger tires and thus more weight capacity in the rear tires for ballast. As for the stability only had one tractor tip over in 60 years and dad was driving the WC carrying trusses for a new pole barn when one front tire went over a chuck hole. Would not have thought going that slow and the truss just off the ground would have caused that. Set it back up and away we went again. Just watched out for the hole afterwards. Don't think anybody saw the hole before that.
 
It is far more likely that someone shoehorned 15.5x38's on to the stock 10" rims than went through the trouble of swapping out rims and wheel hub from a newer tractor.

Easy way to tell, are there 6 holes or 8 holes in the wheel hub?

Regardless, there is no reason you can't put a fresh 12.4x38 on a 11" or 12" wide rim, if on the odd chance the tractor has them. Just clean the rim good, lube up the tire, and add air.
 
I don' know if there are 6 or 8 holes in the hub. Right now this tractor is 140 miles away and other than picking it one weekend and spending another weekend getting it running I never counted how many holes are in the hub (never thought of it). My nephew did notice that there are 14" rims on it. He found a used set of tires on rims that we are going to look at this weekend.

In response to caterpillar guy, what do you mean by double bevel or drop center?

I can't express my gratitude enough for the input and advice I get from everyone, I really appreciate the time you guys spend answering my questions.
 
My nephew took a picture of it when we picked it up and it does have a 6 hole hub. I am going to try to attach a picture so maybe you can tell me if the rim is double bevel or drop center. This is the only picture I have of it.
mvphoto60196.jpg
 
The image shows the two ribs that are formed in the rim material allowing more adjustability. If yours have two, they are double bevel.
cvphoto53131.png

In addition, the measurement is from where the bead of the tire touches the flange on one side to where it touches on the other, where in the image the bead flanges are vertical. It does not include the
thickness of the metal, or the little lip at the outer diameter. if you bend a coat hanger to touch the rim, both inside and outside of the rim as above, and
measure it , then subtract 1/2" you will know for sure the rim's generic size. a 10 or 11 inch is ideal for the 12.4 tire. Jim
 
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