Rear Rim size on a Ford 600

moday

Member
I had a guy remove my rubber from the rims on the rear tires of the Ford 600 that I'm restoring....

What I discovered last night is the one rim is about beyond repair. Originally, I had hoped to weld a patch into the rim but it may be too far gone.

Additionally, the tire guy (who does a bunch of tractors) pointed out that one rim as 11 inches wide (the old rusted one) and the other rim (which had been replaced by someone before me) is 12 inches wide. I had never noticed this before but I have been advised that this will change the height of the wheel and can damage the rear end of the tractor.

Is this a real concern for the little difference in height? I may be forced to buy a new 12 inch wide rim for about $160 bucks if I can't repair the old one, but I'm trying to understand how much of a big deal the rim width really means for the tractor. The tires are an old versus new so they would have slightly different heights anyhow but the old tire has a lot of life left so I don't want to replace that on my limited tractor restore budget.

Looking forward to some thoughts and thanks in advance! MODAY
 
The OEM rim size for a 6** tractor is 10X28, as measured properly from inside bead to inside bead. This corresponds approximately to 11" outside to outside. The 6** tractors came standard with 11X28 (12.4X28) tires. The 8** tractors came with 11" (12" outside to outside) rims and 12X28 (13.6X28) tires. Optional rim/tire sizes were offered for both.

To be correct, your tractor would have 10" (11" outside to outside) rims and 12.4 tires but many (most?) now have 13.6 tires on either 11" or 12" (outside to outside) rims.

The change in circumference is due mostly to tire size rather than rim width. A m1" increase in rim width makes only a small difference in circumference.

Unless you are interested in originality, I would not worry about it.

Dean
 

Have you beat aggressively on that rim with a slag hammer to see how bad it really is? Do you weld yourself? I have welded approx. 16 square inches of new material into a rim and used it for many years after. The height differential will ruin your rear end if you drive it 50-100 miles regularly on pavement.
 
28 x 9 was the OEM Hat Rim size and will take an 11.2 or 12.4 tire size. I have a set of OEM FORD/KELSEY-HAYES Hat Rims, professionally blasted, primed, and painted CASE/IH SILVER ARGENT WHEEL PAINT that mimics the OEM ZINC PLATING. The set comes with the OEM correct center discs; new, correct 5/8-18 Carriage Bolts; new correct 5/8-18 Hex Nuts -with the correct OEM 1-1/16" AF (Across Flats) dimension. My email is open if interested.

ORIGINAL FORD/KELSEY-HAYES 28 X 9 HAT RIMS:
m8WoQYyh.jpg
IBw5Yzbh.jpg
n9oDtYyh.jpg

Tim *PloughNman* Daley(MI)
 
They did.

Hundred series tractors had 6 loop rims with scalloped centers.

9/2/8N tractors (excepting the early 32" 9N models) came with 9" rims. 6** series tractors came with 10" rims (11" overall width).

Dean
 
Interesting story regarding vintage Ford power adjust rims, which came only in 11" (12" overall) width.

Recently, I advertised one of my spare sets of PA rims on CL. Knowing that these were only made in 11" width, I did not state the width in the ad.

An elderly man called me asking the width. I started to tell him that they were sold in only 11" width, which is what I had, but he interrupted me, stating that he must have 13" rims for his 861 with 13.6X28 tires because he was not going to buy new tires.

I again started to explain but he again interrupted me stating that he was interested only in 13" rims.

Since I was not sure of the overall width of the 11" rims I offered to measure them and call him back.

Once measuring and determining that they were 12" overall, as I had thought, I called him back and told him. He said that he must have 13" rims for his 13.6 tires. OK. I tried to tell him that 11" rims (12" overall) were correct for 13.6 tires but he was having none of it.

OK. I told him that I have three sets of these and one set has new 13.6 tires and tubes mounted on them (these NOS rims are on my 64, 4000 SOS retirement project), and invited him to come take a look. Nothing doing. He must have 13" rims.

I wished him luck finding some and signed off.

It's been a month and I have not heard back.

Some people.

Dean
 
11 x 28 6 loop rims are very versatile and will accommodate several sizes of tires. They seem to be the one size that you can find cheap if you look hard enough. There's a seller on eBay that is selling the 11's for $80 shipped right now. 12's can almost never be found at "sale" prices.
 
Additionally, the tire guy (who does a bunch of tractors) pointed out that one rim as 11 inches wide (the old rusted one) and the other rim (which had been replaced by someone before me) is 12 inches wide. I had never noticed this before but I have been advised that this will change the height of the wheel and can damage the rear end of the tractor.

Is this a real concern for the little difference in height?

The wheels are almost never s[inning at exactly the same rotational speed unless the tractor is traveling exactly straight, so having the rear wheels spinning at slightly different speeds due to slightly different tire sizes should not cause any problems. That is why the rear end has a differential, to allow the two wheels to rotate at two different rates. The power is only ever being applied to one rear wheel or the other at any one time.
 
Bingo, Sean.

Different sized tires (within reason, of course) and, especially different width rims with the same sized tires, will not damage ones differential. Besides, who drives his 6** tractor 100 miles on the road routinely?

My Father bought a used AC WC in 1953. It had an original 10X28 tire on one side and a replacement 11X28 tire on the other side when delivered. This was the only tractor that he ever owned and he used it for everything that he did, including plowing with a 2X14" trailer plow. I sold it about 10 years ago, fully functional.

Vintage tractors do not have limited slip differentials or even differential locks.

You can use it until the cows come home with different width rims and no damage will be done.

Dean
 

Hmmm, not quite true. The differential, was never designed for going straight. It was designed for going around corners, or turning, to be exact.

It was first invented in 3 AD.
Ackermann steering geometry was designed in 1817, followed by the first used a automotive differential for a steam-powered machine in 1827, 1897 first use of differential on an Australian steam car. Packard made the spiral-gear differential to be quiet. All for going in circles, or turning, not for going straight.

Just a tad bit of info.
I have to use it while I design my hot rod chassis. Ackermann is most important, followed by the differential. Or it will suck to turn.

Pat
 
Surely you are not arguing that installing rims on opposite sides of a Ford 6** tractor having a width differential of 1/2" will cause differential failure within ones lifetime???

This, of course is the question posed by the OP.

???

Dean
 
(quoted from post at 21:49:37 11/02/18) Surely you are not arguing that installing rims on opposite sides of a Ford 6** tractor having a width differential of 1/2" will cause differential failure within ones lifetime???

This, of course is the question posed by the OP.

???

Dean

Absolutely not!
You had said that "That is exactly why the differential was invented.", and I just said that while driving straight was not why they the did. No big deal, but it's not why they came up with it. Not originally how was to be used.

That's all, I was not arguing with anyone!

But I did wreck the rear end in my '84 Dodge by using a smaller tire on one side of the differential, and only drove it 12 miles to work & home 2 times on asphalt before I removed the small tire. But it was a small weak diff, not like that of a stronger tractor diff, and on dirt. made the speedometer say 60 when only going 45.

The rim sizes mean nothing, it's the outside tire size that matters, if they have the same tire pressures. It will only make the input to the gear shaft rpm's that will differ.

Pat
 
Hmmm, not quite true. [b:88f7a82a84]The differential, was never designed for going straight[/b:88f7a82a84]. It was designed for going around corners, or turning, to be exact.

I never said that it was designed for going straight. I said that it was designed to allow the two wheels to spin at different rates, which can happen for a number of different reasons, of which cornering is just one.
 
forgot to add that it was designed to allow the wheels to spin at the same rate (going straight) as well as at different rates. Wouldn't do much good if it only allowed them to spin at different rates and didn't allow them to spin at the same rate also.
 
Posi-trac? Limited slip?

Can't use different sized tires with those.

Rim width will affect tire circumference but not as much as tire size.

Dean
 

Remember, when plowing, the Left rear tire slips more, so turns faster.
The Furrow wheel has much more firm footing and seldom slips..

No idea how "Diff Lock" would effect plowing, but I'd think plowing would be best done without it...

I don't think anyone worries about that, they just Work the Day-Lights out of them and DO
the work they were designed to do..
 
So is it a myth that the rear end will get damaged with different size rims on rear tires? I get it about the diff, but this ruins in rough shape so maybe I should just scrap it
 
(quoted from post at 08:50:49 11/06/18) So is it a myth that the rear end will get damaged with different size rims on rear tires? I get it about the diff, but this ruins in rough shape so maybe I should just scrap it
Yes, it's a myth.
 
(quoted from post at 05:50:49 11/06/18) So is it a myth that the rear end will get damaged with different size rims on rear tires? I get it about the diff, but this ruins in rough shape so maybe I should just scrap it

Well moday, perhaps we should observe that it depends on the type of differential and vehicle. As I pointed out earlier you could not hurt your tractor unless you put a lot of miles on it in a short time, but modern cars are capable of building damaging heat in the differential pretty quickly with different sized tires.
 

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Back
Top