TIRES

oldhammerhead · Feb 1, 2018

So back in the day, when tractor makers were trying to sell rubber tires for better traction, did farmer Brown ask what if goes flat? what do I do? Well you should buy a air compressor, and try to fix the #%#% yourself. I'm sure farmer brown wanted to hear that.

BarnyardEngineering · Feb 1, 2018

If that were the case we'd still be driving tractors around on steel wheels.

I'm sure that the tire salesman downplayed the potential for flats as much as possible, and if pressed for an answer, had a spiel about their fast and friendly tire service.

Most early rubber tired tractors came with their own air compressors in the form of a kit that screwed in place of a spark plug and allowed you to use the engine to inflate the tire, so there was no need to buy an air compressor. Many of the more rural farmers didn't have electricity to run an air compressor anyway.

coonie minnie · Feb 1, 2018

MAny already had an automobile, so they knew about the world of flat tires. Compared with shoeing a horse or removing steel lugs to go down the road, potential flats
were a minor inconvienience.

Deere had a PTO driven air pump, others had other compressors.

Considering how fast the switch was to rubber tires in most places (and at a time coming out of the depression) not many must have worried about the flat issue- or at
least until tire shortages of WWII.

BarnyardEngineering · Feb 1, 2018

Oh, and a lot of those early tires were on split rims or locking ring style rims, which were much easier to mount/dismount than today's one-piece rim designs. Prying a tire over the bead with a tire iron? What's that? Just remove the locking ring and slide the tire straight off with the tube. Easy as pie.

Of course if you didn't get the locking ring perfectly back in place or there was a little rust buildup, KA-POW, pine box, and a six foot hole... But they were fine when they were new.

rrlund · Feb 1, 2018

Air compressor my foot. Dad used to pump them up with a hand pump. I remember taking a turn on it once when I was about 5,while he went and did something else for a few minutes.

dlbuck · Feb 1, 2018

I'm sure the better ride was a big seller.

Russ from MN · Feb 1, 2018

We had a JD pto pump.

rusty6 · Feb 1, 2018

My dad had rubber tired tractors for almost 25 years before he got his first air compressor. In the early days there was not even electricity
to run a compressor so he had one of those JD pto driven air pumps. It worked well but had no safety valve so if the pressure got too high it
would blow the air hose off. As kids we learned to pump up our bike tires with the hand pump. The trick was to be fast enough to unscrew the
air line off the valve without losing too much pressure. Not easy on a bike tire for a kid. We have it easy now.

Moonlite37 · Feb 1, 2018

Yes, a tire pump was an essential piece of equipment a farmer must have. A neighbor fixed his 7.50 x 20 tires for his livestock truck and pumped the tires to 80 PSI Another neighbor had a pickup and wagons, He had no gauge and pumped each tire to 100 strokes with his hand pump. All carried tire irons, pump, and patches in the vehicle. Some had no spare. Those were the days!

old-9 · Feb 1, 2018

Like this, Ford sold them with the Ford logo. They pumped fresh air not the gas mixture.
joe
pump

Charlie M · Feb 1, 2018

We had one too back in the 60's and I still have it. It would still work if I could find the fitting coming out of the bottom where the hose connects. Maybe it will get to my to do list some day.

Ronnie Budd · Feb 1, 2018

We never had an air compressor in the conventional sense, but Dad had one of those engine air pumps that screw into a spark plug hole. It was essentially a check valve that sucked in fresh air on the piston down stroke and pumped it out on the up stroke. It worked pretty good.

Swede in IOWA · Feb 1, 2018

Remember our first "air compressor". We removed a spark pug from a tractor and screwed the apparatus in, in it's place. Worked well, beat the hand pump we used for years. Swede

old · Feb 1, 2018

Ah but did you know back then the owners manual explained just how to repair a tire and what tool one would need to do so. Shoot many or them also showed the farmer how to fill the tires with fluid and also how to do most of the work to them to keep them running. The manual I have for my 1935 JD-B show how to rebuild the engine and do tires etc. Oh by the way the manual is the factor manual that came with it when it was new

Gary Mitchell · Feb 1, 2018

On the other end of the spectrum I remember Pop hooking the SH up to the vacuum pump when the electricity went off, carrying a lantern to the stanchion barn and milking our herd. It took longer but beat the alternative. gm

RLA · Feb 1, 2018

I still have & use a J/D PTO pump when the tire can't be take to a air compressor. My Cousin who had been sick
for weeks was using a portable air take to Pump up Log Skidder tires? Trip after trip... I gave to him to use &
he asked me,,, I gotta git one of them things!

The Dukester · Feb 1, 2018

Always had just a hand pump, it was a big one with the big cylinder tube....as a lightweight squirt of a kid it was a job for me to use it, but I
learned. There were always soft tires on something, a tractor, a car, the turd hearse, and any seasonal tool that had tires always had to have
one or two or more pumped up before we could use it, wagons, plows, the mower, the hay loader, the corn husker, front wheels on Granddad's
Thresher, the silo ensilage cutter, the 2 row PTO corn binder. Thought nothing of having to pump up a tire now and then.....

showcrop · Feb 1, 2018

I expect that back in that day, farmer Brown didn't even ask. He knew that he would just deal with it like he did everything else.

rossow (mn) · Feb 1, 2018

We had the same "compressor" on the farm in north-central Iowa. Remove a plug from the 77 Oliver, screw in the compressor and pump away. It worked pretty well.

wilson ind · Feb 1, 2018

Farmer Brown in our area went out of business in ;ate 1960. Another farmer Brown fell off barn roof. Became paralyzed. May be other farmers names Brown in your area.

Dean · Feb 1, 2018

I well remember than, Rrlund. I, too, took my turn on the "Armstrong" tire pump, pumping up the tire on my Dad's AC WC when I was a kid.

I believe I still have a couple of those old tire pumps around here. I remember that it was often necessary to put a few drops of oil (from the dipstick) into the "oil" hole to soften the leather washer in order to pump.

Dean

rockyridgefarm · Feb 1, 2018

I think it was Silverking that would deliver the tractor on rubber, and have a set of steel wheels in the delivery pickup's box. The salesman would have the buyer drive the ol' beast around on rubber for awhile, then ask if he wanted him to switch it to steel. Most didn't, from what I read.

hd6gtom · Feb 1, 2018

Rubber tires actually sold themselves.

Blackhole49 · Feb 2, 2018

Thanks for posting, I just bought it.

TIRES

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