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Old wooden wagon wheels

K

Kansas4010

Well-known Member
Cleaning out an old junk barn thats falling
down and found these wagon wheels. I
remember my dad telling stories of them
being in there but buried under assorted
items of questionable value. I tried
weighing them but my scales top out at 100
pounds. Anyone have any idea what they might
have come off of or if they have any value?
I also found an unusual push mower with what
looks like a crank start. I've never seen
that before. I have a bad picture of it if
someone wants to see it. Haven't got close
enough for a decent picture yet. Not without
something that goes bang.
a268628.jpg

a268629.jpg

a268630.jpg
 
Well, since you live too far away for us to go, I won't try telling you I'll take 'em off your hands for $20 each, and I'd accept cash or check. *lol*

YES they're worth something!! How much? Wish I knew! It's not all that common to see old steel wheels up here, but wooden ones?? WOW!! Better get some good advice on these!

Crank-start lawnmower?? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? Gee, you might be sitting on more than you realize. Not sure if that kind of stuff is big at this time, but I know those Pickers guys would sure love to get their hands on it!! Yes, would love to see a pic of it. Any name/info in it?

Thanks for posting. Those wheels really made my wife (and mine) day! :mrgreen:
 
Also, those wheels need to go to someone who can display them indoors, rather than letting them rot in a garden. The wood wouldn't last long.

Some might think me nuts, but I'd be willing to bet they could be worth upwards of $400 each, or so?? ...Honestly, I wish I knew!!

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEEEEEASE let us know what you come up with!
 
After more thinking (...OUCH!), those wheels are easily museum worthy. ...But not sure I'd be willing to "donate" them! *lol*
 
Hey, guess who again?

Wife just said something that makes sense. Those wheels might be part of your family's history, and part of the wagon that brought them to settle in Kansas.

Don't know what the name of that long part is with the steel rings (yoke, maybe?), but guessing it came from the same wagon.

DANG those are cool! If you can find any old photos that show those wheels and yoke(?), that'll just up the value!
 
Late 70's there was a push mower that had a crank on the top instead of a rope. Cranking placed torque and when released the spring rotated the crank shaft to start the engine.
 
Those wagon wheels could be way over a hundred years old or as new as the 1950's, If you find the rest of the wagon that is what will make the price, especillay if it says Studebaker on it. Just getting ready to take 2 wagons that are just about a hundred years old to tractor show that are IHC and that is feature this year. Both wood wagons and same company but still different.
 
IIRC the crank start was a B&S invention- flip the crank open, crank the spring tight, flip it back and it spins the engine. Easier than winding the rope...about 1960.
 
I know of 3 places in this area that have old wagons with wooden wheels sitting outside as yard art. One of them belongs to a widow friend of my wife. I've told that lady if it was mine I'd be treating it periodically with wood sealer.
 
We had a Monkey Ward lawn mower that had a crank start when I was a kid. It worked , but not good enough that you see them on mowers today. A rope is much cheaper to build. I'm from Kansas also. I always kid people that my ancestors wanted to go further west, but the oxen died, the wheels fell off the wagon, the great, great, great grandparents also ran out of money, so they just stopped where they had to and put down roots where they had to. LOL!
 
I had a Toro mower, inherited it from the neighbor. It had the original engine when I got it, supposedly it was a 1955 model.

It had a spring wind crank starter on a Tecumseh motor. Very difficult to start, didn't have enough spin to get it going, took many tries. I ended up replacing it with a recoil start.
 
(quoted from post at 14:27:41 05/24/18) We had a Monkey Ward lawn mower that had a crank start when I was a kid. It worked , but not good enough that you see them on mowers today. A rope is much cheaper to build. I'm from Kansas also. I always kid people that my ancestors wanted to go further west, but the oxen died, the wheels fell off the wagon, the great, great, great grandparents also ran out of money, so they just stopped where they had to and put down roots where they had to. LOL!
Click to expand...

I'm from Kansas too and every time I see your name it reminds me of the Gambles hardware store in a town near where I grew up.

We had a Sears reel mower with an engine with a wind-up crank start on it and as the other have said it didn't work worth a darn. My Dad used to get so frustrated with it.

Man I would love to have those wooden wagon wheels! I would even pick them up!
 
It is called a neck yoke. Goes on the front end of the wagon tongue. Wheels are from a freight wagon. Also grew up in Jackson County Kansas. Horses for power on our farm as Dad did not get a tractor until I left to join the U S Navy in 1951.
 

I'd agree with freight wagon...or other heavy hauler. They are quite typical of the wheels for sack wagons used for grain hauling around here.

On a side note, some around here were "double tired"--2 bands instead of just one around the wood wheel. The trip from the wheat fields down to the Snake river where the paddle wheelers were loaded was about a 2500-3000 foot drop and very steep. Tires tended to heat up a lot, expand, and come loose so they tried double tiring for the extra mass and strength to keep the tires from getting sloppy on the wheels.

The highly rocky ground also tended to pound a stretch into the tires and the touble-tire set-up helped a bit with that also.
 
That's cool. I have one of those old wagon tongues in the top of one of my sheds. Been up there since before I was born.
 
I don't recall hearing of neck yokes. I have a few single trees and double trees hanging up in barns and sheds. I have a couple of the yokes that are sort of horse shoe shaped and go around the horses neck. That one I posted a picture of does look a little different than the others I've seen.
 
I expect what i'll end up doing is shove them into a stall in the barn up by my house where several harnesses are hanging. Probably sit there till after i'm gone so someone else can worry about them.
 
Like I said not a good picture. I got close
enough that I think it says Craftsman. I got
divebombed by some flying "protected"
animals that I'll have to deal with in a
discrete and prudent manner.
a268651.jpg
 
A single tree, goes behind the horse, has hooks on the ends, and ring in the middle on the other side.

A double tree, which hooks two single trees together, has rings all around but the center is on the rear and the ends on the front.

The neck yoke hangs from the tongue and the ends hang from the harness. All rings are on the top.

Lots of tongues got cut short for use with tractors.
 
I remember us having one like that when I was a small kid. I also remember my father getting really frustrated trying to get it to start. I think the spring finally broke and he went to Western Auto and bought a new push mower. The old spring crank mower got pushed up under the corner of the house and was still there when I was a teenager
 
A single tree is what the tugs of the harness are hooked to pull the implement. A double tree has single tree on each end (two horses) and is connected to the wagon tongue at the center. A team side by side needs a double tree and a triple can be used for three horse team. Four horse teams can be hooked up in diferent configurations. Eight horse teams don't work for plowing. It takes too much time and area to turn at the end of the cut.
 
(quoted from post at 19:05:25 05/24/18) IIRC the crank start was a B&S invention- flip the crank open, crank the spring tight, flip it back and it spins the engine. Easier than winding the rope...about 1960.
Click to expand...

I had completely forgotten about those. I remember my Dad had one. Probably late 60s.
 
That looks more like the ones I remember, last winter we had a discussion about them, some have a bunch of shorter pieces of wood for the circumference, 2 spokes per piece. I thought I remember one piece with just one splice, but that would be really hard to put together. You don't see many around my area anymore, they have rotted away, just the iron parts left.
 
Jerry, when I was a kid, we had horses and that thing was called a "neck yoke", I think. Snap one end ring to the Hames? (on the horse's collar)on one horse, then the other end to the other horse. The center ring slipped of metal tip of the wagon tongue which had a protruding piece on the under side of the tongue that would not let the tongue slide forward through that center ring for but a few inches. This kept the wagon coming forward and hitting the horses rear legs.

The evener was the pulling (2 x 6?) that was pivotally pinned to the top of the wagon tongue at the rear of the horses. Each horse had two tugs (heavy leather straps) the hooked to the pivoting 2 x 6, two on one half and two on the other half. The pivoting action allowed one horse to be ahead or behind the other horse briefly "evening" out the varieances of the shared load. As I write this I am missing something...the tugs were hooked to a whipple? tree solid roundish bar of wood about the width of the horse and then the whipple tree? was center hooked to one (not two) spot on that 2 x 6 "evener"....often when using one horse and not needing the load to be "evened", one just used that whipple tree? dragging on the ground behind the horse and used that arragenment for one-horse loads.

I harnessed the last darned horse about 1950 and am glad to never do anything with horses again. I do like to see horses work at shows, though, it brings back the smells and memories! Leo
 
(quoted from post at 19:15:33 05/24/18) A single tree is what the tugs of the harness are hooked to pull the implement. A double tree has single tree on each end (two horses) and is connected to the wagon tongue at the center. A team side by side needs a double tree and a triple can be used for three horse team. Four horse teams can be hooked up in diferent configurations. Eight horse teams don't work for plowing. It takes too much time and area to turn at the end of the cut.
Click to expand...

Amish neighbor uses an 8 horse hitch to plow with all the time, don't have to rest the horses as much that way.
 
(quoted from post at 10:59:51 05/24/18) Hey, guess who again?

Wife just said something that makes sense. Those wheels might be part of your family's history, and part of the wagon that brought them to settle in Kansas.

Don't know what the name of that long part is with the steel rings (yoke, maybe?), but guessing it came from the same wagon.

DANG those are cool! If you can find any old photos that show those wheels and yoke(?), that'll just up the value!
Click to expand...

Its a single tree.
 
That style of wind up and slam starter broke the end off a lot of mower crankshafts. They slammed into the stater cup so hard that many times it busted the cup right off with the crankshaft end. If the cup held it would turn the engine about 3 rounds. I made lots of money replacing them under warranty for Sears and their Tecumseh engines. Briggs made a few of them also.
They were supposed be a more effortless start mechanism compared to the pull cord.The spring that you wound up in them was very dangerous if it got out of the housing, you better duck quickly.
 
Those wheels will sell for a hefty price. I would guess upward from $200.00 each. The wooden piece is called a Jockey. There are 2 of these on a double harness. The neck Yoke attaches between these jockies. A single tree goes behind the horse and the Double tree goes between those, and attaches to the tongue of the implement to pull it along. the front end of the tongue goes into the big ring of the neck Yoke. Hope this helps to clear things up.
 
Those wheels look a lot like a pair I have stored away in the barn. Didn't realize they were worth much more than sentimental value. I'll roll them out for a photo shoot one of these days. Got some odds and ends of harness too including collar, neck yokes and hames (both wood and metal).
 
I have an old mower that had a wind up thing on it. After the second spring broke I bought a replacement top cover that had a pull rope and fixed that problem.
I always thought Leveland was just a ways west of Lubbock and some of that country you can see your dog running away for two weeks.
That Plymouth wagon had Texas plates on it also.
 
It appears the wheels are from a freight wagon because they are heavy wheels.Wheels like that are probably worth well over $100. each, even for yard art. The other thing is a neck yoke. As others have said, the neck yoke fits on the end of the tongue with the large center ring, then the straps from the hames attach to the two rings on the end of the neck yoke.

Dick
 
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