43 Year Goodyear Tires

I used the FArm King 250 wagon to move a load of oats yesterday and was a little shocked to see two of the tires about ready to split when I was done. I guess when I consider how old they are I can't complain. My dad bought that wagon in 1978 with those Goodyear tires on it.


Tires and Grain

A member donated a MM model D corn sheller to our local Antique Club.   It has original Firestone "gum Dipped" tires that hold air all off season, the sheller was built in 1944!

(quoted from post at 21:59:15 01/23/21) A member donated a MM model D corn sheller to our local Antique Club. It has original Firestone "gum Dipped" tires that hold air all off season, the sheller was built in 1944!

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That is impressive on the old Firstones. Must have spent a few years indoor storage? My Farm King wagon spent a winter or two in the shed but when space got short it was relegated to open air storage.

Yea, dads tractors around here, several have tire on that I don’t remember ever being off, that would be a lot of decades.

Paul

I would have thought that wagon would have had bigger tires. My hay wagons had those same tires, and I was lucky to get much more than two years out of them with 8 ply tires. Five miles between farms, on pavement, and when I would arrive home with a load of silage bales the tires would be so hot that you wouldn’t want to hold your hand on them. If they didn’t blow out, usually through the tread, they would be bald by the third year. As they blew out, I did replace them with more expensive 12 ply. Finally bought a wagon with cement truck tires.

I got a B Farmall with original rear tires on it its a 1945, there Good Years ! I had to have one fixed, last year,ran over a sharp steak !!

(quoted from post at 04:32:01 01/24/21) I would have thought that wagon would have had bigger tires. My hay wagons had those same tires, and I was lucky to get much more than two years out of them with 8 ply tires..

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I'm shocked your tires would heat up hauling hay. I don't recall these Goodyears running overly hot, or maybe I just didn't notice. It was a 12 mile haul to town and often I'd run on pavement for over half of that as fast as the 930 could pull it. 250 bushels would be 15,000 pounds plus whatever the wagon weighed. One axle beam had a slight bend in it and you can see it in tire wear. They started showing the typical tread separation years ago but it never went any further. Its just this year I am seeing the split between the ribs and the bulge so it is pretty much the end of the line for them.

It's why radial tires were invented, the bias tires last too long. I have a Jeep with bias tires on it that are 23 years old.

(quoted from post at 07:30:21 01/24/21) It's why radial tires were invented, the bias tires last too long. I have a Jeep with bias tires on it that are 23 years old.

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Old tires are fine for low speed driving. I have some ancient Goodyear ten plies on the back of the IHC gravel truck. They looked well weathered and cracked when I bought the truck in 2002. I can't say if they are original (1953) but their appearance could pass for it. I'm still hauling heavy loads of gravel around the farm on them.

(quoted from post at 15:30:21 01/24/21) It's why radial tires were invented, the bias tires last too long.

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Really, I never knew that!

I have a 1966 MF 135 with the original Goodyear rear tires on it, and are loaded with calcium. That's 55 years. I'll have to replace them soon as they are cracking pretty bad.

(quoted from post at 08:24:28 01/24/21) I have a 1966 MF 135 with the original Goodyear rear tires on it, and are loaded with calcium. That's 55 years. I'll have to replace them soon as they are cracking pretty bad.

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Old Goodyear tractor tires often survive to a great age. I have a DC4 Case n the shed that hasn't moved in years. Still sitting on the 11x38 Goodyears that were on it when I bought it in the 1970s. I'm assuming they are original but don't have documentation to prove it.

pretty new here but enjoying it more all the time. just read that there may be changes with a new owner but hope for the best.

i was equally amazed when i replaced the rears on my early 60s ford 4000 backhoe. i'd never changed them and i've owned it since the 70s. they held air but were starting to peel open in more than a few spots. i realize now i don't even remember what brand they were. i don't even know what brand i put on ... just made a few phone calls for best prices and drove it to a local tire supply.

the more i read here the more i understand how much can really go wrong with tractors ... and how potentially expensive that can be. i've been so lucky overall.

Oats weigh around half as much as soybeans, roughly 32 lbs./bu. vrs 60lbs./bu. depending on actual test weigh?

Great video but it gives me the chills lol.

If Dave (H) has not changed the tires on the Chevy truck that I sold him they would be the original tires on that truck and I think that was a 1972 model. I think they were Firestone Mud and Snow grip on the rear but that truck only had twenty some thousand miles on it when Dave bought it. I used it to haul grain out of the field to the grain system and many years it was not even licensed. The only time I remember taking it off the farm was I hauled a 600 bu Kinze grain cart home from Indiana with it and I helped a friend clean out her basement after it flooded and took a whole load of household junk to the landfill.

My 1977 New Holland 1400 has 3 of the 4 original Goodyears on it. Stamped 'Made in Luxembourg'. Around 2500 hours runtime. One drive tire blew out about a year ago, while it was sitting in the shed.

(quoted from post at 09:30:02 01/24/21) Oats weigh around half as much as soybeans, roughly 32 lbs./bu. vrs 60lbs./bu. depending on actual test weigh?

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I believe the legal tender figure for oats is 34 pounds per bushel but these days mine are usually closer to 40. I know I was shocked a few years back when I took a small load to the cleaning plant and had well over 400 on the old Loadstar. Normally 360 bushels of wheat would be filled to overflowing on that truck. Thats why I mentioned having over 300 bushels of oats on that 250 bushel wagon.

Dad's 1951 FARMALL M had General tires on the back when he bought it brand new, only 2 weeks out of the FARMALL Plant, they had the "Check Mark" shaped lugs. They were replaced about 1958 or '59 with Gillette tires, not sure who or where they were made. Then about 1964 or '65 the Co-Op oil & fertilizer company started handling FIRESTONE tires, mostly blemish tires at a really good price, so the M got a pair of "TRACTION Field & Road's", not the usual ALL Traction Field&Road's. About the second fall picking corn Dad drove over a broken off steel post with one of the Firestones, and one of the Gillette's was put back on. The General's were put on our direct axle duals that we used every spring working ground till they were sold December of '72. They still held air year to year but the rubber was weathered, but no cracks down to the cords. The Gillette on the M is severely weather checked, zig-zag break between the inner ends of the lugs most of the way around, plus it leaks down every month or two. Oh, the FIRESTONE that was new in the mid-1960's still looks brand new.
We had this same conversation on the Cub Cadet website the other day. ALL Cub Cadets for the first 8-10 years came on GY tires, and just about ALL those GY tires have failed now. The FIRESTONE and even B.F. Goodrich tires seemed to hold up much better than the GY. And this new guy wants New Old stock GY tires to put on his 55 year old Cubbie. Titan tire bought GY ag tire, also bought Carlisle tire too, so not sure how long either brand would last, I told him to buy Firestone tires from M.E. Miller,
Planning on buying new pair of MITAS rear tires for the M this spring, made in Charles City, Iowa. I'd really like a 23 degree Firestone but Firestone doesn't make them anymore, so getting a straight bar 45 degree tire, Goin'Old School

What is the machine behind the grain wagon? Looks like the electric motor drive would slip unless that load is very light.

I can feel the Saskatchewan cold air arriving here as it's about +12 F here in southern Minnesota.

I have many combines with original tires on them yet,, back in the day they made tires with REAL rubber,, not like todays full synthetic produced rubber with a built in "life" here are just two of mine on original rubber