Todays project.

I would like to be combining beans or be done with them and do corn. But since central Iowa has turned into lower Unkton, (any Married With Children fans), had to work on other things.

This is one of my 'long term projects'. I bought a pair of 15x28" rim 'blanks'  last spring. I have lots of junk rims with good rails and two good pairs of 16.9x28 Firestone Field and road tires. One pair on JD (titan) rims, the other on very narrow (10"?) spin out rims.

The blanks.


Today's work.
The rails cut out of a junk rim.


The plan is to get the rails cleaned up and welded in the blanks. Would be nice to get them galvanized.

Sundays victim, I think Red Green himself may have owned the tractor these rims came off of.




What it was reduced down to.

I kept 5 of the pieces to make rim patches out of. This rim was in better shape than the first one, it all went in the scrap pile.

This rim was better than the first one but still very rusty. That's why it didn't bother me to cut it up and save what I could.

I'm pretty sure the rails will work in the wider rims but will do some more research before proceeding.

That is a nice indoor project for the holidays!  Wish I had more time off for things like that.  Hope to do a bit of work on the 190XT today and tomorrow.

Boy that's a lot of work Mike.  But it looks like you've got it all figured out and in hand.  Amazing how much you lose through the years.........and geometry was one of my BEST classes.  I've retained a lot, but it's because I still use it a lot.  It's the lesser things that we forget.
As far as where they should go.........I'd go with having them be able to go OUT as far as possible, not centered.  Stability is everything.  BUT, if you had to go with rows, distance, etal...... then who knows.  What if you cut them apart and added a piece in so it would go the whole rim width?  Cut each beam so the added piece is in a different spot so there wouldn't be any real serious stress problems?  Just an idea.........
Looks like a good COLD winter project though......... have fun with it and stay warm and safe and see what you can do...........

WD-D17 were three different widths....same rails just positioned "centered".For that wide of rim,you probably need to keep them close to the one edge and let the excess hang out.That way you can suck em all the way in.

I didn't use any math at all, just laid then and used wheel to get proper spacing, tightened them up and welded first end , shifted wheel in ,welded other end and did same for middles. no clamps needed.

I'm bringing this back to the top as I have finished welding the rails in and have applied a coat of primer on the wheels. Decided not to galvanize. hopefully get some paint on them soon. Will try to post some pics soon.

Not sure who posted the tip about using a handy-man jack for a bead breaker, but it worked like a charm. At the current rate I'm making progress I should have these tires on the tractor by 2025.

Thanks Stan. I intended to post a few more pics but photobucket is not cooperating right now. Maybe later tonight.

Looking good. 

This was a good weekend foe 'today's project'. It really turned into my ongoing project.
Got the second tire dismounted from the yellow rim and mounted both on the new spin-outs. This was a warm fuzzy feeling, bought the tires about 4 years ago.

Took a few shots for size comparison. These are 16.8x28's on 15" rims compared to 14.9x28 on 12" rims.

13.6x28 on 10" or 11" rim.

These are 16.9x28's on 13" rims, look almost the same height to me.

And finally the tractor these tires are going on, these are 15x26 same as 18.4, they are good tires but non spin-out rims and no provision for wheel weights.

Speaking of wheel weights, I've had this pair of Oxnard weights for a couple of years now. When I get them cleaned up and painted they are going on. Then it will be time to start working on the front of the tractor.