wheel wideing. poor boy style.

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Since I use this tractor to pull my pull behind mower I added the weights on the wheels but I still needed more traction I thought.  I had 4 rims that were only 7 1/2" wide and I came up with the idea to make 2 that were 12" wide from the 4. Measuring told me to cut the front bead off of 2 and the rear bead and the center off the other 2 and I could get 12" rims. Lets do it. HahaFirst I took off the tires then mounted just the rim on the axles. I marked them out then using a waffer wheel on a grinder I cut off the beads while turning the rim with the axle. Like a lathe.  That was the dangerous part but it went ok. While still turning I trued up the cuts with a grinding wheel a little. But the cuts came out pretty true to begin with. I just cut them real slow and light while guiding the cut with my hand on the rim.Then I tacked them up while still on the axle. I could spin them and check the run out. I even welded them while still bolted on. I stitch around to keep the draw down.It was a fun project. Putting those 23x10.50x12 tires on 12" wide rims ment blowing them on with ether (starting fluid) and a striker. They go better man. The traction came up quite a bit.  I had to lengthen the mounts on my wheel weights but that was easy.A fun project to say the leastThanks for lookingSlowhand Attached Images
Reply:A couple more pics. Lol Attached Images
Reply:Now thats Super, What a simple idea for a great end result, well done
Reply:Thanks.I forgot to mention. The first pic before with stock 7 1/2" rims.  The others are after.My weights wasn't back on in those after pics yet. I had to mod the brackets.I made the weights too. The wife had a couple old flower pots that fit right in those rims so I tacked up some steel and poured the pots with sack Crete. About 45 lbs each.  Cost me only a couple bucks. Haha.  I've got pics somewhere but it was easy to make.
Reply:I've been following the other Mower build projects on the pulling tractor and the mower deck. But I was wondering what the winch is for in the first pic in this thread. Didn't see any mention of it in the other threads. I never thought of a need for a winch while mowing. Or is it for another purpose?
Reply:I put on the winch to lift the grader blade I built.  I have a dash mounted button that lifts it up and down.  I've also found a couple other uses for it this year.  This summer we had a terrible wind storm and it knocked down 8 trees on my property.  I sawed them up into firewood and gave that to my son (he burns a little - I don't) but getting the limbs picked up was a major problem.  We tried our little wagon but that just wasn't working, then I remembered the winch.  It worked great for that.  I would back in and roll out the winch cable and lay it on the ground about 20 feet long.  We would then throw limbs across the cable.  When we had a pretty big pile I'd bring the cable back over the pile and hook the hook onto the cable around the brush pile, then tighten up using the switch.  Then just drag the huge pile of limbs across the yard over into the woods where we were piling it.  That worked good man. :smile:One other use was when one of my mowers had a flat rear tire.  I just took the Husqvarna with the winch, backed into the rear of it, hooked up the cable to the rear hitch. Lifted it up and carried it to the garage where I could fix it.  Wrecker style. haha.  I couldn't steer very good cause the front end was so light (the winch is mounted up high) but it pulled it good. lol.  I just lowered it down some to steer then lift it back up again with the button.The winch I got at harbor freight for about 70.00 I think.  It works good. 2000lb rating and 12 volt.Hay, I found those pics when I made those wheel weights.  I'll post a couple.  It was an easy project and only cost me 1 bag of cement mix.  I had more than a bag already. The steel is scrap I had laying around here. lol.  The flower pots (my molds) were gave to me from the wife.  She didn't want them anymore.I just drilled 2 holes in the bottom of the pots to run the mounting bolts through from my scrap steel and bolted them to the holes already in the rim.  I put in a piece or two of foam scraps I had so it would make space for the wheels lug nuts and stud bolts.  About 1" I think. (?) Maybe 1 1/2".  I don't remember now.  Then put in the concrete mix.  Let it dry real good then flipped all that over, took out the bolts and they popped out of the pots.  Sprayed on some old paint I had left and - - - cheap wheel weights.  I think 45 lbs each is what they weigh dry. lol.  Oh yea, the cutout for the valve was just a piece of foam.Slowhand Attached ImagesLast edited by slowhand; 12-28-2012 at 08:18 PM.
Reply:Slowhand,What are you running on the truck these days?  A hybrid special?
Reply:The winch...I put brackets on all 3 of my tractors so it will fit on any of them.  And like most of my stuff, I don't have all that much in any of it. lolSlowhand Attached Images
Reply:Another Superb project Slowhand,.I forgot how to change this.
Reply:Guys, I figured out "who" Slowhand really is. His name is Tim Taylor, and he has a show called "Tool Time"........................Awesome work Slowhand!!!"Where's Stick man????????" - 7A749"SHHHHHH!! I sent him over to snag that MIC-4 while tbone wasn't looking!" - duaneb55"I have bought a few of Tbone's things unlike Stick-Man who helps himself" - TozziWelding"Stick-man"
Reply:Nice Job, and I have a 30gal. aircomp. tank that will no longer be in the way.......
Reply:Forget the wheel weights!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Drink more beer, eat more fried foods"Any day above ground is a good day"http://www.farmersamm.com/
Reply:Haha....The blade i made is a scrap of 16" x52 .250wt pipe i got from a small job i was on awhile back. The tank you have should work fine man. LolThat blade i dont have much in. The material is all scrap that was laying here. I bought the winch but ive used  it for other stuff too. So deduct that. I might of bought paint. ?. Haha. But it works good i think. LolThanks guys for the repliesSlowhandLast edited by slowhand; 12-29-2012 at 06:39 PM.
Reply:LOL, the meats on that husky look like a 10 second street tire!
Reply:Yea. My grandson, he's 16, loves it. When i die it goes to him he says. Haha
Reply:Tagged.I have a customer with a really wet horse pasture. If we ever find her a nice inexpensive tractor I may keep this in mind as a mod for it. What ever we get will almost certainly need some sort of flotation tires..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:slow hand How do you take those wheel weights off if need to (I'm missing something about how they are attached).Miller thunderbolt 250Decastar 135ERecovering tool-o-holic ESAB OAI have been interested or involved in Electrical, Fire Alarm, Auto, Marine, Welding, Electronics ETC to name a just a few. So YES you can own too many tools.
Reply:The wheels were weight ready from the the factory. They had 4 holes. In the wheel pics at the top of this page they are the 4 square holes. The factory weights uses long carriage bolts with the nuts on the outside. My nuts are on the backside.I used 2 of those holes with 3/8" belts about 1 1/2" long. Those bolts I welded to that bent scrap steel that's inside the cement. If you look closely at the mold pic you can pretty much see them. Lol. They are simply welded to the scrap.If you were to take the scrap steel out of the mold the bolts would be on the bottom. In the pics they were bolted to the wheel just to help hold everything lined up.  They are pretty close to the outside of the mold.So the 2 bolts connects the scrap steel to the wheel and since the cement flows around the steel it all holds together.  The foam in the bottom was space for the lug nuts and the white plastic was a release for the cement. Hope that helps. LolLast edited by slowhand; 12-31-2012 at 08:23 AM.
Reply:Oh I missed that. That is smart. What about just filling the tires with winshield washer fluid to add weight?Miller thunderbolt 250Decastar 135ERecovering tool-o-holic ESAB OAI have been interested or involved in Electrical, Fire Alarm, Auto, Marine, Welding, Electronics ETC to name a just a few. So YES you can own too many tools.
Reply:Way too cool tractor, like the way you made it out from scraps and turned it to an awesome project. Really genius!
Reply:Put new tires on those widened rims the other day.  These fit much better. Carsile UltraTrac 24 x 13 x 12.  They measure 13 1/2" wall to wall. These went on with-out using ether..  hahaLater guysSlowhand Attached ImagesLast edited by slowhand; 01-08-2013 at 12:33 PM.