Collector recounts the perils and challenges of keeping old machinery moving with this tale of antique tractor tire repair and replacement.
The Old Threshers organization at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, stores my Rotary Reaper combine on an Iternational Harvester Farmall F-20. I did not get around to checking it out in 2020, as there was no show that year. So, in July 2021, I went down to look at it. One rear tire on the F-20 had a history of a slow leak, but this time it was completely flat.
In early August, I took an air compressor down and pumped it up the day before the Mount Pleasant crew began pulling machines out of storage in preparation for display at the upcoming show. The next day, my son-in-law, Larry Gugel, called to say the tire was flat before the tractor was pulled out. He and Norm Bushart found an air compressor so it could be moved and parked.
Ten days before the show, my son, Eric, and I went down with a pickup load of tools, his air compressor and a lot of hose. The combine is semi-mounted on the right side of the F-20. Of course, the flat tire was on the right side of the tractor and the combine. That meant the combine had to be demounted and propped up. Then the tractor could be rolled back, keeping the bin somewhat stabilized.
Antique tractor tire repair not a job for the faint of heart
There is a subframe under the combine unit. The central part of this tube frame is a 3-inch pipe. On the outer end of the pipe is a tandem-wheel arrangement designed to make the combine ride more smoothly. The front wheel on this was originally turned by a rod from the tractor’s front wheels. I replaced that with a caster wheel.
The other end of the 3-inch pipe had a flat plate welded on it with seven 3/4-inch holes drilled in it. There is a subframe of 3-inch pipe under the center line of the F-20 starting in back of the front wheels and going past the drawbar. Ahead of the rear wheel, welded to the center pipe at right angles, was a 3-inch pipe that had an iron plate welded to it that matched up to a plate on the combine. There are also a couple 3/4-inch angle truss rods that help contain the stress.
The two flat iron plates were bolted together with seven 5/8-inch bolts to tie the tractor and combine unit together. The slides on the U-joints would not come apart, so we unbolted the right-angle gear box (we had gotten the sliding shaft off the back of the gear box), so we could leave the gear box with the combine unit when we moved the tractor away.
We put blocks under the inside of the combine and under the header. For some time, we put up with the tipping bin, before finally putting an angle block to the F-20 frame to level it up when we got ready to bolt the two iron plates together.
Then we could proceed with the handyman jack to get the tractor weight off the tire and get the valve core out to get the air completely out of the tube. Any of you who have ever worked on a stiff, 50-year-old, dried-out, hard rubber tire, to get it off the bead to drop it in the drop center of the rim, will know what an aggravating job it is. Those guys who bust and fix tires sure earn their wages.
A long day’s labor rewarded
After a few “under your breath” remarks (as my dad said, some of those machinery designers needed to have their heads examined), we finally got one side of the tire over the rim and pulled out the tube. It was a 38-inch tube in a 36-inch tire but it had no wrinkles. We even took the time to clean off the rim, checking it out and getting the rust and dirt out of it. At some time, there had been calcium chloride in the tires, so the rim was really rusty. We hammered on it and wire-brushed it. We found the hole in the tube and got it patched.
Then we went in search of a water tank so we could check for additional leaks. Norm Bushart hauled us around in his golf cart until we found a slough under a bicycle trail bridge with enough water to dip the tube in (there were no additional leaks). Then we began the process of prying and beating that tire back on without pinching the tube. We aired up the tire and put some soap suds around the valve stem to check for leaks. There were still no leaks, so the tire was reinstalled on the tractor.
To remount the combine, we parked the pickup ahead of the combine and used a come-along to pull the F-20 forward to where we could bolt it to the combine. Getting that done took a lot of prying and wrenching. Finally, we got it together like it was supposed to be. We gathered up all our tools, jacks and blocks. In the process, Eric lost the air chuck to his air compressor. After 5 p.m., we headed home, the whole day shot. As we had worked through dinner, we made a stop at the ice cream place and got two milkshakes. They were gone by the time we got a mile west of Mount Pleasant.
Richard Stout lives in Washington, Iowa. He is assisted in his writing endeavors by his granddaughter, Ashley Stout.
Originally published as “It Doesn’t Just Fix Itself” in the May 2023 issue of Farm Collector magazine and regularly vetted for accuracy.
