Colt Case Ingersoll Garden Tractors

About the second maddest I think I can remember my grandpa getting was when he came in the barn and caught me and some of my cousins walking across the beams from one side of the hay across the center alley to the other.

I also have memories of vulcanized patches. Our required roughing the area around the hole. The patch was on the bottom of a thin "lid". The lid was clamp over the area to be patched. The lid had slow a burning mixture in it. After it was lit, burned, and left to cool, the lid would release from the patch material. If the tube had not been buffed enough the patch would also lift.

You guys had me laughing out loud with stories of your antics.

Our messing with tires involved breaking watermelon open and putting a bowel shapped piece under the rear wheels of cars. The victim would find them selves stuck on dry land and had no idea why the vehicle would spin and not move. It takes a lot of tire spinning to burn through Mellon rind. Just hide and watch.

OK, so on the GT my issue was my front tires! Brand new and fitted by a dealer too. The only thing different is they were filled with beetle juice! The issue was not the tires but the wheels!!!!! The seal between the tire and wheel was compromised by rust on the rim... Had to deflate what was left of the air, remove the fill, remove the tire and then thoroughly scrub and sand the rim and repaint before remounting, filling and then pressurizing again. Did that about 4 years ago now with no new issues. No repair to the tire was needed

Gordy wrote: ↑Sun Jan 29, 2023 10:14 am
The wayyyy back machine in my brain just kicked in As a kid in the early 70's, my buddies dad had some patches for our bicycle tubes. They used a process called "vulcanization".The tube was cleaned and the patch was laid over the hole, dry/no glue. there was a special clamp that held the 2 together, then you put a lit match to the edge of the patch. The edge of the patch would flash like a very fast firecracker fuse, let it sit a couple minutes then take the clamp off and put the tube back in the tire. The heat quickly fused the 2 pieces of rubber together.


Gordy

I remember that term from when I was a kid, professional tire shops would fix tires that way. Wish that was available today!

Ok, so it's time to fire up the ol' leaf sucker.

Step one, remove the loader, step two install the ball hitch adapter on the three point. Step three, air up the tires on the leaf trailer (which are actually the rear wheels off of my first real garden tractor, a 1970 Cub Cadet that I ended up parting out about a year before I came across my first Case.)

But the tires, though I put green tire slime in them last year, for some reason refuse to hold air: It seems that sitting flat in the off season, in combination with the ancient, dried out and cracked condition of the rubber, has resulted in a big split in the sidewall.

The only reasonable conclusion is that it's tIme for new tires. But being unreasonable and cheap, I decided to try to get another season or two out of them. So I ordered a couple inner tubes.- But at 10 psi, the gash bulged open and threatened to rip even further.

So I removed the tire and sewed the split closed using my handy "Awl for all" and some heavy waxed cord/thread. And having buffed the tire near the sewing with a wire wheel in a dremel I cut some reinforced rubber out of a bicycle tire. It's not ideal, but once bonded in place, it should be strong enough.
I sanded the tread off of the bike tire to decrease its thickness and increase its pliability,
and then used the 3m Plastic and Rubber Adhesive to glue it in place. Being a form of cyanoacrylate, you only have to hold pressure on it for 4 or 5 minutes. I used some heavy bags of small hardware to try to apply broad/uniform pressure on the patch. And I used a layer of paper towel to prevent the baggies from bonding to the tire. Lastly I re-mounted the tire and installed the tube, and aired it up to 4 or 5 psi, just to get it to form. And then I bonded another piece of bike tire to the outside, really just to try to seal the gash from the elements.
It's ugly and unconventional. But I'll be surprised if I dont' get at least two seasons out of it.
Though I will be sure to block up the trailer axle during the off season this year. Sitting on flats is extra-brutal.

Finally, I went ahead and tubed the other tire as well. It didn't have a giant gash like this one, but it wouldn't hold air without a tube.

And once the tires worked, everything else fell into place. After a whiff of ether, the vacuum engine fired up and ran fine on last year's gas.

And it sure is remarkable the contrast between the heavy blanket of leaves and debris and the perfectly swept trails that the vacuum leaves behind.
Bob

You got Skillz Bob

Neat. Nice fix.

Noel

That’s a lot of work to fix a tire. I’ve picked up small tires and some on rims that people were throwing away. I’ve used some of them already on a oil tank trailer I built. My Dad would pick up other peoples junk, so I guess the apple fell not to far from the tree. Harry

That's quite the tire repair Bob -
Good example of a "never say never" attitude and if you got the tools and materials to fangle a repair... well... just getter done!

Harry wrote: ↑Thu Nov 02, 2023 7:45 am That’s a lot of work to fix a tire. I’ve picked up small tires and some on rims that people were throwing away. I’ve used some of them already on a oil tank trailer I built. My Dad would pick up other peoples junk, so I guess the apple fell not to far from the tree. Harry

I looked carefully on Facebook and craigslist for any free/cheap tires that I could mount on these 12" wheels. New tires was the only option I could find, about $125 for a pair. Not impossible, but I'm easily willing to do this work to save that expense. The two tubes were $25, and I used 1/2 of a $12 tube of glue.

I even looked for any wheels that are a similar outer diameter, thinking I could drill/tap the wheel hubs to match the new pattern. But no dice there, either.

So it is a lot of work, but it seemed like the best route available.

Bob