I have had a large John Deere riding tractor down for about 3 years, and decided that this year I was going to fix it.
The first step was to get four good tires on the ground. I decided to rebuild them, instead of just patching them!
First I had to use a cupped wire wheel to remove all the rust that was inside on the rims. Then I had to inspect the tires and clean them up, and add inner tubes. Before this could happen, the rims had to be in usable condition.
It turned out that the rear wheels were in a little better shape on Rust.
After cleaning off all the rest was possible I painted all the metal with rust converting primer, and then put on a good gray primer. Since it's a John Deere, I also had to go back and paint it yellow; before I put tires back on!
It was fortunate for me that the larger back wheels actually fit on my tire changer, so the tougher back wheels were actually easier to put on because I didn't have to do it with pry bars.
I actually ended up successful on three of the four wheels, and I only had to buy one of those small front wheels to finish the set of four. Overall I was pleased, and reusing the old tires save me several hundred dollars.
I will go through some of the other stuff I had to do to get this thing running on another post, but the tires have been up now for several weeks; and I've been able to mow twice.
The man that used to own it, gave it to me; thinking I would use it for parts for tinkering. He's now referring to the repair effort as Resurrection, LOL! They told me that it was impossible to repair when he gave it to me, but I like a challenge.
I am still working on repairing everything 100%, and I still have a ways to go; but I do like the 54 inch cut on this machine! I guess, if you're hard headed enough, you can repair most anything....
Ironically I found out that this 25 horse Kohler, is the same engine let's in the John Deere Gator that I just bought. Means I can stock in repair parts for both of them, which bodes well for keeping them running if the SHTF!
Be safe and keep on prepping!
Nice job on the fix, its a good think you didn't have to spend so much. Honestly, if it was me, I would have likely just bought new wheels with new tires... easily probably a good hundred dollars, maybe a thousand, for everything. lol
It came out pretty good, John Deere parts are hard to find and usually pretty expensive. These are now as good as new, and I had to tear them down to inspect the old tires anyway. So I thought it might as well fix them right!
New tires and rims probably would have been in the thousand-dollar range. I know the tires were up over 400, and I have no idea how long I would have had to wait for the rims.
:'(Hi there, it would be really strange for you not to be super creative and intelligent every day, isn't it? :D
Glad to be keeping an eye on your progress here as well :D
Well my mind seldom shuts down, within the last two weeks I came up with a new medical device. I finished the patent search there's nothing there, so I built one to see if it will work. So far looks pretty good!
I still need to do some deck repair on this one, and I have to repair the ignition switch so I don't have to use an alligator clip to start it.
:)>Great progress.
It's real plus do not have to try to air up the tires every time I use it. I also was kind of concerned that the rims of cells break down from the rust inside. From what I tore apart it was starting to do structural damage on the rims themselves. Once they rust through they have to be replaced to hold air, a John Deere parts are hard to find and expensive.
:'(