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Goodyear Tyres.

Starting this thread I suppose I should congratulate Goodyear Tyres for the longstanding service of their products to the agricultural industry.

It's more of a sad note for me and a day I have been expecting for over 34 years when I bought my styled red 25 at an auction in Warwickshire, the owner at that time told me the tractor had come over from the USA on Lease Lend and been assigned to Derbyshire War Agricultural Committee and the tractor went to work on a farm where they had also a red Pacemaker, they found the 25 to be much larger and not so easy to use as the PA, so it only came out for heavy winter ploughing, when he found it in the 1970's it was blocked up in a barn, still on it's original front multi rib tyres with "made in the USA" marked on them, during its working life the tractor had one new pair of closed centre tread British tyres fitted on the rear.

I have always cherished these original front tyres although in the back of my mind I knew one day they would let me down as the side walls had become very cracked over the years, so a few years ago I did buy a pair of multi rib 7-50 X 18 tyres from a dealer in Wilmar Minnesota  and put them into one of my containers, always good to have the parts you need in stock ready.

Last weekend I used the tractor at the Little Casterton Working Weekend, left it all loaded for our local Club working day yesterday, well Saturday morning went to put some fuel in the tanks and found the front left hand wheel was flat, took the wheel off and to my local tyre fitter, well when we got the tyre off the rim the inner tube was almost welded to the inside of the tyre, if you pulled it came away in shreds.
So it was time to go back home and fetch one of the new tyres and fitted it ready for work yesterday, now I think I am going to have to put the other one on, but will retain the original front tyres with the tractor.

I think its pretty good for a pair of tyres to last nearly 80 years.

Malcolm.
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RE:Goodyear Tyres.

Malcolm Your original tyres certainly did you very well. Let's hope the replacement last as long. When I bought my 44 the front tyres were perished so I had to replace them with three ribbed Goodyear tyres. Probably made in India. However the tyres that I took off had three ribs but with squares along the outer edges of the tyres. They looked very nice and although they are completely useless they are still it the back of my shed as I can't bring myself to throw them away. Alan

RE:Goodyear Tyres.

Tyres make an interesting topic.  The simplicity of the old ones and their classifications is in marked contrast to the vast array of designs, sizes and purposes of tyres for today's tractors.

I have two of my great uncle's old MH tractors both of which I have known since childhood so nigh on 70 + years.  Both have the same tyres on that I remember as a child when of course they were going into retirement with the advent of of Ferguson TE and 35s on his farm.

The first is this Challenger with DUNLOP tyres which are still amazingly as good as new - just slight fine perishing cracks.  I bought this tractor back some 25 years ago from a chap that had bought it from great uncle's farm sale in 1968.  When I bought it the tyres were absoluteley flat but blew up without any cracks from having been standing.  Since then I have just blown them up a little every 6 months or so.

John
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RE:Goodyear Tyres.

The second tyre is on my great uncle's red Pacemaker - again a tractor that I have known for 70+ years and which Dad and I bought from his farm sale.  It is fitted with a pair of Firestone tyres which are as you can see actually remoulds.  Both the rear tyres are in identical condition and rarely need inflating.

Note how both tractors have the closed tread tyres which were the order of the day.  It is worthy of note that Harry Ferguson is credited with getting tyre manufacturers to produce open tread tyres.  Indeed early Ferguson tractors were fitted with closed tread tyres as I remember Dad's new tractor in 1948.  

Does anyone know of when open tread tyres were introduced and by which company first?
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RE:Goodyear Tyres.

Interesting to see your original closed pattern Firestone remould tyres John,

I have an identical pair on the rear of one of my green Pacemaker's number  107862.
It was originally a threshing tractor in Oxfordshire fitted with a Hesford winch and for travelling on the roads with the threshing set was taken off its original steel wheels and converted to British cast wheels, the rears 11.25 x 28 and the fronts 6.00 x 19.

I don't know the exact answer to your question about the arrival of open tread tyres, I would guess it to be in the 1950's as all the photo's I have of our Nuffields new in the early 1960's were all open tread tyres.

Malcolm.

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RE:Goodyear Tyres.

Don't know when the last closed patterns were made, but have seen vintage promotional literature from the late 30's and early 40's showing both closed and open on new tractors.  Different manufacturers might have had different opinions as to which was best.  In the late 30's, Goodyear advertised a new "self cleaning " tire tread. Can only guess that those might have been open treads.  Also, could depend on location.  US and UK might be different.  Which brings to mind a question.  Were there tractor tire companies in the UK in the late 30's and early 40's?

Paul

RE:Goodyear Tyres.

Paul,

Interesting that you have seen literature that apparently pre-dates Ferguson's use of open tread tyres.  This may cast doubt on the supposition that Ferguson had the manufacturers switch to open tread???

We had all the major tyre manufacturers in the UK.  The Dunlop headquarters in the midlands (Coventry/Birmingham area) still stands.  A massive multi storey building known as Fort Dunlop by the side of the M6 motorway.  Quite a landmark  However it is now an hotel - Qauality Inn if I remember correctly.

John

RE:Goodyear Tyres.

There is now a matching pair of tyres on the front of the styled 25, this weekend got it all cleaned up and put away from the recent working events.

As winter is fast approaching now I drained all the water from the tractors this weekend and drained the petrol and kerosene tanks, cleaned out the sediment bowls.

One job left to do later this week is go round and open the drain plug on each U frame bottom filter, just to make sure there is no water sitting in the bottom before the hard frosts start.

Malcolm.
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RE:Goodyear Tyres.

Gents,

In preparation for the inevitable day when my fronts need replacing - what do we believe are the 'right' tyres for an unstyled Candian Pacemaker?

I've currently got front implement tyres like your styled 25 pictured Malcolm, one is 6.00x16, the other 6.50x16. Both are cracked, made worse by inflating them quite hard in an attempt to make my horrible steering problem better. 

Should they be these implement style or a ribbed type?

Cheers, Jon. 

RE:Goodyear Tyres.

Jon,

I like to see the multi rib tyres on the French and Hecht round spoke front rims, as you se the ones on my styled 25 have been on from new, the modern replacements I bought in the USA are slightly different to the originals on the side wall markings as you see in the photo's below.

I was looking at some new Firestone front tyres on Saturday at Newby Hall Rally on "The British Rubber Company" stand, they were the old three rib style with side wall markings, a tyre which was seen on many British cast iron Fordson front wheels, good to see they are now reproducing them, they too would look very good on your Pacemaker.

Malcolm.
Malcolm