New Tires

I sent an e mail to Astro in Florida asking them to provide me with a list of dealers or distributors either in Canada or some of the northern US states like NY, MI, IN or OH actually quite close to me here in SW ON. It's been 4 weeks and I haven't heard from them. I suspect this is a case of trade and they feel cross border business is not worth their time and effort.

At the time of my earlier post, one of you guys had seen 3 Farmalls at a show in MN with new Astro tires, leads me to believe Astro are doing business in the north. Someone else provided me with the link, and I thank both of you for your responce.

The reason I raise this is I have a 20+ year old 12.4x24 Astro tire on my Farmall 130. The tractor has spent close to 40% of it's life in the past 20 years, outside to weather elements. There is no evidence of cracking or weather checking anywhere on this tire. It gives better traction than the new Firestone 12.4x24 All traction Field & Road tires on my Farmall 140. Neither tractor have liquid ballast in tires. This week I moved wheel weights from 130 to 140, and guess what?, Astro still has the best traction. Let me qualify best traction, I'm talking about pulling my disk or cultivator in 2 nd gear. The Firestones are visually spinning all the time on loose dry soil. I expect there is also some slippage with the Astro, but not noticable from the tractor seat. What is very noticable is those new Firestones have way more chew marks on tread than the 20 year old Astro. The Astro has 19 treads around the circumference while the Firestones only have 17. I remember Bob M and others telling numbers of treads will not be noticable. Bear in mind those guys are using 38" tires on Hs and Ms and a tread or two is not significant. Bob, my thoughts are, this is quite significant on a 24" tire. I also have a set of 9.5x24 Generals on my Super A, 20 treads around the circumference. On hard ground they will give both the Astros and Firestones a hard run on traction.

My question, can anyone tell me where I might skip across the border and buy a set of Astro tires. Names and addresses of dealers in NY, MI, IN or OH would be great. I kind of have a feeling no new tires are going to hold up on the weather checking problem today. New tires are built to be worn out before that happens. I am however convinced, tread count is very important on these 24" tires.

I never remember this weather checking being such a problem when I was farming. I suppose tractors were clocking enough hours, the tires were only around 6-10 years. I guess the part that really annoys me with these Field and Road I have, I see very faint signs of weather checking already at 10 months on tractor. I did buy them close to 2 years ago but they stood in a dark corner my shed, tubes inflated in them and covered with some old carpet.

If you go down the page they have a used astro your size. JON

• used astro tire

Like you said in your other post, I doubt if anyone can or will sell me new tires today that resist weather checking like this Astro has. I do however think tread count is important on these 24" tires. I've been looking around local tire shops lately and all new 4 or 6 ply 12.4x24 tires have 15, 16 or 17 treads. It may also be the case that no one builds a 19 or 20 tread count tire this size anymore. Same old-same old, cheap is the answer, the H@## with quality, they'll grab your extra money and still try to convince you more expensive junk is better. We see that in every aspect of life today.

Now, you've also got me curious, I know your in Upstate NY, but where? I bet we came close to you last summer. We crossed at Buffalo, went west to OH border, south into PA, then north back to the NY side, east through the Alegany's then north to Rochester. From there back home to Canada via Lewiston. However that still leaves a lot of Upstae NY untouched, all the more reason to go back.

Similar to our local grocery store, produce manager tells me when I was delivering to him 3 times per week, always in a hurry, I was not near the nuisance I am as a retired customer. Today, Marg. sends me to the store with a list. He claims I'm never in a hurry to leave anymore, plus I forget half the list so I have an excuse to come back tomorrow. I'll tell you, this ageing has some benefits.