I'll tell you what, them rear wheels are heavy!

I'll admit to bein a softy. More than once, I've invited a newbie to correspond by email to answer their questions, rather than have them suffer the scorn that might get heaped on them on the board for asking an honest, if naive, question.

There's a lot of good folks here, and a lot of good help to be offered, but it isn't always the friendliest place, if only because it's too easy to misread the tone of what's bein' asked or said in reply. Odd, how what can be said on the phone and taken right can sound hurtful when it's typed out. LIKE WHEN SOMEBODY TYPES IN CAPS.

And I haven't seen where Mike has crossed that line.

In this particular case, Mike's original post didn't go into detail about how he went about it, but he's cleared that up -- he went to a local for help, and they had the equipment and setup to change out the rims and tires safely. So, I'm not sure what the problem is.

Is it that he did it with local help without advice from here?

I came in late on his project and have the sense that there are some folks here who are irked because he ignored their advice once, or even twice, and wonder if that isn't what's coming out now. IF so, please get over it. It's his tractor.

What I know about tractors I either learned growing up around the farm, or working on other stuff. And I've learned a lot lurking and participating here and on other boards. Forums like this are great, but they're imperfect. I've gotten good and bad advice here. Made my own decisions based on the advice, and gotten along just fine, and I don't see where Mike is doing any different.

He shared a story.

It reminded me of the trouble he got into with the Missus about the oil stains on the driveway, so I thought I'd caution him about not killing the grass, too.

I think it's time to lighen up.

Well you do not ask questions untill after you do something. You do endanger your children and yourself, flying only mean you went up in an airplane sometime, it does not mean you have any mechanical ability, which I think you have little of and you and and your children are going to get hurt running your tractor up and down the street, no seat or fenders, etc, tell me where you are and I will personally call the cops on you.

You can read about tire ballasts here:
common tire ballast

I tell you what, I use an engine hoist to take wheels on and off my Farmalls. Just the center with a wight on it plus rim and tire is a hazardous enough amount of weight. And if the tires are loaded? Oh man, if if does not break your bones outright when it lands on you, surely two grown men could not even lift it off you. Chain that up to a cherry picker engine hoist. And as my grandpa told me. If something heavy starts to fall, jump out of the way and let it !!!

Gordo

If all these tires spent all their time in sunny Southern Cal, it might be just water.

If it is just water or water and beet juice, no real harm to be done.

If it's antifreeze (doubtful but possible), you need to be careful with disposal for all the obvious reasons.

If it's water and CaCl (far more common than antifreeze), there's two points. One is, be caeful where you dump it or even do the work of unloading it. It'll kill anything green and keep anything green from growing for quite a while. The other is to wash down anything that the stuff tuches really well when you're done, as it will corrode just about anything it touches. Disposal of CaCl is easy if you know somebody wiht a dirt or gravel drive. It'll kill any weeds growin' in it, and will help hold the dust down for a while.

Gordo

I'll bet a dime to a donut there's not a person on this board who didn't get "hollered at" when they were new to tractors and appeared to be doing something risky. Most of the time the hollerer was a parent or grandparent and what they were doing was basically their way of showing concern for our safety and helping us learn, nothing more. Same as what's going on in this thread, but instead of actual family members doing the hollering, it's Mike's "internet family" doing it, simply because they're concerned and don't want to read another one of those "prayers needed" posts for someone doing something that shouldn't have been done. Please don't take offense Mike, these crusty ol' buggers are just looking after ya in their own way.

Gordo

You mention being able to look over his shoulder. There's a joke at the neighbor's garage (where a lot of people show up to use the heated space or his tools). He's a VERY capable mechanic, but a litlle esily frustrated and impetuous. We all pitch in here and there, but I have the reputation of being the one to provide the adult supervision, which, often as not, means being the one to say that's enough for tonight, boys, we'll get back at her tomorrow.

Yes, Mike doesn't have much in the way of tools or the experience with them to know what else he needs for tools. But he asks. And I give him points for that.

For perspective, I'd ask folks to contrast Mike to a much younger fellow who has been around the boards the last few months, who tried to impress us with how he's blown up lawn tractors trying to drive them like a reckless ATV and wanting to move up to real tractors. That boy needed a stern talking to, and got it. I'm bothered that folks in this thread have taken the same tone with Mike. It's not a similar case (that's why I said contrast instead of compare) and he hasn't done anything to be lectured and talked down to the way he has. The only thing he has in common with the other fella is his enthusiasm. But Mike's a grownup.

I just think that in this thread he's getting bashed when others wouldn't be, and harder. I see pictures of the rear-end of a 450 resting on rotten, old hollow cinder blocks. But it's in a shop full of tools with an oil-stained floor and a chain fall hanging from the stringers off on the side somewhere, and nobody says a word.

That, and I haven't liked the tone of it. He's not a boy that needs a beatin' down. He's a grown man, realizin' a boyhood dream. And he's learned enough that he can and does chime in here and there to try to help other folks on the board.

I say let's give him some credit.

I know of a nine-year-old with a name remarkably the same as mine who confessed to his grandfather how he'd screwed up playin' on one of the tractors, and driven it (on the starter) into the safe in the garage that held the dynamite and caps. The little fella (who shall remain nameless!) was afraid that some kind of spark from startin' the tractor up the next time might blow his Grandpa to flinders. Grandpa's solution was to take that little fella out the next day and start teachin' me to drive a tractor.