[twocycle]

I am restoring my 1950 Jacobsen Lawn Queen. I have finally found replacement tires for this mower. The size is 10.50 x 1.75 which are very hard to find, I have been looking for months for this size tire , I could not restore this mower without them as the originals are bald and splitting down the middle.

My question is what is the best way to soften up these tires? They are hard and not very flexible. I was thinking about boiling them, but I am not sure if they will soften up enough. I would appreciate any ideas, thoughts or if you have first hand experience with replacing reel mower tires. Thanks.

 

[twocycle]

==edit== I was unable to edit my post. I need to soften these tires to put them onto the reel mower wheel/rim.Thanks

 

[Mark / Ohio]

I think Austen boiled his to soften them. As I recall though it was still a real bear to get them installed even then.

 

[Austen]

Yup, soaking in them in boiling or very hot water for around 10 minutes will get them softened up quite a bit making them a lot more pliable.

They aren't the easiest things to work onto the rims, but take your time. A couple words of advice. Please use extreme caution should you decide to use a flathead screw driver or something similar to help work them onto the rims. The cast iron rims on these will crack EASILY if you do this... I learned the hard way on this and is why I had to originally replace one of mine. Also, keep in mind that if you stretch the tires too far when they are pliable, they will snap (again, learned this hard way) so take your time and use good judgement. I also lubricated the very edges of the rim with grease which can help the tire slide over the rim grooves easier. If you do this though, try not get the grease in the center of the rim which could possibly cause the rim to spin on the tire once it's mounted.

The way that I removed the old tires was drilling a hole with an appropriate sized hole saw drill bit all the way through the tire which splits it in half and from there you can easily just pull the two pieces off of the rim.

That is really awesome that you're restoring it! Please keep us posted on the progress!

 

[twocycle]

I think Austen boiled his to soften them. As I recall though it was still a real bear to get them installed even then.

Thanks for the info!!

That is really awesome that you're restoring it! Please keep us posted on the progress!

Thanks for the help with the tires ! I will post the whole restore when I can finally get some free time to start it. I needed the tires in order to start the restore. The mower is complete and runs well. Progress will be posted!!!

 

[Austen]

Awesome!! Looking forward to it. I can't say that I've ever seen another restored Lawn Queen before.

 

[bwdbrn1]

Look forward to seeing your Lawn Queen. Let us know how the tire fit goes for you. Thanks for sharing the source for the new tires.

 

[twocycle]

Thanks for sharing the source for the new tires.

Here is a listing onEbay for the 10.50 x 1.75 tires!!

 

[Austen]

Cool, thanks for posting the link!

Yeah, they are definitely hard to find. I remember a few years ago when I did mine up I bought like three sets when a different seller had them available as I wasn't sure when I'd ever come across them again, lol.

If you're planning on replacing the original decal and need a source to make a new one, I can put you in touch with the gentleman that created one for my project. As you can see it is not an exact replica of the original, but it is nice and works ok as a replacement.

(FYI, The bubble that you see is the "tape" overally protecting the decal for packaging.)

 

[twocycle]

If you're planning on replacing the original decal and need a source to make a new one, I can put you in touch with the gentleman that created one for my project. As you can see it is not an exact replica of the original, but it is nice and works ok as a replacement.

Thanks for the offer...:cool I am planning on replacing the decal. I will be starting the restore towards the end of this month, when things slow down for me. If you can put me in touch with the gentleman I would appreciate it.

That Lawn Queen looks brand new, you did a excellent job on the restore!!! You should take that Queen to antique mower shows. I like the way that mower looks with the vintage framed advertisement by its side.

 

[Austen]

Haha, thanks, it came out alright. Someday I will restore it again. It is still nice but there are some things that I would've done differently had I waited but I was in my teens and was anxious to see it restored at the time.

I would love to take my old mowers to shows but around here we unfortunately don't have anything like that. I have thought about putting one or two of them in the back our old truck to take to shows for display though.

I will send you a pm with Dan's info regarding the decal.