(ET) front tire

[D Howell <dervatl yahoo com>]

You never know what you'll find in rehabing anything,
and I guess Elec-Traks are no exception.  I've got all
my painting done now, and have started reassembling
the tractor.  Everything is going well.  

It doesn't look too good to have a new looking, shiny
orange tractor (it's the I-5)and ugly wheels, so I had
the wheels sandblasted.  Every since I bought it last
month, the right front tire has had a slow leak.  So
today I tried to break the tire down and discovered to
my amazement the whole inside of the wheel was a rust
bucket.  No doubt this was due to the previous owner
adding the inflate-a-tire junk to it in hopes of
stopping the slow leak.  That stuff should be banned. 
So, I guess a new wheel/tire is in order.

I started checking around and discovered that a wheel
barrow tire is the same size as the tractor.  The hub
length is 3 inches, the bore is three-quarters inch
and the height of the tire is 15.5 inches.  Northern
carries them.  I thought about ordering one from Bill,
but I would really like to have this tractor operating
this weekend.  Northern's price is only $16.00.  I'm
not sure what Bill gets for them.  This will make the
front have an unmatched set, so I may still order one
from Bill anyway.

My question is has anyone else replaced their fronts
with a non OEM wheel/tire?  If so, what did you use?

Darryl Howell
Smyrna GA