Farmall Cub

While planting corn and potatoes this weekend the Princess (our 1955 Cub) had a flat front tire. Realizing my 48 (Rex) wouldn't need front tires for a bit, we changed one out. Figured while I had it off of Princess - I'd sandblast and paint it up. That went so well. I decided to do a rim on Rex. Sand blasting that was quite a chore, due to LOTS of rust where the wheel weights had been of 65 years.

In the process of cleaning and painted I noted that the 48 rims were riveted together and the 55 was welded. Interesting manufacturing change in 7 years of production. Anyone know when they changed to welded hubs instead of riveted?

Regards, Ken

I don't know when the change took place, but the front rims on my '49 are welded.

I think you'll find either style throughout the Cub production, and it may have more to do with the tire supplier at the time of production. The tires came to the factory already mounted on the rims. The rims were not produced by IH. If you open up a set of rear rims, you'll find them stamped Goodyear, Firestone, or BF Goodrich. I've seen both Firestone and Goodyear, but not BFG yet. Anyway, I'd guess that there is no specific year or date that they changed, and you may even find different rims on the same year tractors if they had different style of tires installed, especially after Turf tires became popular.

Our tractor came new with Goodyears mounted on Firestone rims! Front rim difference may be because of different suppliers.