[Ol' Bob]

One of the wheels broke. The rim split in two from rust working inside it. I have built a new core and cut the center out of a pretty stout hand truck wheel and welded the new core with bearings into it. The trouble is, the center dip of the rim is too shallow to allow the 4-ply rated 410-350 4 tire to stretch onto the rim easily. I destroyed the tire bead getting the tire on and it failed. I will have to try again today with another tire, and can expect similar results for this incredibly hard job. I have days in this now. Some years ago, all of these finish mower decks went to solid tires. I checked on what it would cost to replace two of the wheel assemblies with the solid configuration on Wednesday and it would run me over $300 in Astoria.