Good fix! I own the same exact lawnmower and got sick of "drift racing" while mowing the lawn - especially on the hilly sides of the ditches where my lawn borders the highway. The cheap plastic wheels lasted me 3 seasons (about 25 grass cutting days per year). I'll use your idea, and thanks for the final tip on contact cement: I'm going to Home Depot now to just buy some builders adhesive. In rain, heat or ice, I can never get that crap off from my tools and equipment, so I'm betting it will secure permanently to the bike tire. Note: I wrote a reply to "FEARLESS" below who suggested to just buy new wheels.....ah yes....spoken like a true Millennial with money to burn and no desire to fix anything!! But what will he do when his parents pass on and he can no longer live in the basement?
My fix still works at full tilt. The screws are the most important thing in my opinion. None of the adhesive sticks at this point but the treads are not moving at all with the screws. Have fun with the garage surgery!
My problem exactly,we bought ours from a Honda power equipment dealer in 2013,it still runs awesome but our landscape with hills and the tires being “ slicks” at this point? I’m driving it sideways most of the time,we just might buy a new one hoping Honda improved the tires To rubber ! We love Honda products and the new ones are made in America to boot !
Its just like the day I did it. Grass does zero wear to a bike tire. I am going to do the front tires no because they are bald and this mower will not die!
When applying a tire patch, the inside of the tire needs to be abraided for the rubber cement to stick. If you rough up both the tire surfaces with a wire brush on a drill or grinder or something like that, the adhesive likely would have done much better.
I have a rear wheel drive Lawn Boy with about 15 years of use on it. I have to mow some step hills and road banks with it and the tread on the tires was getting smooth. I wanted to find a solution to give it better traction. What I came up with is studded tires and it works great. I took some 1 inch long sheet metal screws that have 1/4" hex heads on them and drilled pilot holes in the rear tires in a zig zag pattern and drove in the screws. This made such a huge difference in hill climbing ability that I wish that I did this years ago.
Prep the worn tire before contact cement with sand paper and or red scotchpad, dry wipe debris. Now repeat for the backside of the retread, then attach that retread in the center with cement. Find and mark the point of ends meeting on the tire itself. Now apply cement and pull to stretch and meet one end at that mark. Let dry. Now repeat for the other side. Stretch Duct Tape around the tread tight... Leave til next day... Keep temp above cement requirements. (Could use a heat gun carefully at any point to make rubber pliable... carefully...)
Great idea and the tire treads I'm sure are a lot better than the plastic wheels. Amazon does have the tires (both tires) for $23 now, but I'm sure the bike tire tread is a lot better. I just replaced my rear tires for the second time and the mower is 8 years old. This is a nice mower, but the plastic tires wear pretty fast.
Never had one of these apart, but is it driven by pulley/belt setup off the motor? Is there a way to use a different pulley/belt size to slow the wheels down? 😮
Thanks a bunch for sharing, this is genius. I have the same issue on my rear drive Troy Bilt mower that I refuse to get rid of it’s been the best mower, you have saved me over $70
I already did this before watching your video, I bought a cheap 26 mtb 26 inches tire for 5€ and then rethread the rear tires. It saved me 70€, taking in consideration all the materials needed, a set of rear wheels plus shipping would cost me 80€, equivalent to 95$
Mountain bike tires, you are a genius. I used Harbor Freight step slip pads which are good but won't be as good as mountain bike treads. Thanks for post!
I tried Harbor Freight step slips and they weren't as flexible as mountain bike tires. I did what was shown above with contact cement and deck screws and it's working great!
Extra thrifty tip : ask your local bicycle shop for an old tyre that they're going to throw out and they'll probably be able to sort you out. I did and I have the freebie in the car. Looking forward to giving this a go later on thanks. Question : do you think I could get away with leaving the glue step out and just just use the screws? Thanks again.
This wasnt exactly what i was looking for , you see i bought a brand new scag turf tiger 2 , first night i brought it home ...a flat , the dealer took one off another showroom model to get me going ( non in stock back ordered apperantly , i never heard back from him ) Lonnie at mowers inc in bradington sarasota fl ( area ) now its three weeks later and i have another flat ( i give up ) i cant buy a tire for a 12000 dollar lawn mower that has 12 hours on it , so its junk ..trying to build my own tweel with my metal lathe and cnc machine that i bought , cause they pissed me off ..i build my own parts from now on ..cant order nothing , its back ordered , nobody wants to work
I look at harbor freight to get tire I look for a blown car tire cut 2 strips and get vulcanized glue those last Forever I did my yardman reel mower from my late dad I fixed it 10 yrs ago I now have it since he passed in 2006
@@diy-ynot6264 awesome, I just did my Honda rear tires. Works way better with rubber vs. plastic threads. Used screws, small finishing nail gun nails and barge glue. Thanks for sharing!!
I got all 4 of the 2018 and up style wheels on the web which have a longer life for $38 and change, no tax, free shipping. Not bad. It was for a honda from 2003 the HRT216 that really needed them, so that was a good $38 investment. You just gotta look harder, theirs good deals out their.
Sure! Money will do almost anything. But I think the main point of us lawn cutters is to save money - especially at 68 years old and living off my fast dwindling life savings (due to several surgeries). So for the reasons of saving the purchase cost, then paying shipping (many of us live out in the boonies), retreading with mountain bike tire is a great solution!
Awesome idea. Got this done for my Toro FW today and it came out so well and the machine pulled so well with the new tread. Job done in around 10$. Thank you so much