# Gilson tire replacements wanted.



## pullmyefinger (Jan 20, 2018)

Just bought a Montgomery Wards 5 hp GIL 35211 B snowblower and am looking for tire dimensions. I got no manual or anything with it and the tires are bad. Is there a parts reference that I can look this up and/or can I measure the tires (how?) to see what I need? I believe these are pneumatic tires with no markings on the sidewalls, inside or out. Any help would be appreciated, I need this blower to run now...


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## jsup (Nov 19, 2017)

Isn't the size molded into the tire on the side? Got a picture you can post? There's not that many sizes for these things.


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## RIT333 (Feb 6, 2014)

My Gilson from umteen years ago had solid tires. Look for a valve stem to verify they are pneumatic. You may have a hard time finding replacements. Try EBay.


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## jrcjr (Sep 23, 2017)

If you have a welder and can find some tube that fits over your axle, you can fabricate yourself an adapter plate for some split rims like I did for my Ariens.

http://www.snowblowerforum.com/forum/ariens-snowblowers/42458-wheel-swap.html


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## Kiss4aFrog (Nov 3, 2013)

:welcome: to SBF pullmyefinger

Can you post a photo of the tire and is there any size info on the sidewall ??


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## toroused (Mar 1, 2015)

*replacement tires for Gilson 1-speed friction disc snowblowers*

Here's a picture of the tire - I posted this picture last night on your other post that was posted on the subject.

The hub/rim info above looks like one possible good solution.

There were also similar questions on narrow, hard tires which came on some of the early 1960 Ariens models. A similar poster had the same issue and
found the solution. Perhaps looking up that early narrow Ariens tire issue could help as well. 

As far as a manual, member "Spectrum" has such an electronic owner's manual for this 1-speed model and you can get at this link below:

Link #1: https://gilsonsnowblowers.com//snowfaq.html#diagrams

I also suggest you visit his Gilson website, as it is a fund of information both on Gilson machines and on your particular machine. Your gearbox came w/either rivets or bolts - you'll to see what type you have as the gearbox on this model is grease filled and it probably needs to be changed out. I looked up your Wards number and it is the typical Gilson 1-speed. They sold a lot of them. Here's a link to Spectrum's parts page on your specific 1-speed gearbox. 

Link #2: https://gilsonsnowblowers.com/snowparts3.html#greasepackedworm

Finally, you'll probably want to install an impeller kit on this model as it can be underpowered. That being said, you'll see a couple of Youtube videos out there on such impeller kit installs on this particular model. Such kits really boosted performance. Spectrum also sells impeller kits, although I do not know if his kits will fit the impeller size on this particular 1-speed Gilson model. 

Link #3: https://gilsonsnowblowers.com/snowparts3.html#vanekits


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## Jackmels (Feb 18, 2013)

Your Best Bet Might be to Find another Machine to use for Parts.


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## toroused (Mar 1, 2015)

Here is one of the old Ariens narrow-tire posts that I was referring to. It is from poster GreatWhiteBuffalo, whose was/is located in Pennsylvania.

Link: http://www.snowblowerforum.com/forum/ariens-snowblowers/48193-ariens-10m4-need-new-tires.html?


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## toroused (Mar 1, 2015)

I happened to stumble across these pictures from a recent Wisconsin area Craigslist listing that could possibly be applied to the replacement tire issue on your MW Gilson made 5HP 1-speed snowblower. I believe these could be the perfect tires for your machine and everyone else who has this model. Unfortunately, the poster said he bought the machine with these replacement tires/rims on the machine and had no idea where the previous owner sourced the rims. He also was not interested in forwarding along the specific Snowhog tire size used in the effort. This axle is also supposedly a unique 5/8" bore, which makes the effort even harder. What I liked about these tires was the fact that not only did they look great, they also appeared to have raised the blower a few inches. That fact was also key, as the height on this particular machine is on the low side.


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## Spectrum (Jan 6, 2013)

The tires on GIL-35211 B a hollow heavy wall donuts, they can't be replaced and OEM wheel assemblies are long gone. The best solution is to cleverly adapt something like posted above. 

Here's the rest of the story, the authors dad sold the tires to Gilson:

Semi PneumaticTire Production.txt
For semi-pneumatic tires, the mfg process was basically thus:
1. The wheel was either molded plastic (high density polyethylene),
which was mostly used for lawn mowers, trash cans and such, or steel,
fabricated by a variety of methods, usually stamped parts spot welded
together.
2. The tire was made from largely what was called reclaimed rubber, so
I'm not surprised that they are deteriorating after all these years.
That is, there was a lot of old, ground up used auto tire rubber in
there, and the rest was typically SBR (synthetic butyl rubber) or maybe
EPDM (ethylene propylene diene monomer) in quantities sufficient to
provide some body to all the reclaimed rubber. A hollow tube of
uncured/semi-cured rubber was extruded and cut into lengths. Each piece
was bent around and stuck together at the ends so that you got a
doughnut shape piece of soft, sticky rubber tubing. That was placed in
a mold that had the tread and final shape, and a needle, sort of like a
basketball inflation needle was stuck into the hollow tubing. Air was
injected into the tubing to expand it to fill the tire to the shape of
the mold, and heat cured the rubber.
3. To put the tires on the wheels, a machine would grab the tire in
several places (4, I believe, but it's been a long time since I saw one
of these) and stretch it out enough to slip it over the tire rim. They
might have been warmed up prior to doing this. Once in place the
machine would release the tire and it would snap back to size on the
wheel. You had to be careful doing this, because the joint where the
rubber tube was joined to form a doughnut shape was not real strong,
even after vulcanizing, so it could pull apart. I know I saw my dad
mount a few lawnmower tires on the wheel "by hand" in the basement by
heating the tire up in very hot water, but it wasn't a production process.
I'm pretty sure that the solid tires were mounted the same way, but I
never saw that done. They might have been heated to make them stretch
better, because they were stiffer than the semi-pneumatic tires. If I
recall correctly, the tires on my Gilson were pretty wide and low
profile for that type of tire, but I'm sure they were assembled by this
type of process. I don't think you'd ever get a tire as large and wide
as the Gilson tires on a rim without a machine and heat.


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