# New tires for Ariens ST270/932001



## cantator (Oct 10, 2011)

I have an Ariens ST270/932001 my neighbor garbage picked and then gave to me. I have re-conditioned the carb, and now she runs like new! 

The only thing that she really needs are some new tires. It currently has the original hard rubber sawtooth tires that are nothing more than slicks now. As you can imagine, the traction is horrible. 

Has anyone had any luck in replacing these? If so, what did you find or use?  Ideally I would like to place something akin to a snow hog/carlisle xtrac, but I have not been able to find anything that may "just work". Any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you.


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## td5771 (Feb 21, 2011)

some of the older sizes are hard to find. i know of a few people that use the new snow tires and they say they work well and only slip occasionally in hard packed snow.

on the other hand if you can't find any that won't be a guaranteed fit you could always use snow chains. all my blowers have smooth tread (i call them turf tread) tires but i have chains on them and the dont slip.

if the chains are close in size you can just remove some links to get a proper fit.

is there a size on the side of the tire?


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## cantator (Oct 10, 2011)

Thank you for replying. From what I have researched, the tire size is 4.10/3.50x4. There are no markings on the tire or rim. I posted pictures of it here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/cantator/DropBox?authuser=0&feat=directlink

I really hope to replace them with a modern tire. If I can, I want to stay away from chains, but if I have to...

I do not have any calipers, but I think the axle is 5/8ths diameter. Can anyone confirm this? Thanks for helping!!


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## td5771 (Feb 21, 2011)

that should be a common tire. you can find them almost anywhere. axle size does not matter, just change the tire not the whole rim and tire.


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## kb0nly (Sep 22, 2011)

Looks like standard tiller tires, well thats what i call them cause all the tillers have those. But measure the size of the metal wheel, is it four inches or six inches in diameter, cause that looks like a 4.10x3.50-6 tire to me. If thats the case plenty of choices for new tires online, the snowblower type tires, snowhogs etc, can be had on ebay for about $20 each if you search long enough.


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## td5771 (Feb 21, 2011)

my apologies, i did not look at the picture and i call a different tire "saw tooth".

now i see why you would change the wheel and tire.


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## Shryp (Jan 1, 2011)

Just measure the hole / axle with a tape measure. It won't be super accurate, but should be close enough so you know what to buy. You can probably go with something slightly taller or slightly wider, but you don't want to raise the back of the blower too much.


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## HCBPH (Mar 8, 2011)

*New Wheels*

I've replaced the rims/tires on a couple of snowblowers that had hard rubber tires. I found some used pneumatic rims with tires at a small engine shop, I was able to pick through the various rims they had pulled from junkers and found some with the right axel diameter. I did have to shorten the shafts to the length I needed (used a small cutoff wheel in a drill press), wasn't hard and went from hard tires to pneumatics.

Here's the rims marked where I needed to shorten the axel shafts for mine (mark is where the original rims ended in relation to the bolt hole for the bolt):








I also had to open the bolt holes from 1/4" to 5/16" but when it was done, it was an easy mod.

Here's one that the modification was done to:









It does put the tire on this one too close to the frame so you cannot use chains without them catching on the bottom of the handlebars, too close a fit on this one.


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## HCBPH (Mar 8, 2011)

*Waited too long to edit*

Couldn't add this (timed out). Here's another snowblower I have that's the same basic machine but still has the hard rubber tires on:









the modified one I didn't use chains on. I have a slope in the front yard, about 2', I was able to back up it without chains after blowing the sidewalk out front using the new tires where the 7 hp with regular pneumatic tires but no chains wouldn't (had to drag it up because it didn't have enough traction). Those tires in the earlier picture worked pretty good for me last winter. This year will tell if it's a good mod or not.


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## kb0nly (Sep 22, 2011)

Ahh i didn't blow up the pictures full size to look closely, i assumed they were air filled, but these are solid?


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## cantator (Oct 10, 2011)

kb0nly- Yup, they are a solid rubber tire with no stems on the rims-no joy for pneumatics.

HCBPH- thanks for the tip. I will have to start foraging at small engine shops for some pneumatic rims.

Shryp- I just got some calipers for my birthday so I will measure the axle and be sure to get the right fit.

Hopefully I will get this done before the snow starts to fly here in SE Michigan. When I do arrive at a solution I will be sure to share some pics.

Thank you for all the input!!


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## jrcjr (Sep 23, 2017)

If you have a welder (and a drill press and a way to cut steel (jigsaw and/or saws-all)) and you can manufacture your own hubs (I used 3/16-inch steel plate and .75-inch ID 1.25-inch OD steel tube), Martin makes a dynamite split rim for some Carlisle XTrac tires.

Martin R-64DM 6" split rims (About $15 each)
Carlisle 13-4.00-6 XTrac Tires (About $25 each)

Even though the XTrac is a tubeless tire, with split rims, you'll need tubes. (About $6 each)

Then just fabricate your hubs (You need about an inch of stickout past the edge of the rim which translates to about 3in of tube per side. And a piece of 4-inch by 4-inch (by 3/16-inch) plate per side.)

Jon

(Toledo, OH)


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