Leach Wheels Cement Mixer Saw Rig Garbage Wagon Hit & Miss Old Gas Steam Engine

Description: This listing is for a complete set of 4 17" steel disc wheels with detachable rims with hard rubber tires that are still mounted on the wheels. The hard rubber tires measure 22" in outside diameter. The rims the tires are vulcanized onto to measure 3-1/2" across the width of the steel rim. All four of these wheels are complete with the original 1-1/4" diameter steel axle stubs and the original cast iron hubcaps. As you can see in the second photo of this listing, the cast iron hubcaps say LEACH on them. Each wheel and axle stub combination weighs around 40 pounds. After spending some time on the internet I found that Leach built power saw rigs, portable cement or concrete mixers and dump or garbage wagons in the 1920's and 1930's and perhaps even later. Since there is no evidence of concrete on any of these wheels, I suspect they were used on a powered saw rig or dump or garbage wagon rather than on a concrete or cement mixer. In 1931 Leach developed their first garbage packer bodies for trucks as you can see from the following bit of information from our friends at Wikipedia: Elmer Leach began producing logging tools at Oshkosh, Wisconsin in 1887, and by the 1920's had diversified to produce a wide variety of equipment which included power saw rigs, dump wagons and portable cement mixers. Two of Leach's distributors, George C. Dodge and A.M. Anderson joined forces to form Elgin Sales Corporation in 1917, and would distribute Leach tools, as well as an Illinois-built road sweeper named Elgin. Upon the death of Elmer Leach in 1920, his Oshkosh Logging Tool Company was in the hands of his widow Mary, and sons Elbert C. Leach , or "E.C. " and Elmer Leach, Jr. , also known as "Onnie". It was under the tenure of E.C. and Onnie that Leach would enter the refuse body business. It began in 1931, when Elgin Sales had become a distributor for the Colecto, an early self-loading refuse body with side or rear buckets and enclosed bodies. These primitive trucks tried to address the problems of refuse collection at that time, primarily the difficult and hazardous chore of hand-loading open trucks whose heights were often well over that of the workers. After having sold only five Colectos in eighteen months, Elgin was dropped as a distributor. However, both Dodge and Anderson believed there was a market for refuse trucks, if a reliable and economical model could be produced. They summoned their friends E.C. and Onnie Leach to New York to look over the Colecto, and see if a better model could be made. Though it likely wasn't obvious at the time, it was in fact a pivotal event for the future of Leach, and the refuse body industry as a whole. Within a mere ninety days, the first Leach refuse truck would emerge from the Leach factory on South Main Street in Oshkosh Wisconsin. My neighbor who drills wells and does excavating work likes old vehicles and equipment almost as much as I do. He obtained these from a friend of his who was going to haul them for scrap. He brought these home from eastern Montana one day several years ago I and wound trading him out of them a couple of years later. I have no way of finding out what happened to the vehicle these interesting wheels came from. What I find interesting is the fact that the hard rubber tires and rims are easily removed from the welded steel wheels assemblies for replacement. This may indicate that the vehicle these were used on may have been built for a considerable amount of road use. Please look closely at the back of a wheel as it is shown in the last photo of this listing. As you can clearly see, there is a cone welded to the back of the wheel disc to make the wheel hub wide enough to keep the wheel stable when it is subjected to side loads. Please notice the pipe plug that is threaded into the inner cone. I assume these wheels contain some kind of a wicking material that would hold lubricating oil near the hub bearing to keep it lubricated. If they were to be greased, there surely would have been a grease fitting there instead of the threaded pipe plug. Please note that the pair of wheels on the right in the group photos have longer axles sticking out with a pair of bolt holes in them. The left pair of wheels both have shorter axles that were cut off with an acetylene torch. I assume the unbolted pair of axles were attached to steering spindles on a wagon that had some type of automotive steering rather than the older style of wagon type steering. If you have any idea as to what type of implement or vehicle this set of wheels came from, PLEASE let me know. If you collect old gas or steam engines, you might use this set of very special wheels to build a wagon to display some of your treasured engines and other equipment on. Since the eBay shipping calculator makes no accommodation for shipping multiple packages, I listed these wheels for "Local Pickup Only" to keep this listing from getting too confusing. I can ship them two per package in two separate packages using UPS Ground services if need be but that will be fairly expensive. I can strap them to a pallet and ship them truck freight if you desire me to do so. Depending on where you live and how soon you want them, I may be able to have one of several friends who travel a lot deliver them to you. If you can use this set of very special wheels for any purpose, you might do well to give some very serious thought to hitting the "Buy It Now" button before someone else does. Thanks a lot, Bob Woodburn in Bozeman Montana USA 4O6-799-1847

Price: 595 USD

Location: Bozeman, Montana

End Time: 2023-11-14T05:24:21.000Z

Shipping Cost: N/A USD