The Advance of 1/64 Tires 

Part II

by Jason Hasert

Contributed to by Bill Walters and Pat Wessels of RC2/Ertl and Dan Adamson Toy Tractor Times Writer

        When I started the three part series on the advancement of  Ertl 1/64 tractor tires last month my plan was to follow the progression of tire improvement from 1973 to 2003 on 2wd and 4wd tractors.  Last months "Keeping Current"  looked at the time period of 1973 to 1986.  The goal of the series is to show how good 1/64 collectors have it today vs 30, 20 and 10 years ago.  

       After the last article was published one of our readers brought up a topic stating "The article failed to mention that with the model editions introduced in 1986, Ertl decided to use their implement tire/wheel on the front of the 2wd 1/64th tractors.  Prior to this, all of the tractors had a slightly wider and taller front wheel. "

     This is a good question.  We want people to talk about the articles in The Toy Tractor Times and ask questions.  This helps us all learn more about our hobby.  Dan Adamson our TTT 1/64 variations expert was particularly interested in this question.  Neither Dan or I had ever noticed a difference in 1980's 1/64 front tires.  Dan turned to the source:  ERTL.  Bill Walters and Pat Wessels helped answer the question.  

      The Following is a response from RC2/Ertl Farm Toy Manger Bill Walters on Ertl tires:   "I was not employed by Ertl during the timeframe you mention below. I talked to Pat Wessels, our chief engineer during that timeframe. Here is his response."

1979 International 1086 and 1986 International Mixer Mill

       "ERTL did not supply tires to the countries that produce the toys. For 1/64, Ertl toys there was only one front and rear tire and wheel molds that was used across all makes and models of tractors. The molds were Ertl property. The production plan was that the molds could moved between vendors as production was needed or one vendor supplied parts for all the vendors.

       There were production problems and supply problems with this method. The vendors did not like relying on another competitor supplying components or a tool for them. They liked to have control of their own destiny. This feeling resulted in having vendors go out and build tire and wheel molds at their own expense. This could explain some of the differences in the appearance and size of the tires.   

In the early days 'a tire was a tire was a tire'. there was only one rear tire mold. No matter how big the actual 1:1 tire was, ERTL used that one tire. The plastic material used was polyethylene material. This material was very hard and did not have the 'soft' feel of a rear tire. This was a source of criticism by collectors and users. 

Assortment of 1/64 Ertl Farm Toys from 1986

      As tractors got bigger the tires appeared smaller. Eventually a different tire molds  were built. The material used was polyvinlychloride (PVC) This material gave the 'soft' feel of a rubber tire. 

1993 John Deere 7800 with newly tooled tires

     In the early days there was no difference between the tractor front tires and implement tires. Again 'a tire is a tire is a tire'. The creed was 'if it is close enough, use it, don't waste tooling dollars'.  

      There were instances where there was no choice but to build new tire tools. 

      Over the years the creed has changed slightly. If an implement or a tractor requires a specific tire design, a new tire mold will be built."

    Right now we have a dedicated manufacturing facility in China. All of our tools are kept in a consolidated location where all of the factories in the facility can have access to them. We still try to use existing tires if it makes sense, but will obviously tool new ones when we have to. We have to be careful with 1/64th tires, especially if there is a chance that the tire could be pulled off by a child. We sometimes have to add the "Small Parts Warning" if there is a good chance that it could be pulled off.

1990 Case International 7140 Magnum and 1998 CaseIH 8950 Magnum

      We did make some changes around the time of the 8900 series.. Up until that time, many of the executives at Ertl felt 1/64th was a toy line and that it really didn't matter how "replica" they were. We were finally able to convince them that people were collecting 1/64th and that we needed to do a better job of detail. This included getting rid of the smoked cab glass, better tires, doing some 3-point hitch detail on units, etc.. 

2000 and beyond 1/64 Ertl Farm Toy tires

1993 Ertl Farm Toys

         I appreciate the detailed response from Ertl on the tire issue.  These articles as I mentioned above are written to help collectors see the general advance of detail over the years.    It has not come over night but in each decade Ertl has made major improvement in 1/64.   Just take a look at a 1993 John Deere self propelled forage harvester, Ford tractor and Case International 4wd vs their 2003 counter parts and you can see the difference in just 10 years of tooling. 

2003 1/64 Ertl farm toys

         Next month we will return to the tire topic and look at the tires and wheels Ertl used from 1986 to 2003 on Ertl 2wd tractors.  In September we turn to 4wd tires and wheels.  Keep talking about our articles and asking questions.

          If you would like to look back on our past advancement articles visit our back issues sections or click on the pictures below for direct access.

June 2003: The Advance of 1/64 Tires & Wheels  Part I

May 2003: The Advance of Windows

TTT July 2003 Page 8

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