Marathon9x3.50-4" Flat Free Lawnmower Tire on Wheel, 4" Centered Hub, 3/4" Bushings

UPDATE: I'm ordering a couple more of these. The first set lasted six years and would probably have lasted longer if I'd been more diligent about lubricating them. Two of the originals are still in good shape anyway.I have actually been looking at these wheels for about three years now (I found them originally at Northern Tool). I bought a 60" Northern Tool finish mower over four years ago and use these tires on that mower. The tires the mower originally shipped with didn't last past the first mowing and Northern Tool only listed the same OEM part for replacement at the time. I wasn't about to buy any of those, so I ended up buying some inexpensive solid wheels from Harbor Freight and making them work. They were only $5/wheel but they weren't really the right size, a little over half as wide and maybe half an inch smaller in diameter than the stock wheel. I ended up changing the axles and using bushings to make them work. Another problem with those wheels was that they didn't have grease fittings and consequently, would only last about one season before needing to be replaced (bearings would come apart eventually). So, I bought a dozen of them. Other than it being slightly frustrating to have to replace the wheels every year, they weren't really hard to change out and it actually only takes a few minutes to do so.But, after I bought the dozen wheels, I found these Marathon wheels and regretted buying the others. So, I've been using the smaller wheels and waiting to run out of stock on those before purchasing the Marathons. I wore out my last set of the old wheels part way through the 2012 mowing season and ordered the Marathons. So far, I've only used them maybe a half dozen times but they have been great. If they hold up well, I expect to make this my preferred replacement wheel going forward.These wheels/tires are well made and ride very nicely. I like the fact that they have grease fittings and I expect that with regular greasing, the bearings should hold out better than previous wheels I've used. Also, these wheels are almost exactly the same size as the stock wheels and consequently they seem to work better than the wheels I've been using. These were quite a bit more expensive but if they hold up well, the additional cost will be worth it.UPDATE: I've been using these for two and a half mowing seasons now without any issues. I grease them regularly and they are holding up well. They don't seem to be wearing much at all yet, tires or bearings.

I put a set of these on a Toro Timecutter ss4260. I got them because they have real bearings and the price was a fraction of Toro prices. The original wheels had steel bushings that run on a 3/4" steel sleeve. The sleeve was worn from lack of lubrication, and did not fit through the Marathon wheel bearings without some grinding. The hub is no as wide as the originals. A few washers fixed that. I left the fit loose enough that the wheel has no end-load. Without a spacer between the inside bearing races to carry the end load I didn't think the bearings would last long if loaded.Once installed, the are working perfectly. They are smaller than the original tires and the mower deck had to be re-leveled to stop the deck from popping out sprinkler heads - my bad.

These wheels are taller than the 9x3.50-4" wheels that they are intended to replace and the hub is narrower, so you will likely need to use 3/4" fender washers on both sides of the wheel to cover the exposed areas of the axle. If you do not use the fender washers, it will obviously still fit, but you will get more exposure to dirt and grit that will find its way into the grease in the bushings as the wheel slides back and forth on the axle. In other words, you'll need to use fender washers to avoid premature wear on the axle and bushings due to contamination from dirt and grit in normal use.Also note that these wheels require A LOT of grease to properly fill them. They do not have the roller bearings that their pneumatic counterparts normally contain, so the void created by the omission of the rollers must be replaced by grease. Make sure you have plenty of grease before doing the install!Since the diameter of these wheels is larger than the pneumatic wheels that they replace (about 3/4" larger?), you'll need to take that into account. In my case, they are used as the front casters on a zero turn radius walk-behind mower. The additional height in the wheels was actually a welcome change in my case because I've always wished I could raise the mowing deck higher than is possible with the stock wheels. I previously had replaced the rear drive wheels with similarly larger tires, so the larger diameter of these flat free wheels has my mowing deck running parallel to the ground again.Due to the fact that these wheels use bushings instead of roller bearings, you will need to grease them more frequently, but that's a small inconvenience when compared to the inconvenience of pneumatic tires that don't reliably stay inflated (which is OFTEN the case with this size of pneumatic tire). These wheels are one of the best purchases I've made for the mower to increase it's reliability and readiness for use.

I have a Landpride FD 2572 finish mower and was continually having flat tires with the pneumatic tires. Based on others' reviews, I bought these and they fit and perform perfectly...no more flat tires and the price can't be beat. The only problem was, as another reviewer pointed out, the grease fittings were not tight. I didn't remember this until they were put on and greased, so sending them back was not an option.I tightened 3, but the 4th one wouldn't tighten. Turns out the threads on the fitting were stripped. I bought another at a local Auto parts store (they're metric threads), put it in, and it tightened perfectly. I thank my lucky stars the threads on the fitting and not on the wheel hub were stripped, because no way could you get a tap into the hole to re-tap it.Also, 3 of the wheels came with rubber outside bearing covers which was nice. I assumed they were supposed to come with them, but a call to customer service revealed that since they were not shown in the ad, they must have been extra. They graciously sent me a new wheel immediately to see if covers were included and they were not, so I just sent the wheel back. Kudos to Amazon for that. The bearings are sealed so I probably won't need them anyway.Great buy, but be careful to check the fittings.