I believe somebody on here did that, IIRC. The new commercials are now discontinued, but I'm sure wheels are available. It's an 8" wheel and the gears should work fine. I'm sure these wheels will be very expensive - pretty much the ultimate mower wheel; they separate into inner and outer rims for changing the tire or sealed bearing.

22271 discountinued ???? That is sad. Never used or had one, but still, it is sad. I saw on the LB site they show 2009 models in the parts section, but you cannot get to 22271 product itself on the LB site. You need to google Lawnboy 22271 and get the link. Strange.

Here is a link that might be useful: LB

Whoa! I only said it was discontinued because it doesn't show on the LB site, and I couldn't find any on-line vendor still listing them. Just now looking again, I found them on the Speedway site - great news! Thanks for showing us that.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lawn-Boy Commercials

{{gwi:129077}}

Yes. I too have done the "Fordtech" interchange. 22271 rear wheels on the 22261 is the only way to go.

What I like about it, is when you wear out the rear wheels, you only have to replace the tread, and not the whole rear wheel. Traction from that heavy, steel rear wheel is better too.

thats awesome!

That is so sweet. I never liked the fact my commercial LB had plastic rear wheels. Metal will make it the ultimate mower. When you say the gearing is different...so all gears must come off the old wheels, correct. Nothing on the trans needs to be changed? You mention bolts spacers are all different...are these from the old wheels too, or do I need buy ones and improvise. What about the front wheels...do you know if these fit too? I am definitely doing this modification.

Tom, Ill post the information I posted at another site to give more details. Meanwhile here is a URL to my lawnboy mod photos of this modification. Basically you are just going to take the gear off the plastic wheel and bolt it to the new wheel. The holes line up near perfect.

http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h148/mastertech01/LAWNBOYMOD/

Here is a link that might be useful: LawnBoy Mod

By the way there are two pages of pics so dont forget to go to page 2

Ill just copy paste what I posted last year to another site and later today if you have more questions Ill answer as I can. There is two parts to my main post on this...

Part One..My STEEL WHEEL ADVENTURE

Back in May I saw a thread which pointed to this auction with a Briggs model 22243 which had the same wheels on it as a 22271. Here is a link which still has the mower in question. The seller has also never recieved feedback from the buyer so I think something was awry in that mower

http://cgi.ebay.com/LAWN-BOY-COMMERCIAL-LAWNMOWER-22243_W0QQitemZ230251859351QQihZ013QQcategoryZ7127 2QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I became very intrigued to this because I knew that mower was originally equipped with the same transmission and wheel setup as the 22261. I even emailed the seller of the mower and he was very evasive in his answers and could not give me an intelligent answer to my questions. If you check out the Master Parts Viewer there is no such transmission and wheel setup for that mower.

So I decided to investigate this possibility on my own. I ordered a pair of these wheels after seeing that they were steel, had twin sealed roller bearings and could be purchased complete or by individual piece as necessary. I felt this would be the perfect addition to what I feel is the perfect Lawn-Boy for the enthusiast. Upon reciept of these wheels however I found that they had a much larger gear which threw off the alignment to the mount hole by about an inch. The axles were also of smaller diameter so the original wheel bolt would not fit. I then ordered a number of parts to see if one or more of them would be the key to getting this combination solved. I ordered the axle gears, wheel bolts for both the Lawn-Boy and Toro versions, and a few other small parts like spacers. But lo and behold, NOTHING was going to work with that transmission and axle.

I noticed the 22271 is a single speed mower with square slots at the end and the gears are similarly slotted. When you look at the trans setup for the 22271 and axles, the 22261 is far more complicated and obviously cost a lot more to create. So this basically left me with a pair of wheels I could not use, as well as an assortment of non usable small parts ordered as well.

So I decided recently to see if it would be possible to save the situation and still achieve my goal of getting this more superior wheel system to work with my 22261, which in my humble opinion should have NEVER been released for commercial use with rear plastic wheels like the home versions. This was just the one weak link I found in having this very expensive mower. I also found it very disgusting to find that Toro had been using this wheel design on some of thier commercial mowers for YEARS, but never integrated it to the Lawn-Boy.

This wheel has two steel outer shells, One with fixed gear, that are assembled with nuts and bolts, a center wheel bearing hub with two sealed roller bearings, a heavy duty rubber treaded tire and all components can be purchased separately. This can be a nice arrangement for someone who only needs one bearing, or just a new tire section for about 10 bucks each. It is very simple to disassemble, repair, and have back in action. Very nice for commercial, and especially home owner commercial use.

So I began by taking a deep breath, and deciding to take the plunge, risking destroying a perfectly good wheel assembly to try to make a break through upgrade for my personal machine. I began by comparing the gear rivets wheel to wheel for approximate spacing. When I was convinced that they were very near or exactly spaced the same, I hunted down a pair of old white wheels I wasnt planning on reusing. I then destroyed them to get the gears off of them, and believe me you will have to destroy the wheel to get those rivets out. No problem for me as these wheels had started to crack out anyway. I then measured the rivet locations laying the original gears down on top of the new wheels rivet location and brother did this look promising!

END OF PART ONE... TO BE CONTINUED

Part Two..My STEEL WHEEL ADVENTURE

I have been very busy the past month doing many home maintenance improvement projects so this got put on the back burner until just a couple days ago.

I began the next step by disassembling one of the new wheels. It is a very nice setup with sturdy parts. The only dismaying thing I can say I saw were the "Assembled in Mexico" label and the imprint in the tire that said "Made In China" It is sad that America is selling out to the global market. More on that in another thread...

The next step was a closer observation of the rivets and locations in relation to the original type gear. As they say, it was a perfect DNA match! Now these rivets on the new style wheel were heftier than the ones on the plastic wheels. They were staked in from the rear. I first attempted to grind off the heads of the rivets from the gear side, hoping to pull the gear off the rivets and push them through the staked side. I ground them down but they had been expanded to the size of the hole and could not be driven out of the gear! I did find however that in driving down on the gear from the back side that the rivets were actually pulling through the steel wheel shell. The gears broke into pieces but the holes remained true and round, especially after tapping them down a bit with the ball side of a ball peen hammer.

I then test fitted a number of bolts and found the the best fit was about a one inch long 5mm fine threaded bolt. I place the bolt through the gear side and used 5mm flat washers, 5mm lock washers and 5mm nuts on the inside. There is no problem with clearances of bolt length since the bearing hub was designed with a 3 lug flange rather than solid all around. This leave all kinds of room to work with.

After centering the gear as perfectly as possible, I torqued the heck out of those nuts for a good tight fit. You might want to stake the nut and bolt but I chose to leave it as it is for now to see how durable that setup is alone. You could even put a second nut on the bolt to give added slip proof security since there is plenty of room.

I then simply reassembled all components with the replacement gears. I then test fit and found that there was a need to place a spacer in the wheel on the new longer but narrower factory bolt that is used with this wheel. The factory spacers for the 22271 were way too long. You will need to space it out approximately 5/8 of and inch for proper fit.

Then I decided I wanted to try to preserve the use of the gear guards used on the original 22261 wheels to keep as much garbage out of the gears in operation. So I test fitted the gear guards and found they were too deep at the axle end of the guard. So I ground about 1/2 inch from the wheel side of the guard at the axle stub section. This allowed me to use the guard with this wheel. I also used the guard spacer at the axle bolt hole. All told this allowed just the right amount of spacing and good smooth operation of the entire assembly.

Repeat all the above with the other side..... and go out and mow! I mowed my yard after it was all together and found this gave me a stronger all together feel and straighter track in mowing and the rear wheels are one heck of a lot better at traction than the originals.

I hope you all found this interesting and maybe some of you will give it a try. Best of luck and dont forget to look at all those pics I posted at my webpage linked a few posts up from here.

Fordtech; awesome 22261!

Thanks Saxman. :) Bestf100 recently modded his like this as well and I think they are the only ones like it that I am aware of. I think it makes a great mower just that much better and perhaps perfectly ideal, at least for the enthusiast like myself.

Thanks. A bit more work than I expected, but worth it. Still doing it.

Yes, I would only do it on a 22261 investment wise and work to complete wise. It just seems to complete the commercial package, as I like you believe they should have never given us plastic wheels on a commercial mower, especially since Toro has had this wheel design on Toro commercials for quite some time.

Any tips on where to get good wheel pricing....for 4 wheels front and back...getting quotes with shipping around $162...WOW. I need front ones being the tread is shot.

I think I ordered the rear wheels from M&D. Front wheels are pretty expensive in the LB brand. I think there are cheaper aftermarket look alikes. Anytime you buy all 4 its a tall investment. Are the fronts that bad or just treadwear?

I have one shot front tire. The rubber has a crack all the way through along the sidewall about 4 inches long. I am guessing it will eventually split completely apart and the tread will seperate.

A lot of good grease zerts are when the tread doesnt last :(

Well I have just been informed that LB has made this very same wheel setup as a replacement for the plastic commercial wheels. Part number is 115-1454 I havent seen them personally but I may order a set to verify.

??? so the plastic rear wheels on staggered deck duraforce vintage mowers are not longer available, and have been replaced by metal wheels of a similar set up to the new commercial LBs. If so, great, but are we sure? What about front wheels??

I have as many questions as you Tom, I just heard of it last night. It isnt for all mowers, just the commercials with orange wheels. I have no references except when you go to this web page you can see it listed for commercial mowers as the replacement rear wheel rather than the old number... Front wheels wouldnt be any different than they have been as they were steel already and they are only 6 inch.

http://www.planopower.com/store/toro-lawn_boy/22240-22261.shtml

Here is a link that might be useful: Plano Power

Well I guess Ill be taking a bullet for you all and ordered a set of those wheels today to see what they are all about. Ill be letting you know in a few days.

Fordtech....the wheels show up yet? I am anxious to find out.

Not yet, havent even gotten a ship status yet. Knowing Plano they probably didnt have them in stock and have to order them and then ship to me. They did me that way last time I got some wheels from them a couple years ago.

What about now..in yet?

Just got a tracking number today, still not showing in transit. Maybe next week sometime. :(

BTW it is showing a 10 pound package. I would think plastic wheels would weigh less than that so that is encouraging.

The package has arrived in Oklahoma City this morning. Hopefully I will have them Monday.

Out For Delivery

Well it turns out the a pretty damned good deal after all. You get the wheel with the correct gear heavy duty rivets with a gear spacer behind the gear to allow the use of the gear cover, and each wheel comes in a package with a bolt and correct spacer! All for 35 bucks plus shipping each. No modifying necessary!

{{gwi:129078}}

Nice, you made my day...

Ordered mine. Yes, they are slow to respond with shipping info. Would these work with a 10550 easy stride...same gear size?

Yep, the orange plastic wheels were exactly the same as the white physically. Just a different color. So these should fit fine if you want to invest that much money into it.

When they finally responded to my inquiry on shipping they had already shipped them out, but they had to order them in and then ship to me just as I had assumed. I bet they dont stock them, just order them as they get orders.

Is it soup yet?

Sweet. Mine arrived today. Boy these are darn good wheels, heavy. Took 5 minutes to swap out. This is a worth while upgrade, this is the ultimate mower now hands down.

I am 20 minutes from RCPW, so I drove there at lunch yesteray and picked up a set of these new 22261 wheels and the front wheels as well. I put them on my 10545.

It figures that after the product is discontinued that they fix one of the weak points of the product. Maybe a new carb and coil will come out next!!!

Glad some people are taking advantage of these while you can. We never know how much longer Toro will support LB mowers of the past.

Anyone try one of these on an M series yet?

I realize this is old news for some of you, but I have to say THANKS for the information in this thread. I just replaced the worn out plastic drive wheels on my 10525 mower with the sturdy #115-1454 wheels mentioned above. The swap was simple using the supplied axle bolt and spacer. The gears and inner cover line up perfectly. As soon as the rain stops, I'll do a field test, but so far everything seems smooth, strong and tight, and the tread sure looks like it will deliver better traction vs. the old (not hard to do :-).

I purchased the wheels from Jack's Small Engines for $36 ea., in case anyone is having trouble locating a supplier. Also, I found the replacement tire listed as part #110-9499, which sells for about $12.

Ken

Follow-up. Had a chance to use the mower with the new wheels today. I normally use 2nd gear and I did that today. On the soggy ground, the old wheels would have spun from the start. The new wheels grabbed much better, both on uphill climbs and on difficult sidehill runs. I'm very pleased with this upgrade.

Ken

Ken, the new wheels look like they'd have some serious traction. Your experience confirms it.

Thanks for sharing it with us.