old automotive tire iron? what era is this from?

[green papaya]

it's about 13" inches long and has a lug nut wrench on one end that fits 1" inch wide lug nuts, and the other end has flat end / pry bar

is this for an old truck or old model T Ford or something? or maybe for old farm machinery?

 

[Smyat]

No markings, I take it?

At a guess, it's prewar. You'd have to have a thin wheel/tire with a flush or protruding hub to use a right-angle lug wrench like that. There weren't many such by 1940.

Could be a lot older, too. Unless there's a specific mark on it, or someone recognizes the specific model, you might never know.

 

[green papaya]

maybe it's for an old horse buggy? or old model T ?

 

[Flivver]

I would guess it's from the teens or twenties. This would be used with demountable rims where the rim is attached to the outer circumferance of the wheel with a series of bolts (as shown in my avitar). Nearly impossible to tell the make of car it came from unless there are some markings on it.

 

[green papaya]

cant find any maker's markings, the metal does have a lot of age to it and shows pitting, maybe themarkings wore off?

I agree that it's probably from the teens and twenties era

 

[The Wingnut]

Standard equipment for many cars right up to the late '70s. The flat end is to remove the hubcap, the large end is sized to the manufacturer's preference for stock lug nuts. If you've got a flat end, it's for a car with large press-fit hubcaps, which probably means it's no older than the mid '30s. Prior to that, many cars used an aluminum nut-shaped cap just over the spindle, usually embossed with the marque's logo.

My '68 Fury and '72 Fury had these exact tire irons, I'd have to check what's in the Datsun's tool box, but I'm guessing it's pretty much the same. They weren't marked, either, and just spending time in a trunk for 30 years got them a bit rusty. I let one sit outside on the ground for a few months and it looked ancient.

The now-commonly-seen cross-style iron is an aftermarket item, as you're not going to have different sized lug nuts on a car from the factory, they're expensive to produce by comparison to the prybar type, and take up a lot of space in a trunk. I keep a cross-style iron atop the spare just in case I stop to help someone, the chances of them having the same sized lugnuts as my car are pretty slim.

 

[Smyat]

My '68 Fury and '72 Fury had these exact tire irons, I'd have to check what's in the Datsun's tool box, but I'm guessing it's pretty much the same.

Er, are you sure? The photo (which is now missing, for me at least) showed an iron with a 90-degree angle between the handle and socket, no offset of any kind. That wouldn't fit on most modern car tire/wheels, which have a hub that's sunken by at least an inch or two from the rim and tire.

All tire irons from the postwar era onward that I'm familiar with are at least angled at the socket, if not bent at a sharp angle further down the shaft, to clear the hub and tire.

The item shown would only work on a nut or lug that protruded from the surface of the wheel, or was at most flush with it. I think Flivver has it - if I had to bet, I'd say it was a wrench for a demountable rim.

 

[The Wingnut]

Hrm, I stand corrected. I hadn't seen the photo. Interesting.

What would the flat end be used for, then?

 

[Smyat]

What would the flat end be used for, then?

At a guess, prying the tire off the rim, the rim off the wheel arms or a wheel off a hub. There's always something needing pryage in changing a tire.

 

[up196]

The flat end

The flat end is for dis-mounting/re-mounting one side of the tire from the rim so that the inner tube can be removed and patched or replaced. On my Model A, I have the one spare wheel/tire mounted on the rear of the car, but I also carry extra tubes and a patch kit in case more than one tire goes flat.