John Deere 110 round fender tire guide: how to identify what yours needs

The short answer: the tire size your round-fender 110 needs is written on the machine — on the sidewalls if the old rubber survives, and on a tape measure if it doesn’t. Round-fender 110s changed specs across their sixties production run and have had sixty years of owners swapping wheels since, so the honest guide isn’t one magic number. It’s the five-minute identification below — and it works even if your tires are flat, cracked, or missing entirely. (If you meant to search for a modern compact JD instead — the D110 or 1025R — see our 1025R fit guide for verified sizes.)

We’re building a full, verified fitment page for the 110 the same way we built our other machine guides — sizes we’ll stand behind, matched to stock. Until it’s live, this is the guide, and honestly, it’s the method we’d tell you to use anyway.

Why the round fender is the one people restore

The 110 is where John Deere’s lawn-and-garden story starts — the company’s first riding garden tractor, introduced in 1963. The early machines with the rounded fender deck are the ones collectors chase; when Deere squared the styling off later, the “round fender” became its own little cult. These tractors show up at the same meets as two-cylinder farm iron now, and a straight one wearing fresh, correct-looking rubber photographs like a million bucks. Which is the errand that probably brought you here.

Step one: read what it’s wearing

If the original-style tires are still on the machine, the answer is molded right into them. Look for a marking like two numbers joined by an x — say, 23x8.50-12 — or an older two-number style like 6.00-12. The pattern is width, height, and rim diameter; our size-reading guide walks the whole system in plain English. Two cautions specific to a machine this age:

• Read all four corners. Sixty years of previous owners means mismatched wheels are common — typically the fronts and rears differ, and sometimes the two rears do too.
• Don’t trust rubber that isn’t original. The tires on it today tell you what fits the rims on it today — which may not be what left the factory. For a working machine that’s fine; for a period-correct restoration, cross-check with the collector community for your serial range before you buy.

Step two: if the sidewall’s gone, measure the rim

Cracked-off tread, sun-baked blank sidewalls, or bare rims — no problem. A tire size is really a rim description plus a rubber profile, so the rim tells you most of what you need:

1. Rim diameter: measure across the rim face where the tire bead seats, not the outer lip. Garden-tractor rims of this era typically come out at 8, 10, or 12 inches — 16x6.50-8 is a common landing size for that class, as an example, not a factory claim for this machine.
2. Rim width: measure between the flanges, inside to inside. This sets which tire widths will seat properly.
3. Clearance check: note how much room sits between tire and fender or steering parts today — it’s your sanity check before changing profile.

With those numbers, the candidate list gets short fast. Machines of this class typically wear a small turf-tread tire at all four corners, but “typically” isn’t a spec — call us with your measurements and we’ll narrow it to the exact sizes that seat on your rims.

The sixty-year-old-rim part

Whatever size you land on, plan on tubes. These rims have had six decades to grow rust at the bead seat, and a TR-13 valve tube behind fresh rubber turns a chronic slow leak into a non-event. Before mounting anything, give each rim the once-over — Greg’s old-rim guide covers what’s saveable and what’s scrap, and it was practically written with barn-find 110s in mind. Tread choice follows the usual logic: turf if it mows and shows, something grippier if it still works — the turf vs. lug guide settles that in four minutes.