How to get more grip going up and down steep hills

   / How to get more grip going up and down steep hills #1  

rox

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Aug 26, 2004
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Salon De Provence - France
My husband and I are new at farming and he has to drive the tractor up some really steep hills. The path is hardpacked dirt. His tires turn but he doesn't move, going up. If we dug a trench and stuck some 2 x 6's on end, lengthwise, so that the the 8ft board was dug into the dirt lenghwise across his path, (oh this is so hard to describe!) but it was on its edge sticking up 2 or 3 inches, do you think the tractor tires could get a grip on that board and it would help him get up the hill?
 
   / How to get more grip going up and down steep hills #2  
As silly as this sounds, It might be easier if you deal only with hard packed dirt to try turf tires. I know this is strange, but they will actually give more traction on very hard packed surfaces, especially if you underinflate them some.

Good luck with that Olive Farm!!!
 
   / How to get more grip going up and down steep hills #3  
One way is to get a 4-wheel drive tractor...but that is not a sure cure either. If the tractor is not climbing a dry dirt path, that must be pretty steep!

Another way might be to put chains on the rear tires.

I don't have any luck at all going up my back hill, even with chains on and in 4-wheel drive, if I have to climb over a root that is maybe 4 inches above the ground surface, and the ground is damp...the tires will not grip it, the chains will not grip it...the tires just spin and I have to take a different route...and again, I have 4 wheel drive.

So I doubt that if the tractor will not climb on dirt, that it would climb any better on wood, expecially if it has to climb up onto the wood, even if only a couple centimeters...

It is amazing how strong a tractor can be on the flat ground and how it can be stopped cold on a slope by something like a a root or your board (maybe).

My guess is that the board would not help much, if at all, but I have been wrong enough in the past to try anyway. Sometimes what one thinks should not work, ends up working...

How steep are those slopes? Maybe you could measure them and report back. Might help someone to give better, specific advice... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
   / How to get more grip going up and down steep hills
  • Thread Starter
#4  
That's the problem, going up the hills it is hard packed, but in the flat areas is is soft and fluffy, form when he "cultivated?" I think that is what it is called, cultivation, he had an implement behind the tractor that dug up all the dirt to make it fluffy.
 
   / How to get more grip going up and down steep hills
  • Thread Starter
#5  
Henro,
Your experience and advice, although true is a disapointment /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif. If you looked at my other thread I had 2 pictures of the farm. Just see the houses, both 2 story and you can see how high up the land climbs from a two story house. It is really steep, like you get winded walking up and you develope nice shapely calf muscels. Now that you don't think the boards idea will work about my last resort is to get mattracks. I saw their website, I'll go and find it and re-post it. They are basically tracks like a military tank, that you put on your UTV/ATV's. The only problem is they cost like $4,000 and I was hoping for a solution at a lower cost. Tomorrow when it is light I will take a picture of the exact problem hill.
Perhaps others on this forum have an idea. But we are going to fill the tires, that is for sure. How do we do that anyway? Exactly how do you fill the tires? it doens't freeze here.
 
   / How to get more grip going up and down steep hills #7  
Just for the record, if you can't get up the slope with an ATV with four wheel drive and regular tires, you have no business taking a tractor there!!!!! An ATV will climb WAY more than a tractor...

If you need the Mattracks to get up them, then you definately shouldn't bring a tractor anywhere near them!!!
 
   / How to get more grip going up and down steep hills #8  
<font color="blue"> How do we do that anyway? Exactly how do you fill the tires? it doens't freeze here.
</font>

First...don't give up until you try your ideas...no one can be sure, regardless what they say, when they are not standing there beside you... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

You can fill your tires with plain water if it does not freeze there. It can be done very easily and cheaply. A year or so ago I posted a thread of how I did it myself, following the footsteps of others here at TBN.

The easy way is to use a little pump that you put on an electric drill. Here they cost as little as $4.

If you do a search for Loading tires, or something like that you should find several threads on how to do it I think. I would point you to the one I have in mind, but I did not bookmark it... /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Filling your tires will be easy and cheap, since you live were it does not freeze. Who knows, they may be filled already...
 
   / How to get more grip going up and down steep hills
  • Thread Starter
#9  
It's not just getting up the hill, we also have to pull a big sprayer behind the tractor. And the spayers that came with the farm are big heavy mothers. I think a smaller spayer and an ATV/UTV would work best. However because of the huge decline in the US Dollar, I no longer have the budget to run out and buy the UTV right now /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif. Gotta wait for the crop to come in. In the meantime my husband has to get up these hills to spray or we loose our crop the the olive fly. We don't even cultivate up there, just kill the weeds with herbiside and hand weed. But spaying we must do.
 
   / How to get more grip going up and down steep hills #10  
Just a thought. Since it's difficult to pull the full sprayer up the hill, would it be possible to fill the sprayer at the top and leave it there. By the sounds of it, you have more than one sprayer. If possible, run water to one or two key spots, leave teh sprayers at these key levels and then fill them and spray. It's just a thought.

Think outside the box!!!
 
 
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