Snow Equipment Owning/Operating Weight and chains

[jdhacker]

Hey guys looking for some experience. I have a poulan pro garden tractor. 26 hp I added a Agri-Fab snow plow. I have 25-10-12 Goodyear rawhide tires on the back. They are loaded, I also have 50lbs of weight in each rim. And around 50lbs on the back. My question is for the guys that know. Will I need chains. Or will this do well in the snow. Thanks for the input.

 

[jdhacker]

couple of pics

 

[pmsmechanic]

I had 26x12x12 on a John Deere 400 garden tractor. I had chains for it and I was happy to use them. I think you'll be happy too if you have chains. They aren't very expensive for that size of tire. What you need to look for in set of chains though, are some that won't fall in between the lugs. There is a name for them but someone with more knowledge will have to enlighten us on that. I had turfs so chains falling in between the lugs wasn't a problem.

 

[gladehound]

Had an old Bolens growing up. It was similar in size to your Poulan but probably weighs twice as much. We never used the snow blade without chains. Chains went on at the beginning of the season. With the chains it did well but as a 2wd garden tractor it had it's limitations. Best if you hit it before it got beyond about 8" if the snow was wet at all. And if it was really wet, only a few inches.

I second PMSmechanic's response. Chains aren't expensive for that size tire and a day will come when you are happy to have them!

 

[Shaneard]

My vote is get chains. If you have any ice or hard packed snow it's just going to spin no matter how much weight you add. Chains won't stop it from spinning but they will help.

 

[jdhacker]

Thanks guys for the info. I know the older tractors are built heaver then mine. I bought this one new in 2004. It has over 1400 hr on it, it weighted 700 lbs dry I have added 110lbs to each tire, 50lb on the back, the gas tank is in the rear 5.5 gal. So around 1100lbs with me on it. I will order a set of chains, again thanks for the help.

 

[Thorny]

what about the front? will those tires be able to steer at all when they are on snow and ice?

 

[TheMan419]

Seems like a bit of overkill for Kentucky. I live in the land of lake effect. OF course I have no hills to deal with.

 

[jdhacker]

The last three years have been tough. last year we got 15 in one day, my drive is 900 feet long. But I hope I dont have to use it this year.

 

[Deere Dude]

I have a JD garden tractor about your size and I had fluid, 100# on each wheel and I'm a big guy to boot. Chains were a must, in fact I never took the chains off all year while mowing and anything else I did with the tractor. I had chains on my garden tractors for 20 years. I finally took them off when I got a 45 HP tractor and moved to Tennessee and found I just used the garden tractor for mowing. I still have the weights on because I have some steep ditches and I don't want to tip over.