Buying Kubota 3901 which tires should I get?

[jtygoku]

From my experience, had R-1's on my old Ford and R-4's on my Kioti, would lean towards the R-4's. But you WILL need chains in the snow.

 

[HEC]

I take care of over 600 ft. of pretty flat driveway plus 2 parking areas one in front of the house the other in front of a detached garage . We have snow storms of up to 1 and 2 ft. where I live in Maine .I have been doing this for over 20 yrs. and I have never needed chains with r4 tires . I have over 60 acres of woods and have not had any problems getting stuck in the woods . My land is pretty flat but wet in some areas .I have been told you lose about 10 to 15 % of traction with r4's compared to r1's in some instances . I like the r4's for my land use , that being said if I had hilly areas that extra traction of r1's might make the difference of not needing chains .

 

[Gary Fowler]

I will just say that I have used one of my tractors with R1 more than once to pull out my brother in law with his R 4 tires. I have R4 tires on my B 26 TLB and even with all that weight, they are pretty useless in mud. On dry and hard ground they will out pull an R1 since they have much more contact area but since the tread is so shallow they fill up with soft material really fast and just slick over.
I don't get much snow, so I defer that issue to the folks up North.

 

[MHarryE]

We have R-4s on the one tractor that really gets out in the woods, does the brush cutting, etc. Tougher. It also does most of the snow work. No way does it have the traction of the others but it doesn't do bad until it sinks in to its belly. If it wasn't for the loader, though, it would be a problem.

 

[nybirdman]

For your uses and that size tractor...........get the R1's.R4 on compact,4wd tractors suck in mud and snow.R4 are made for heavy lifting,on concrete/asphalt.

 

[Verticaltrx]

Skidding logs in the hills and plowing snow would dictate R1 ag tires for me. I've had both on my B3200 (see thread: Switched from r4s to r1s on my B3200 ) and the difference in traction in some conditions is more than double with the R1's. Now the R1 tires stay on 90% of the time. The only time I put the R4 tires back on is if I have a lot of heavy loader work on dry ground or pavement, which is what R4 tires are intended for. The dealers try to push the R4 tires because that is what Kubota ships most of those tractors with, and they want to sell you something on the lot instead of ordering.

 

[SPYDERLK]

Hello All - I am new to the forum and this is my first post.

I went to the local Kubota dealer and was pricing a 3901. I wanted the R-1 ag tires but the dealer was trying to convince me that that I should should get the R-4 tires. I'm sure the R-4 tires are ok most of the time but I want to use the tractor to brush hog and skid logs in hilly woods and also to clear snow as well as use a loader to haul soil, bails, wood etc.. I am concerned that the R-4 tires will not give me the traction I need but the dealer said with a 4WD tractor I don't need R-1 tires.

What has been your experience?

Thanks

Absolutely. You want R1s. Tell that dealer you want fhem in 8 ply. Firestone makes them - - the "Super all Traction II"
... And dont stand for any extra charge. R1s are less expensive than R4s.
larry

 

[skyhook]

If I were to buy new, I would want R1's on it, or no sale.

 

[sdef]

I have loaded R4s for my primary "industrial" usage versus working crops. Last year I agonized over this same point. In hindsight, it was a no brainer for me to get R4s due to my primary use of clearing very densely wooded, extremely rocky, dense clay "soil" for my retirement home site. My R4s have a lot of very deep cuts in them from all of the sharp rock edges. Plus I have maxed out the loader many, many times over these same rocks. I am sure standard R1s would not have made it this far and I have only cleared the driveway, at this point. My R4s are not very good for traction in muddy clay and would be useless without 4WD.

On the other hand, dragging the ROBB through the dry, dense clay even in 2WD is no problem at 1800 RPM until the shanks lodge on a root or large, deep rock and stop me immediately. I believe the R1s would do the same and not provide me any benefit since there is not enough loose soil depth for them to get a better bite.

However, if I had soil that was more loam and did not have very many large rocks, I would have gone with R1s. And if I had woods to work in, I would seriously consider the 8 ply R1s. Possibly the 8 ply R1s would have been the best choice for me, I do not know; There just was not enough information available for me to choose them last year over the R4s.