Snow Equipment Owning/Operating Cutting / Groving / Siping R-4 for snow

[FastPauly]

llkojnjhfy,
Sorry about being slow on answering your questions.....Yes, it is a 2520. I used two different cutting heads. The front tires and the outer lugs on the rear tires were done with a #4. I used a #6 on the rear center lugs......very happy with the setup so far.

 

[Cacinok]

Good thread.

What- if anything- does the iron mfr. say about grooving tires? Any instructions come with the tool? The mention of dirt bike racing made me wonder if there isn't a thread similar to this on some other site. "Hummer Luvvers" or JeepNutx"- folks with lots of money and a love of getting stuck in the mud:laughing:

The siped tractor tires remind me of Yokohama's Geolander mud tires, which I had on a truck of mine. They were the best all around mud tire. Mud tires are not known for their snow/ice traction, but the Yokohamas did well. They also did really well in water and mud. When I lived in MN, I quite often saw siped mud tires on 4wd trucks. As I mentioned, mud tires are not known for their snow and ice performance.

Notice how the treads on the edges are sloped (somebody mentioned not seeing tires w/ sloped tread blocks - they're out there, just more for mud).

 

[gladehound]

It's been nearly a year and I wanted to give a report on how the tires have held up with the grooves - they have held up well. There has been no chunking or tearing anywhere on any of the tires. I've pulled logs and pushed over trees. I've pushed into piles until the wheels spun. I've spun the wheels on dirt and on hard packed gravel. The tires are plenty stout even with the grooves.

As for traction, traction has been helped in every situation. But the most noticable improvement is certainly in snow and ice. The least noticable is in mud where I don't think small grooves or sipes really help in a noticable way. The extra biting edges do seem to help on hard packed dirt.

So far I have about 80 hours since I gooved them and I'm very happy that I did. If I do ever notice any detrimental effect from grooving them I will be sure to report it here.

That's it for now. Happy grooving!

 

[mjncad]

Thanks for the update.

 

[sidewinder770]

Good to hear its been working good for you when it's not on snow as well. Be interesting to hear from some of the others that have done this as well. This is the first year with a snowblower so I think I'll see how that goes first but it's nice to know about this option. I was hoping to not need chains so this may be perfect if I need just a little more traction.

 

[k0ua]

Yes thank you very much for the update.

James K0UA

 

[OrangeJbird]

After slipping down and not getting up the hill the last snow, I grooved my tires like the first poster. WOW! We had 6" of wet snow last nite. I pushed snow down AND back up (6' FEL!) I used the #4 groover set 1/4" deep. Took about 1.5 hrs for all 4 R4 tires. This is worth doing. My hill is very steep blacktop and the Deere crawled right up.
:thumbsup:

 

[Dakota_male]

After slipping down and not getting up the hill the last snow, I grooved my tires like the first poster. WOW! We had 6" of wet snow last nite. I pushed snow down AND back up (6' FEL!) I used the #4 groover set 1/4" deep. Took about 1.5 hrs for all 4 R4 tires. This is worth doing. My hill is very steep blacktop and the Deere crawled right up.
:thumbsup:

I just ordered a Grover with #4 &#6 cutters hoping to avoid installing rear chains, but I did order ice cleated chains for the front.
Question.
Did you use the same grove pattern Or something special?

 

[OrangeJbird]

I did mine like this front and back.

 

[k0ua]

Ok, I am in. I ordered the tool.. We shall see.

James K0UA