Snow Chains On The Front Only ??

[oosik]

Some must get "traction snow", kind of like traction sand. I certainly don't. I have the cold, fluffy kind. Need a heavy tractor or even chains with a lighter one. Then, I got a valley in the driveway. Called -"the Valley of Doom" in the winter. You can ease into it but you best have speed to top out the other side. Snow melt freezes on both the entry & exit. He who hesitates may LIVE in the Valley of Doom.

 

[CADplans]

I really don't undersand that.
I have turfs on my Ford 1510 and it is useless in anything over 3" of snow & less then that on hills.
I even loaded all 4 tires with no improvement.
Front chains (from a lawn tractor) and it can get through 8" and more.
It even can plow as long as it isn't too wet.

Some must get "traction snow", kind of like traction sand. I certainly don't. I have the cold, fluffy kind. Need a heavy tractor or even chains with a lighter one. Then, I got a valley in the driveway. Called -"the Valley of Doom" in the winter. You can ease into it but you best have speed to top out the other side. Snow melt freezes on both the entry & exit. He who hesitates may LIVE in the Valley of Doom.

In this pic, the JD 650 had a running start, in 4WD,, and I just wanted to see how far it would go up my lawn with turf tires,,

The tractor was so stuck, I thought I was going to have to tow it out of that spot,,
then it started moving,, I put it back in the shed,,, :laughing:

 

[tedfarkas]

This is from another thread, but might be relevant:
"I just bought this tractor. Since it is new, I cannot comment on its performance. I can write a novel, however, about trying to get some tire chains on the front wheels of this tractor.
It all started by asking the local John Deere dealer for the chains at the time of purchase.
The first response I got from the dealer was that for my purposes (150 ft driveway) I did not need them. I replied that having plowed that driveway in the middle of the winter for 30 years, I am very familiar with snow conditions in Mt. Shasta. I am also, like every normal human being, familiar with the fact, that rubber tires, without chains, slide on ice. Therefore, I pressed on with my quest.
My second response from the dealer was that placing chains on the front tire might void the warranty."
It's intuitive to think that most of the work should be done by the rear tires and the front tires only "help" the rear ones. If you place chains on the front tires (especially "only" front), the front end is doing the gruntwork, which is not built for. FWIW, I have a John Deere 4310 (4WD) and a 500 ft up-sloping drive way. I bought chains for the rear when I first bought the tractor and did OK in the first winter, then I added an 800lb ballast on the 3 PTH plus antifreeze in the tires and took the rear chains off. That was 4 years ago, and sold them since I no longer needed them.

 

[1Snowman]

I live in upper upstate NY and we get SNOW! I have an L6060 TLB Kubota with R4 tires and they are liquid ballasted. I found grooving all 4 tires very modestly made a significant improvement on snow and ice. No diff. in mud. Also reduce your rear tire pressures down to 12-15 psi. Do not reduce the fronts! Tire grooving tools from companies like Speedway will be in the $100 range. I have also grooved the tread lugs on on old 4x4 truck tires. Was like the tires had another year of life in them. Don't cut below the wear bars.

 

[Jchonline]

What you need is weight on the front. You don't have a FEL and bucket, so that really limits your front ground engagement.

Get front weights and I bet you will see a huge improvement. Chains aren't going to help if you are light in the front.

 

[Garandman]

A neighbor uses chains on the front only but he has turfs. My concern was that the front over driven relative to rears, and much lighter.

We grooved our R4’s and that helped. The local tire shop recommended studs but I couldn’t do it since Sid grooved them. Wound up getting the rear chains and they make an immense difference.

 

[razor]

This winter I experimented with skid steer snow tires on the front only of one of my L6060. They seem to be be an improvement over the R4s. I'm sure chains would be superior but the snow tires do help.

 

[Whitbread]

Chains showed up today in time for the weather rollercoaster. 35-40F tomorrow and Monday with rain, high of 14 and snow on Tuesday.

For cost reasons I went with front chains only. I'll give them a test spin tomorrow!

 

[Garandman]

What size tire and what chains? Those look pretty good.

 

[Whitbread]

What size tire and what chains? Those look pretty good.

The tires are 25x8.5x14 and the chains are non studded diamond pattern from tirechain.com.