Need help to deciding on tires

[Citydude]

I had to make a choice between R1's or R4's. I wanted the R4's because of the woods I work the tractor in, but needed the R1's for the steep hills the woods are on. I chose the R1's for the traction.

 

[sea2summit]

So what kind of field work are you talking about?

Plan on some disking, a few acres. More working in the woods.

 

[sea2summit]

I had to make a choice between R1's or R4's. I wanted the R4's because of the woods I work the tractor in, but needed the R1's for the steep hills the woods are on. I chose the R1's for the traction.

Do you regret it at all?

 

[motownbrowne]

Plan on some disking, a few acres. More working in the woods.

Well if that's all, I bet you'd be fine with R4s. Earlier I thought you said that after the cleanup the tractor would be used primarily for field work, but if that's only a few acres of discing per year, you'll be able to do that with industrial tires.

You may be able to pull a bigger disc with R1s than R4s, but if you're okay with taking a little longer to do the job with a smaller disc, then that's not a problem.

 

[Citydude]

Do you regret it at all?

No, I don't. They perform as designed. They won't be as durable as R4's as in puncture resistant however I'll trade a tire puncture for loss of traction on a hill any day. I haven't punctured a tire yet but I'm mindful of what I'm treading on. No pun intended

 

[4570Man]

Radial tires on average last 50% longer and offer 25% more traction vs bias ply tires. Look at all of your county and state tractor highway mowing tires. Once our county mowers started going with radials they are replacing tires much less often. The R1w radials are as wide as r4 tires therefore you get the lower ground pressures. They ride significantly better than r4's. I'll mow hay at 12 mph with a disc mower on my radial tire tractor but my kidneys won't let me go more than 7-8 with the r4's. The main reason I went with r4 on my older tractor was the only wide tire option at the time was r4 and I didn't want to roll the front tires off the rim with a heavy front end bucket load. On my newer tractor with R1w radials they are just as wide. I promise once you go radial tires you will never look back.

How do the R4s wear faster since they have significantly more rubber to wear out? I could live with a wide set of R1s on the rear, but the fronts do much better with R4s.

 

[chieff]

How do the R4s wear faster since they have significantly more rubber to wear out? I could live with a wide set of R1s on the rear, but the fronts do much better with R4s.

Google the differences in bias ply tire vs radial tires. Many years ago all vehicle tires were bias ply and folks were replacing tires every 25-30k miles. Once radial tires took over the market mileage was increased, traction increased and ride comfort increased. Today you can buy radial vehicle tires that get 100k miles. It has just taken a longer time for tractor tires to start offering radials in most all tractor sizes. If I'm not mistaken the nice M series Deere come standard with radials as well as most kubota tractors over 100 hp. Keep in mind I'm not saying all r1's are radials. I'm talking about radial R1w's. Big technology improvement in the compounds that are used.

 

[ovrszd]

How do the R4s wear faster since they have significantly more rubber to wear out? I could live with a wide set of R1s on the rear, but the fronts do much better with R4s.

See Chieff's post.....

 

[powerstroke444e]

Go with R1 ag tires and get them foamed. No flats and will add enough weight to let you use the HP you have.

 

[MHarryE]

We have R-1s or R-1Ws on all of our tractors that are 100% farm field use and R-4s on the CUT that does the tough terrain work - trails through the woods, lots of loader work where the front tires would be overloaded if we had R-1s that are offered. The factory R-4s were tough but fronts lasted only 700 hours before we started having problems with them - replaced the 4 ply originals with 10 ply tough sidewall skid steer rugged use. Like said many times, they don't have the traction of our R-1s (all radials). With a big bale front and rear on the CUT the tires done even bulge while the tires on our other 2 much larger loader tractors have a nice squat to them under a 2 bale load. You're going yo have to compromise someplace - where is your most important work? And if loader work is important to you, you need to pay attention to tire load rating. Our largest tractor loader equipped will have tires well overloaded with a bucket full of manure. Same thing with our full size utility we use for feeding - we've knocked a tire off a rim due to overload. Our CUTs R-4 fronts have about twice the load rating that it is possible for the tractor to load the fronts.