hube2
Veteran Member
My driveway is fairly steep and can get quite slick. It is stone/gravel but I have seen it with 2+ inches of ice if we get a heavy wet snow followed by a rapid drop in temperature. This happens all too frequently so I am concerned about traction under these conditions.
First of all I have R1 (AG) tires on my tractor. This is what the dealer recommended. After doing a lot of reading I am questioning my decision to go with this recommendation and wish I had done a little more research on tires before I bought the tractor, but it is what it is. I'm not going to replace new tires with a different tread at this point until I need a new set of tires. The only thing that would cause me to do this is that I feel the R1s are unsafe.
My rear tires are filled and to them I have added a set of studded euro style (diamond pattern) chains.
The first snow we had here was light and I did not have the chains on yet. The rear wheels spun on the street pavement when I tried to back up away from the shoulder because the road has a significant crown, but then I remembered to put it in 4WD (duh moment) and it backed right up without any issue.
At this point I do not have any concern being able to move or stop but I am a little concerned about lateral traction on the front tires. As of now I do not have any experience with this on a 4WD machine and I can only draw on my experience with 2WD. My experience is that the front tires can skid sideways in slick conditions, especially when turning.
My fist thought was to also add chains to the front and I did a lot of research on this. There are lot's of opinions about this here, I read through every comment on every thread I could find on the subject here as well as looking at other information. In the end it came down the following in my owners manual.
Reading between the lines the above is telling me that anything that stops the intended spin/slippage of the front wheels when driving could cause drive-line damage. My opinion here is that chains would stop the front wheels from spinning as they are intended to do and could cause damage. So, chains on the front, at least as far as I'm concerned, are out of the question. This also eliminates the possibility of several other things including studs.
Filling the tires, why it would not put as much stress on the front drive-line would be questionable. They are so small that there would be an insignificant amount of added weight. My FEL provides more weight on the front and if I fill it with snow that snow will likely be more weight than I can get into the tires. Besides, I don't think that filling tires or adding weight will improve lateral traction.
The next thing that I found was the possibility of grooving the treads. I read several threads here on this subject, including one extremely long one with almost 70 pages of comments and I read every one (it took me a couple or 4 hours to get through). Grooving the R1 bars lengthwise would not be a good idea as they are only about 1 1/2 inches at the widest and this would likely have significant negative consequences. However, there were a few comments with pictures showing that some people had put grooves across the bars more or less parallel to the direction of travel. Unfortunately, none of those that did this every replied to indicate if this helped or not. If they had I would probably not be here with my question.
My plan for now is to wait and see how the front tires performs and keep watch for lateral slipping. My concerns could be completely unfounded after I have time to see with happens and see what difference having 4WD makes. Going back to the fact that the owner's manual states:
So, at the end of my long explanation I finally come to my question...
Has anyone put these type of grooves (across the bars) in their front tires (R1s or R4s) and if you did, do you feel these grooves improved lateral traction?
First of all I have R1 (AG) tires on my tractor. This is what the dealer recommended. After doing a lot of reading I am questioning my decision to go with this recommendation and wish I had done a little more research on tires before I bought the tractor, but it is what it is. I'm not going to replace new tires with a different tread at this point until I need a new set of tires. The only thing that would cause me to do this is that I feel the R1s are unsafe.
My rear tires are filled and to them I have added a set of studded euro style (diamond pattern) chains.
The first snow we had here was light and I did not have the chains on yet. The rear wheels spun on the street pavement when I tried to back up away from the shoulder because the road has a significant crown, but then I remembered to put it in 4WD (duh moment) and it backed right up without any issue.
At this point I do not have any concern being able to move or stop but I am a little concerned about lateral traction on the front tires. As of now I do not have any experience with this on a 4WD machine and I can only draw on my experience with 2WD. My experience is that the front tires can skid sideways in slick conditions, especially when turning.
My fist thought was to also add chains to the front and I did a lot of research on this. There are lot's of opinions about this here, I read through every comment on every thread I could find on the subject here as well as looking at other information. In the end it came down the following in my owners manual.
When the front axle is engaged, the ground speed of the front tires will be faster from the ground speed of the rear tires. This helps to steer the tractor when four-wheel drive is selected.
Disengage the front axle when you road or operate the tractor on hard, dry surfaces. Failure to do so will wear the front drive tires and possibly cause drive line damage. (emphasis mine)
Reading between the lines the above is telling me that anything that stops the intended spin/slippage of the front wheels when driving could cause drive-line damage. My opinion here is that chains would stop the front wheels from spinning as they are intended to do and could cause damage. So, chains on the front, at least as far as I'm concerned, are out of the question. This also eliminates the possibility of several other things including studs.
Filling the tires, why it would not put as much stress on the front drive-line would be questionable. They are so small that there would be an insignificant amount of added weight. My FEL provides more weight on the front and if I fill it with snow that snow will likely be more weight than I can get into the tires. Besides, I don't think that filling tires or adding weight will improve lateral traction.
The next thing that I found was the possibility of grooving the treads. I read several threads here on this subject, including one extremely long one with almost 70 pages of comments and I read every one (it took me a couple or 4 hours to get through). Grooving the R1 bars lengthwise would not be a good idea as they are only about 1 1/2 inches at the widest and this would likely have significant negative consequences. However, there were a few comments with pictures showing that some people had put grooves across the bars more or less parallel to the direction of travel. Unfortunately, none of those that did this every replied to indicate if this helped or not. If they had I would probably not be here with my question.
My plan for now is to wait and see how the front tires performs and keep watch for lateral slipping. My concerns could be completely unfounded after I have time to see with happens and see what difference having 4WD makes. Going back to the fact that the owner's manual states:
But if there is an issue with lateral traction then I will likely try adding a groove or 2 across each of the treads. I have no qualms about cutting grooves in them but I'd like to figure out if this might be helpful before I do.This helps to steer the tractor when four-wheel drive is selected.
So, at the end of my long explanation I finally come to my question...
Has anyone put these type of grooves (across the bars) in their front tires (R1s or R4s) and if you did, do you feel these grooves improved lateral traction?