318 Traction Problems

[monster318]

Don't know what this means. Not getting a good picture of what is happening here. Maybe just reached the limit on snow and ice?

I meant it would just start spinning wheels...and tractor would not move foreword anymore

 

[JerryK]

Also, besides missing more than half of your cross chains, your chains look a little on the ' tight ' side. You want them tight enough that they won't come off, but loose enough that each cross chain can flop a little as it hits the ground.... at least, that is what I have always heard and tried to live by.. If the cross chains are held to the tire real tight, they tend to also fill with snow and do not self clean as they fly around the tire during use...

 

[Yellowfever440]

I was always told to air the tire down and put the chains on snug then air the tire back up so they are tight because they can tear up your tires.

 

[beenthere]

Not the way I run my chains.
They are loose as put on by hand, just so they stay on, and flail out when going over the top to clean out packed snow, ice, or mud.

But guess to each their own likes. Whatever feels good, and easy to try it a different way to see if one likes it better.

And I never put belts, or bungie cords, or straps, or springs on the outside. If any of those are needed, in my opinion, the chains are not cut to fit that tire/wheel. Time to cut them to fit.

 

[kevin37b]

Are the front wheels hanging up by chance ?

 

[Amvcane]

I don't know how convenient it is, but, as Jsb2b questioned, have you tried your wheel weights on his tractor? Or remove the weights from yours. I feel it is extremely important to have the weight distribution the same on both tractors in order to compare apples to apples. Remove every variable possible. Then the said problem, or unique characteristic will reside within the individual tractor.

 

[Sheldon Hamblin]

I have a 310 I specifically purchased for the snowblower on the front, as well as the mower deck.
Had the chains and blower installed at the JD shop when I bought it.
I found the JD chains slipped even on hard ground, and couldn't move on snow or ice. This was with the 2 suitcase weights as recommended. I added 100 pounds more, not much improvement. When I swapped out the tire chains for an old set of pick up truck chains it made all the difference in the world.
The difference in chains was the JD rode entirely on chain. The truck chains a v- bar reinforced and are spaced so it gets a good bite going from tire to chain. Works great now.

 

[monster318]

I found the JD chains slipped even on hard ground, and couldn't move on snow or ice. This was with the 2 suitcase weights as recommended. I added 100 pounds more, not much improvement. When I swapped out the tire chains for an old set of pick up truck chains it made all the difference in the world.
The difference in chains was the JD rode entirely on chain. The truck chains a v- bar reinforced and are spaced so it gets a good bite going from tire to chain. Works great now.

Thats what I was trying to say is the reason I took every other cross link out, so it rides tire,chain, tire, chain...it made an improvement on MY 318. Also MINE has truck chains that are cut down to fit the wheels. I might have to do some chain swapping and see what kind of difference I see.

Thanks

 

[beenthere]

I suspect it is the V-bars that give the extra traction.

 

[monster318]

OK SO I MIGHT HAVE MADE A BREAK THROUGH!!!

Today after snowblowing my driveway...I took the suitcase weights off my 318 and took them up to grandfathers house...I removed all the weight he had in his box and hung my weights on the front of his box..directly next to the bracket that attaches it to tractor. See Picture below...


And it went great! Almost thought for a minute I was driving my tractor again....I put myself in the same situations that I got stuck in before..and didnt even spin...

Then I came back to the garage...put the weights INSIDE the box....Went back out...and tractor acted the exact same way it did with his weight in....lots of wheel spin...and I had to take a suitcase weight out of the box because the front wheels would not turn tractor at all..it would just lift them right off ground...This is where I felt I was on to something...


So I came back to garage, Put all his weight back in the box and hung the suitcase weights the same way I did in the first picture...and went back out....then it was unstoppable and kept the front wheels planted to the ground....So what I think is going on is that because his box was hanging so far off the back of the tractor that it was not allowing me to put any more weight in the box because the leverage it was getting, wanted to pull the front of the tractor up and there wasnt much weight actually pushing down on the back of the tractor...

This summer I am going to cut the box basically in half...keep it as close to the tractor as possible..weld it back up just wide enough to fit the biggest weights in it we have....which should allow me to put more weight in it..without having it try to do a wheelie on me...