Ags or turfs on your beaver?

[duwem]

I just put 9.5-16 rear Firestone R-1s and some china brand 6-12 fronts on my Beaver:

 

[Freakingstang]

Well I just assumed a 9.5-16 turf was the same as a 9.5-16 r1 ag...

I ended up trading the guy. He had restored a ford 1220 for a baseball league and didnt want to destroy the field...Wheels were the same bolt pattern. Tires are brand new Carlisle R1's 6 ply with tubes and calcium filled. Traded even up for my bridgestones... They are taller...

Before....

After...

 

[Volvoman]

Lots of good discussion surrounding this question. Assuming you are planning to replace the front tires with 6-12 R1 ags, you will soon know whether or not you have the correct front/rear ratio when you attempt to turn a sharp corner. When you have sufficient "lead" by the front tires, they will pull the tractor through the sharp corners. If you don't have enough "lead" with the fronts, the back wheels will tend to push the tractor through corners, causing the front wheels to bulldoze their way through, making for a wider, not-so-clean turn. Having too much lead by the front tires will cause them to chew their way through corners in an over aggressive manner.

Please provide feedback to this forum regarding your real world experience once you have both replacement sets of tires in daily use. This tire replacement issue could become more of a concern, especially to owners of tractors with 18" rear R3 turf tires, as they have all but disappeared from the marketplace. Knowing that 16" replacement R3s and R1s are an option should be welcome news to anyone trying to locate set of 18s.

 

[Freakingstang]

I just ordered the matching Carlisle R1's in 6-12. Based on the specs from their website, I'm hoping I'll be fine.... And will report back when I find out something for sure

 

[SouthamptonBeaver]

My .02 cents.....

If your running around/across your yard you'll want turfs for sure.
But with the bucket you'll need some rear ballast either way.

I just switched to turfs because so much of what I need to do is around the yard.
Alot less traction than the ag's though...

I'll probably add chains for winter snow removal. Or use my Gravely!

 

[Freakingstang]

I could not believe the difference with the filled ags over the unfilled turfs. Even in two wheel drive dragging a 4' box blade in wet muck, I was amazed.

4 wheel drive seems fine, no binding or pushing with the 6-12 turfs. My ags should be here in the next few days. I basically destroyed my yard, but the swamp at my new house doesn't dry out. Im hoping my taking down about a foot of high ground above the low mushy spots, it will dry out and I can put a small graded ditch in out back. Goons have tons and tons of fill dirt and drain tile put in this summer once it dries out.

 

[Ilikeurtractor]

All that built-up mud is changing your tire diameters. Better be careful... :laughing:

 

[Freakingstang]

After it dried out some the last two days, I went back to work. The back corner behind the red barn and the fence was about 2' higher than the low spots in the center of the yard, along the side of the red barn. I ended up taking about 3' out of the back corner and re-distrubuted it elsewhere. Made a nice grade along the fence line down to the back corner.

Even got some help from Turbo

 

[Freakingstang]

got the new front ags on....

9.5-16 rears and 6-12 fronts. same ratio as the OEM 8-16 rear and 5-12 front tires. Everything seems to work great

 

[284 International]

Your new tires look great, and it appears you have gotten a lot of work out your machine. Nice job! Did you notice any difference in the tire size while operating the machine?