ATV tires on a Zero Turn?

[Grumpycat]

What does your dealer have to say about ATV tires on ZTMs?

He has mounted them for some customers. If you do any "zero turning" they will dig the heck out of your lawn and wear fast. But some have more concern mowing on a slope or up/down the slope and then the tires work great.

Do have to watch weight loading. There are some ATV tires which are not stout enough for some mowers which use the same size.

No matter the numbers on the tires, the circumference is likely different. The ride height. So the deck needs to be adjusted.

 

[paulfun9]

I would agree that manufacturers build in a "safety factor" in most all of their products and usually will withstand more load than they are designed for. If given some tires I might be tempted to give them a try even if they were slightly overloaded.

However, "just because you can doesn't mean you should", applies here.

I'm looking to replace my current tires with others that will provide better traction.
There are lots of tires to choose from that will do what I want and have the correct weight rating for my application.

If forced to make due, I will make do, but in this case properly rated tires can be had at the same price/ availability as underrated ones.
I see no logic in risking a blowout for no reason.

Properly rated tires may or may not give the same traction as under rated tires.
I remember conversations about tires and weight ratings that lead to how much flex the sidewall will have between my Husband and others when he did off road. His rear tires were a mix of tires some for much heavier things and some for lighter things as well as some designed specifically for his racing class. What he used at each event depended on what track conditions were.
I always liked it when he did the hill climbs and used the ones he called supper scoopers. They threw a rooster tail behind that just looked so neat!
I need to search out some old photographs and post them.
Anyway I think you would get some good advice from a place that sells tires for cars, trucks,and equipment.
I know thats where he used go to get them.

Janet

 

[Vigo327]

I haven't used a joystick zero turn but i have used both styles of controls on skid steers. I can't say I have a preference as far as being able to finesse anything, but i think i slightly prefer the hand AND foot setup on skid steers vs 2 joysticks because it just feels cooler to have all 4 involved in something (like flying a helicopter, maybe. I've yet to try that...lol). I think in terms of long term comfort if you're in the thing all day, the 2 joysticks is probably better.

On the zero turns I think the comfort issue actually comes up sooner than on a skid steer for me.. I dont know why but my hands start to go numb on the sticks on a zero turn. Probably wouldn't with armrests and a joystick..

I remember conversations about tires and weight ratings that lead to how much flex the sidewall will have between my Husband and others when he did off road. His rear tires were a mix of tires some for much heavier things and some for lighter things as well as some designed specifically for his racing class. What he used at each event depended on what track conditions were.

All my tire knowledge came from the car racing & repair worlds before i started messing with tractors and mowers. In the car world there's a relatively HUGE variety of design and you can find many articles and videos of people discussing the finer points of how the design of a tire accomplishes this or that. It can probably seem a little like wine tasting does to those who aren't very interested, but i HIGHLY recommend anyone who wants to get in the weeds about tires to watch the work of a guy named Jonathon Benson who runs Tyre reviews, tests and ratings - Tyre Reviews and Tests and does EXCELLENT tire testing and comparison videos on Youtube. None of it is specific to tractors and very little to 'off road tires' but what IS there is illuminating.

But just in general referring to your statement, Air pressure is what holds up the weight on a tire. The stength of the tire's 'carcass' aka how many layers of 'body plies' are in it, determines how much air pressure it can hold. The side effect of the number of plies is how stiff the tire itself is. When you have the rated weight on it and pressure in it, they'll all be deflecting the sidewalls by similar amounts. Truck tires with 9000lbs on them and 80psi in them are deflecting a similar amount to car tires with 3000lbs on them and 30psi in them. But when you run the tires with very low air pressure they will deflect by different amounts. So if you take a truck tire rated for 50psi max, and one for 80psi max, and put them both at 10psi on the same truck, the one rated for 50psi will sag down more because it has less internal layers making it stiff. This also has SOME effect on the tread flexibility, but not as much because all radial tires have extra layers called 'belts' specifically under the tread area so the 'body plies' are only part of the tread area's structure, whereas they are ALL the structure in the sidewall. Hope that wasn't too terribly boring..