Auto tires instead of tractor tires?

[etpm]

My Yanmar YM2310 needs tires all the way around. Shopping for tires I see that they are quite expensive. I use my tractor for stuff like tilling, drilling holes for posts and trees, grading the gravel driveway, and FEL work such as transporting tilled up rocks to a big hole to dump them in. The tractor is two wheel drive. Anyway, it looks like I can get 15 inch car tires to fit on the front wheels. Right now the tires are the 3 ribbed type. Will skinny auto tires be that bad to use? I can get decent used tires for about 15 bucks each. I will be buying new proper tires for the rear. If I didn't need rears I would buy new fronts but I'm newly retired and living on investments and am having a hard time justifying the expense for my hobby tractor.
Thanks,
Eric

 

[Doughknob]

Car tires used to be used on small farms all the time as a cheapo way to "get by." They present two problems, though. The are typically not rated for the weight a tractor might put on them. And having no ribs, they will make it much harder to turn in loose stuff like dirt, gravel or when you have weight on the rear.

 

[ruffdog]

Normally, those skinny 3-ribbed tires are very stiff and able to handle the loads of tractor use. If you were to put skinny car tires on, I bet they would not handle the load from the FEL.

 

[ruffdog]

When I was a kid, my dad put fatter car tires on the 9N instead of the skinny 3-rib tires. He had to get wider custom wheels to fit the Ford but the wide tires could handle the load in the FEL. The problem was steering it as doughknob stated, it steered hard and got way worse as more weight was put on them.

 

[Roadworthy]

Depending on the width of the car tires you may also experience rubbing.

 

[scaredychicken]

etpm - for $15 / tire, if they fit, might not be a bad idea ... it's a cheap test either way

last year i bought a 1969 Jacobsen Super Chief 1450 (garden tractor) that came equipped with 13 " (?) Honda Tires on the rear, I think from a Civic (rims reversed sides, to fit) - the machine is a beast

(my tiny little model, is my friends' granddaughter)

 

[Farmer495]

A good set of LT tires on front likely stand up better than cheapo tri rib.

Steering won't be as nice compared to tri rib.

Can't beat the cost of used truck tire (free) I use them on farm wagons all the time. Have had on front tractor tires in the past

 

[Birdhunter1]

I had passenger tires on a larger tractor with a front end loader and never experienced an issue with them not carrying the load. They provided floatation better than tri ribs, didn't rip the ground when you turned and with the loader on still held stable to turn. When the loader was off and I was mowing the tires would skip some on turns but it wasn't bad. The tractor was a Ford 3910, it weighed about 5000 lbs without the loader on it.

 

[3gunr]

I doubt that car tires would be much different than the wide turf tires on my cub cadet 7260, never had trouble turning with them in loose dirt.

 

[LouNY]

My 574 has 235/85r16 tires on it and they have been on it for 10-15 years now.
We ran a lot of car tires on the farm for many years on wagons and tractor fronts.