Considering switching from R4's to R1's on B3200, suggestions?

[Diamondpilot]

Do not own a Kubota but I have a 30ish HP 4x4 tractor with R1's while my neighbors have a Case and a JD of the same size with both R4's and Turfs and there is no comparison. My R1's work better for 90% of the stuff we do. The R4's are by far the worst.

Chris

 

[bstrom]

Of course the R1's are a more aggressive tread. It depends on what you are doing. The R4's work pretty well especially if you don't want to tear the ground where you are working all to **** (field,woods or lawn) but still need a fair amount of traction without digging ruts in soft ground. I put chains on in the winter. My neighbor has ags on his tractor and tears the gravel subdivision road all to **** every time he goes on it in the spring, so you may want to consider that too.

 

[Verticaltrx]

I got to looking at my R4s yesterday and noticed that at max/recommended inflation pressure only the very center of the treads are on the ground, both front and rear. I'm going to try airing the tires down a little bit until the tread sits flat on the ground and see how that works for traction. Not sure how much that will be, but I won't go low enough to really effect the weight carrying capacity, especially since these tires have such a high weight rating already.

I do realize the traction advantage of adding more weight, I have a pretty heavy 5' bush hog that I sometimes use for ballast and it really makes a big difference in the pushing/digging capabilities of the loader. My problem this past weekend was that I had to go up to the barn empty front/rear to pick up a round bale and bale feeder. I'm sure with the extra 800lb of hay on the back and a bale ring on the front traction would have been improved.

I'm going to try adjusting the tire pressure, then maybe look into chains. I'm not thrilled about the idea of dropping a grand on tires/wheels right now, but we'll see.

 

[bstrom]

I forget - are your rear tires loaded? because that made a big difference for me. There is definitely not as much bounce in the rear and the tires seem to contact the ground better. There are trade offs of course but so far I really like them loaded. It's got better traction and feels more solid.

If you were going uphill through 8 inches of snow with no weight on and unloaded R4 tires it would explain a lot. The B's are pretty light tractors but definitely not wimps in the torque dept. They seem to just break the wheels loose without weight.

You probably know this but I would suggest a chain set that does not drop between the lugs.

 

[Verticaltrx]

Yup, my tires are fluid filled.

I aired the tires down to 15psi front and 10psi rear and it made a big difference in traction. When I pulled the tractor into the shop the tires left tracks about 5" wide on the concrete, when I pulled it out it had almost the full width of the tread on the ground. This would explain a lot since the center of R4 tires is almost solid rubber, with very little tread void. I measured from the rim to the ground before and after, and it reduced the loaded radius by about 1% front and rear, so it shouldn't affect the gear ratio. If I have some really heavy loader work to do I might air the tires back up, but the fronts at only 15psi squatted very little even with a heaped bucket of wet snow. I think these tires have such a high load rating that even at lower psi they handle the weight fine. This past snow was about 8-10" and I made it up to the barn no problem. I'm kinda embarrassed that I didn't think to try this sooner. Off-roading it one of my biggest hobbies and we air the tires on our rigs way down for better traction.

I'm going to hold off on tire chains for now, if I decide I need them I will probably go with a diamond pattern skidder type chain. Thanks for all the replies.