Foam filled vs solid tires

[RoyK]

I need to either (re)foam-fill my 3pt finish mower's tires or replace them with solid ones. I am not sure what the solid ones would do to my lawn though. They look like they would leave slight ruts. Anyone having success with solid tires on lawn?

 

[Henro]

I need to either (re)foam-fill my 3pt finish mower's tires or replace them with solid ones. I am not sure what the solid ones would do to my lawn though. They look like they would leave slight ruts. Anyone having success with solid tires on lawn?

I can't really help much, but I suspect that the difference between foam filled and sold tires, when on a mower, will not be that great.

I have foam filled tires on the front of my two tractors (both relatively small, subcut and cut) and while there is SOME give when I stand on (or push with my foot) one of these tires it is not that much really.

So I guess what I am trying to say is that foam fill is probably a lot closer to the solid tire than it is to an air-filled tire...and my guess is that either will perform about the same in this application.

Hope this is of some help...

 

[RoyK]

Since I didn't get the reassurance I was looking for on two differeent websites, I figured I would foam fill. Went to the tire place today and the guy who does the actual work mentioned the possibility of "slime-ing" them. He swears by some special commercial brand not available to us mere mortals and he uses it in his ATVs and farm equipment himself. Says he's used them for years without any leaks, much less breaking the beads like mine did. A buddy of mine also suggested this some time ago and I completely forgot about it as another possibility. I told tire guy to slime them. It is much cheaper this way ($15 vs $40+) and if it doesn't work, I can still foam fill later.

Thanks for the reply. I had given up hope anyone would reply to this.

Roy

 

[radman1]

I would try the slime. Had slow leaks in my ZTR front tires and added slime. No problems. Foaming the tires was going to cost about $60 and hard tires about $100. I use it in many trailer tires, on implements etc. I bought a gallon a couple of years ago and almost gone.