General opinions on R1 vs. R14 tires?

[Texasmark]

I am interested in soft ride and tillage besides farm tractor chores. R1 tractors solve both problems. R4's stiff sidewalls are a hindrance to me and I have cushioned my seat/spring experiments as far as I can....I have a pile of have not seats and spring/air assemblies that didn't work.

I agree on all the comments if that's what you need. An R4 with a soft sidewall would be my choice for the chore tractors. I thought a turf tire would solve the problem but they too came in with a sidewall so stiff you could let the air down to single digit psi (like my R4s) and it will hold the tractor in near full aired up position.....another puked $600 experiment.

 

[FormulaXFD]

I went ahead and just kept with R1s on my new DK5320 order. Delayed delivery of my tractor by a week, but I figure it'll be worth it.

 

[mo1]

My issue with videos like the Messicks one is that they parrot the same vague information without putting any meat to it. Why would I go R14 over R1? If I did R14s, is there a limit on attachments that I can pull before losing traction and spin the wheels, but not have that problem with R1s? Lots of people talk about mud and snow. If Im pushing a 96" plow, am I going to do better with one tire over another?

Someone else said, "R1s if all you do is Ag," what happens when you run R14s for Ag? What happens when you do R4s for Ag? Maybe its simply that the difference is so expensive its hard to do an A to B comparison on the same tractor...

The main reason people use a tire other than a regular R1 ag tire on a tractor is that the ag tires get the most traction under nearly all conditions and thus are the most likely to tear up soft surfaces like lawns. Any other tire choice on a tractor would nearly always be in an attempt to limit how much you tear up a lawn. The one possible exception to that is most industrial tires have a higher ply rating and load-carrying capacity than the equivalent fitment of ag tire, so people who use their tractor for the same kinds of jobs a piece of construction equipment is used for (loader or backhoe work on dry dirt, gravel, or pavement) will go with industrials to have a little more durable tire. I will say from experience that industrial tires get far less traction than ag tires. I haven't run R14s nor have I seen anybody else around here running them.

How well something other than an ag tire would work in ag usage would depend on the specific operation the tractor is doing, but it's only in some specialized setting that any wheeled ag tractor (full-sized utility and larger) would be wearing anything other than ag tires. Even then, wheeled tractors over about 120 HP or so only come with ag tires from the manufacturer. Industrials are fitted to some of the 120 HP and under full sized utility tractors such as "poultry house special" tractors to make a standard tractor into a low-profile unit as they are the smallest-diameter tires with a sufficient weight rating. It is technically an option to specify turf tires on the smallest full-sized utility tractors but it is very rare to actually see one set up that way.

The issue with ag usage is ground compaction rather than ground disturbance as it is in residential usage. That is solved with wider ag tires running at a lower air pressure such as the ones Neil Messick is standing in front of in his video, or with a track setup.

The problem is you will have to buy wider wheels to switch to R14 tires. R4 and 14 both require wider wheels than R1 tires.

Not necessarily, it depends on the particular tractor and the specific wheel setup on that tractor. My tractor has ags on it and the optional industrial tires were the exact same width on the rears as the ags I currently run, the industrials would have used a smaller-diameter rim of the exact same width (industrials were offered as low-profile tires.) The fronts had several different tire options and one of the options used the exact same size of tire for both ag and industrial, on the exact same rim.

 

[tradosaurus]

Hi folks,

Doing a search didn't produce anything, which surprises me. I'm awaiting delivery on my new tractor, and have the options for tire still. My old Mahindra 4540 ran Ag tires and it always had great traction. My land is woodland that I've been cleaning and converting into more functional use, eventually serving a small farming homestead setup (but right now I'm still cutting roads and putting in culverts). If you normally ran R1 tires and went to R14, what is the good vs bad? Do you regret going to R14s?

Cheers!

R4's or R14's to make your tractor look cool.

R1's to be able to do most work without losing traction.

 

[Mark_G]

I have R4s and in the winter I put chains on them for traction. I also use them to skid logs. The durability plus the added traction I can get with chains seems to cover everything I need. I would look at the R14s when my tires give up the ghost, but might still put chains on if it looked to help.

 

[Little Red Tractor]

If I knew then what I know now, I'd have bought the R-14. Just sayin.

 

[Beaver Cove Deere]

The problem is you will have to buy wider wheels to switch to R14 tires. R4 and 14 both require wider wheels than R1 tires.

Not exactly true. I replaced the factory R1’s on my JD 4720 with R14 Nokia TRI 2’s on the same rim. Tire shop didn’t have a single issue.

R1’s sucked for my lite use and were horrible on ice and snow plus the ride was very rough. I had run nothing but turf tires on an old JD750 and then on a much larger NH 4835. They were abused on the NH year round but if it saw mud out in the fields it just stopped.

I love these R14 but they were rather pricey.

 

[mopar440cu]

Hi folks,

Doing a search didn't produce anything, which surprises me. I'm awaiting delivery on my new tractor, and have the options for tire still. My old Mahindra 4540 ran Ag tires and it always had great traction. My land is woodland that I've been cleaning and converting into more functional use, eventually serving a small farming homestead setup (but right now I'm still cutting roads and putting in culverts). If you normally ran R1 tires and went to R14, what is the good vs bad? Do you regret going to R14s?

Cheers!

I had r14 on one of my Deeres and they didn’t have good enough traction in mud for me here in Florida. I prefer R2’s. They do not dig up my pasture grass that bad either.

 

[paulsharvey]

So, very new to having R14s, and so far; I will say, very easy on grass; and quite a bit less traction in dry sand then R1s. I can't say how much of that is the weight distribution of the new tractor vs old tractor though. Don't know about other soils.

 

[saxtonhill]

I have an L4600 with R1s. I have been wondering for a while if I could put different, wider or less aggressive, tires on the front than in the back. The issue is the front wheels ripping up the ground on turns and slicing into softer soils. Also, I'm not happy with the compression on the sidewalls when doing loader work.