Grooving R1 (AG) Tires?

[hube2]

My driveway is fairly steep and can get quite slick. It is stone/gravel but I have seen it with 2+ inches of ice if we get a heavy wet snow followed by a rapid drop in temperature. This happens all too frequently so I am concerned about traction under these conditions.

First of all I have R1 (AG) tires on my tractor. This is what the dealer recommended. After doing a lot of reading I am questioning my decision to go with this recommendation and wish I had done a little more research on tires before I bought the tractor, but it is what it is. I'm not going to replace new tires with a different tread at this point until I need a new set of tires. The only thing that would cause me to do this is that I feel the R1s are unsafe.

My rear tires are filled and to them I have added a set of studded euro style (diamond pattern) chains.

The first snow we had here was light and I did not have the chains on yet. The rear wheels spun on the street pavement when I tried to back up away from the shoulder because the road has a significant crown, but then I remembered to put it in 4WD (duh moment) and it backed right up without any issue.

At this point I do not have any concern being able to move or stop but I am a little concerned about lateral traction on the front tires. As of now I do not have any experience with this on a 4WD machine and I can only draw on my experience with 2WD. My experience is that the front tires can skid sideways in slick conditions, especially when turning.

My fist thought was to also add chains to the front and I did a lot of research on this. There are lot's of opinions about this here, I read through every comment on every thread I could find on the subject here as well as looking at other information. In the end it came down the following in my owners manual.

When the front axle is engaged, the ground speed of the front tires will be faster from the ground speed of the rear tires. This helps to steer the tractor when four-wheel drive is selected.

Disengage the front axle when you road or operate the tractor on hard, dry surfaces. Failure to do so will wear the front drive tires and possibly cause drive line damage. (emphasis mine)

Reading between the lines the above is telling me that anything that stops the intended spin/slippage of the front wheels when driving could cause drive-line damage. My opinion here is that chains would stop the front wheels from spinning as they are intended to do and could cause damage. So, chains on the front, at least as far as I'm concerned, are out of the question. This also eliminates the possibility of several other things including studs.

Filling the tires, why it would not put as much stress on the front drive-line would be questionable. They are so small that there would be an insignificant amount of added weight. My FEL provides more weight on the front and if I fill it with snow that snow will likely be more weight than I can get into the tires. Besides, I don't think that filling tires or adding weight will improve lateral traction.

The next thing that I found was the possibility of grooving the treads. I read several threads here on this subject, including one extremely long one with almost 70 pages of comments and I read every one (it took me a couple or 4 hours to get through). Grooving the R1 bars lengthwise would not be a good idea as they are only about 1 1/2 inches at the widest and this would likely have significant negative consequences. However, there were a few comments with pictures showing that some people had put grooves across the bars more or less parallel to the direction of travel. Unfortunately, none of those that did this every replied to indicate if this helped or not. If they had I would probably not be here with my question.

My plan for now is to wait and see how the front tires performs and keep watch for lateral slipping. My concerns could be completely unfounded after I have time to see with happens and see what difference having 4WD makes. Going back to the fact that the owner's manual states:

This helps to steer the tractor when four-wheel drive is selected.

But if there is an issue with lateral traction then I will likely try adding a groove or 2 across each of the treads. I have no qualms about cutting grooves in them but I'd like to figure out if this might be helpful before I do.

So, at the end of my long explanation I finally come to my question...

Has anyone put these type of grooves (across the bars) in their front tires (R1s or R4s) and if you did, do you feel these grooves improved lateral traction?

 

[RickB]

Put your chains on before it snows and you are done. No expense, no compromising expensive tires and no traction issues.

Use the brakes to assist with steering control. I figured out long before I moved out of NY that it was much better to get the tractor chores done and chain up/get prepared for winter before it arrived than to not. I never owned a tractor without R-1 tires.

 

[airbiscuit]

Put your chains on before it snows and you are done.[ No expense, no compromising expensive tires and no traction issues.

Use the brakes to assist with steering control. I figured out long before I moved out of NY that it was much better to get the tractor chores done and chain up/get prepared for winter before it arrived than to not. I never owned a tractor without R-1 tires.

Yep. If that works, you're done. If you still need more steering control, you could put chains on the front tires although there is a slight risk that if they spin and then grab, you could damage the front differential.

 

[RickB]

Yep. If that works, you're done. If you still need more steering control, you could put chains on the front tires although there is a slight risk that if they spin and then grab, you could damage the front differential.

I also never had a 4wd or MFD tractor. Steering control is a learned skill no matter what you drive. I plowed snow all around the neighborhood for decades, some jobs I got when trucks couldn't handle the grades or drifts.

 

[fruitcakesa]

I also run Euro's on the RG loaded rear wheels and have grooved the front R1's.
The grooving provides some extra traction up to a point but when it gets icy and I am plowing , I have put ladder chains up front which still slip enough and I drive slowly enough to be a non issue
My M with 24 inch front wheels is a completely different rig than your MF so might it be apples to oranges

 

[hube2]

I also run Euro's on the RG loaded rear wheels and have grooved the front R1's.
The grooving provides some extra traction up to a point but when it gets icy and I am plowing , I have put ladder chains up front which still slip enough and I drive slowly enough to be a non issue
My M with 24 inch front wheels is a completely different rig than your MF so might it be apples to oranges

Thank your for the letting me know your experience with grooving tires.
I am also comparing apples to oranges at this point. As I said, my only experience so far (more than 20 years) is with 2WD tractors with turf tires and chains that would still spin on the ice, and I've spun them around 90 degrees or more when the front wheels slid sideways unexpectedly. The machines I've had in the past were also much smaller than what I have now, not really up to the task I was using them for. I did not have anything capable of breaking up the ice and just had to deal with driving on it until I a previous neighbor (who has moved away) came over to break it up and move it. But now I will have a way to break up the ice.

I've also not had a tractor with split breaks and the MF does not have split breaks. I have use split breaks, but that was a long, long time ago.

AG tires with a 45 degree angle on the lugs are supposed to help with lateral traction. Like I said, I could be concerned about something that I should not be concerned about. This winter will be a learning experience for me.

This may sound funny to some, but damaging the front wheel differential by using chains is not an issue with either voiding the warranty or the potential expense of fixing it, neither would concern me. My concern would be that I would be without the tractor while it was being fixed without any way to clear the snow out of my driveway. The neighbor I could count in emergencies has moved away because he got tired of dealing with the winters here.

 

[LouNY]

All of my tractors are larger then you have and I've had and have 2wd as well as 4wd,
on the larger tractors using the Euro style rear chains I seldom have any need for front chains.
That said I do have individual rear brakes that I can and do use when needed for turning or just directional stability.

When I read that you do not have the split brakes that changed what I would have said for your tractor and situation.
My recommendation which is just my opinion is that I would get a set of Euro style chains for those front tires,
most likely ATV chains for the sizing. Then I would not engage my 4wd unless I needed it.
The chains should give you got directional stability even in 2wd.
When moving the snow you should be able to tell if the rear is digging and chewing and needing the front assistance,
and then use it. I don't know if you are using your bucket or a front or rear blade or a blower for snow removal.
But I would chain the front axle and use it when I needed it, 2wd when that was all that was needed and 4wd when needed.

I do not believing that grooving your R1's would do anything to help.

Good luck this winter, I'm doing my best to assure a mild winter, picked up a used blower and my new Nokian Hakkapeliitta 9 SUV Studded tires will be in on Tuesday this week.

 

[Fallon]

I only run chains on the front. Keep thinking about rears, but no clearance on my former L3200 & to lazy/cheap on the new L4060. My figuring is even with chains I have less traction in the snow than dry ground without. Less traction beans less driveline stress. So I don't worry about it. I run R4s, which are allegedly the worst snow tires.

Chains up front really make it steer better when plowing with a SSQA plow on the loader. Both machines didn't/don't steer well with the plow way out forward. Front only chains increased my capacity by 30% or so on the L3200.

 

[oosik]

When I had a smaller tractor - Ford 1700, 4WD - I ran V-bar chains on all four wheels in the winter. 27 years and no damage to anything. I have a mile long, gravel driveway that can get very icy in spots. I would suggest using chains rather than "grooving" your tires.

 

[RickB]

Not having individual brakes is a game changer I hadn't considered.