How Does a Tractor "Ride"?

[BrokenTrack]

Anybody have before and after experience with loaded tires?

You do have to watch getting hung up on mud or on a stump with liquid filled tires because if you inevitably try to "rock" the tractor out of the mud/off the stump, it is possible to get the liquid sloshing enough to take the ring gear out of the differential.

 

[BrokenTrack]

My only bad experience with tires and ride quality was on a grader. It was a new grader but came with R1's for the off road work it did most of the time. I got a job grading many miles of road for a local agricultural tour and they wanted the roads graded smooth. Unfortunately the tour was with a Greyhound Type of Bus, and while I never felt it, the R1 tires caused the moldboard to lift up and down just a wee bit. Again, at my slow speed, I never noticed it, but for miles in the bus there was this harmonic vibration and lalalalalalalalalalalalalala for MILES and MILES!

I later heard about it, but it was not me, it was the tires bouncing the moldboard up and down just enough...

 

[majorwager]

Believe if one does Not know the condition of the ground and sinks to the axle, he/she deserves the consequences, Getting hung up on a stump? Why is someone driving over stumps? This is lunacy? If a stump exists in a woods trail, remove the stump, cut it flush w/ grade, move /relocate the trail.

Practicing a remedy for these issues is tantamount to shooting your foot, then focusing on appropriate first aid.

Instead, let's avoid shooting one's foot and the first aid is irrelevant. Might also suggest not bouncing an operating chaisaw off one's forehead.

EDIT: road @ my residence was repaved 5 years ago. A screed on the large paver froze and the result was gentle humps in new paving. At slow speeds, no issue. @ 55mph the reaction in a vehicle, noticeable / irritating.

Analysis by forensic engineer cited operator error for failure to monitor proper screed flexibility. Contractor who owned the paver and provided labor and equipment to our municipality, bore the cost to mill new ashplalt, and repave the road. Operator error!!.

 

[Ortimber]

Jeez, I knew that "ride" and other creature comforts like heated seats, sound systems, blue tooth and power everything had taken over the sissified truck market; where the market caters to road queens that want to drive (have the drive of) a car, but need the physical appearance of a truck for personal identity (& gender insecurity) reasons .

...but now tractors too?!

Ok, whatever, its 2018. A good seat is probably best. I don't know what best tire giver best ride, but these are probably the worst.
View attachment 550370

Lol, good one!

 

[majorwager]

Actually there is minimal shock absorbance in AG tires especially bias ply. Neighboring County has large Mennonite population, 90 percent of families farm even if they have an additional business. I exclude large radial wide low air volume , low compaction tires.

Point is Mennonite rules require steel wheels, no exceptions, but tractors only, implements exempt. (Horing sect allows rubber wheels but not horse/buggy group)

Point is, I have driven a few of these tractors and there is little difference in the field ride. In fairness, "modern" steel wheels incorporate a inch thick layer of rubber between the "rim" and steel cleats. Still a steel wheel in concept, no air bladder.

Shock absorption by air tires, highly overstated. Agree an air/suspension seat far better remedy.

 

[BrokenTrack]

Believe if one does Not know the condition of the ground and sinks to the axle, he/she deserves the consequences, Getting hung up on a stump? Why is someone driving over stumps? This is lunacy? If a stump exists in a woods trail, remove the stump, cut it flush w/ grade, move /relocate the trail.

There are a lot of reasons why a person would encounter these situations, mostly because tractors work in areas where consistency is hardly predictable. I live in Maine so we get a lot of snow, and it quite common to get hung up on a stump because what seems like a perfectly level surface might have a stump in the middle of the trail where the wind blew the snow level. Brush packed around the stump might be another situation, or even some spinning tires over a stump that has been passed over a dozen times might have suddenly lowered the tractor enough to get hung up. I cannot log my forest with my tractor and always stay on an existing logging trail; at some point I have to build new ones to get to the wood that needs to be cut. And even existing ones change over time.

The same goes for mud, many times I have been driving my tractor and felt like I just went off a dock...what was formerly solid ground then suddenly becomes nothing but a quagmire. Ground conditions change...incredibly quick.

The more a person operates a tractor, the more these conditions are going to be encountered. There is not one day that my tractor is not operated, so I not only know I have gotten stuck in the past, I am undoubtedly going to get stuck in the future. In fact I do not think there is not a farmer in this country who has not been stuck with a tractor a time or two in their life; the question is...how much damage to a tractor will occur in trying to get it out? Thankfully today we have the internet and we can learn ways to get unstuck, and ways NOT to get unstuck.

 

[majorwager]

A previous explanation is a blend of manure and lazy carelessness. If one can't remember where they cut a tree, and left a stump high enough to get hung up upon, then the logging procedure is erratic. Why wasn't the stump cut flush to grade, ? as the trees taken were noted as moderate caliper spruce and pine. Trails for work or pleasure have a specific purpose, those trails, properly marked, are designed to avoid obsticles. The ground condition in NH is NOT unique to to the balance of states w/ harsh winters. The winter ground doesn't SUDDENLY thaw. Some folks forget previous posts. Example: we are told that frost is so deep in NH that fence posts lift magically from the ground. Yet now the frost is selective, without uniform coverage, Snow can provide an insulating blanket to a degree, but that to is uniform. Know where one is going or simply don't go. The bull in the china shop will generally break things.

Leaving stumps in the trail, high enough to damage the tractor is simply the sign of a careless logger. If someone is incapable of properly building obstacle free trails, don't blame the snow, look in the mirror. Excuses thinner than a latex glove and wholly illogical. Perhaps somone is working in the "enchanted forest" w/ instantly changing conditions. One tool that should always be kept at hand in the woods is experience, don't leave home without it!

 

[BrokenTrack]

The above explanation is a blend of manure and lazy carelessness. If one can't remember where they cut a tree, and left a stump high enough to get hung up upon, then the logging procedure is erratic. Why wasn't the stump cut flush to grade, ? as the trees taken were noted as moderate caliper sptuce and pine. Trails for work or pleasure have a specific purpose, those trails, properly marked, are designed to avoid obsticles. The ground condition in NH is NOT unique to to the balance of states w/ harsh winters. The winter ground doesn't SUDDENLY thaw. Some folks forget previous posts. Example: we are told that frost is so deep in NH that fence posts lift magically from the ground. Yet now the frost is selective, without uniform coverage, Snow can provide an insulating blanket to a degree, but that to is uniform. Know where one is going or simply don't go. The bull in the china shop will generally break things.

Leaving stumps in the trail, high enough to damage the tractor is simply the sign of a careless logger. If someone is incapable of properly building obstacle free trails, don't blame the snow, look in the mirror. Excuses thinner than a latex glove and wholly illogical. Perhaps somone is working in the "enchanted forest" w/ instantly changing conditions. One tool that should always be kept at hand in the woods is experience, don't leave home without it!

Maybe on a few acres, but when you have hundreds of acres, a person does not have the luxury of building nice skidding trails everywhere they put their tractor. I know I sure can't, and I have farm winches and log trailers, not to mention bulldozers and skidders.

On my farm I have various degrees of logging trails, from heavy haul roads the logging trucks navigate in all four seasons, to bulldozed paths through the woods I can take my Ford Explorer, to trails I toted a few twitches out across, to a single trip to pull a single twitch out. I am not swamping a perfect road just to haul 3 trees out across in a single twitch, nor am I going to have elaborate paths to every tree growing on my property.

Today I have it easy considering the equipment that I have, but I NEVER forgot where I came from either. At age 15, I started cutting 4 foot pulpwood, using an old 2 wheel drive Ford 900 farm tractor pulling a woods trailer that I had to hand pile the wood on. Many people on here do not have the logging equipment I have, simply because they do not do the amount of logging I do. But I do not look down at any of them because they might get stuck hooking a chain to a 3 point hitch tool bar and getting hung up somewhere on the way out to the landing.

Saying a person should never get stuck with their tractor is just plain silly.

 

[BrokenTrack]

What the underlying issue here is, not realizing what this forum is.

It is like a real bricks and mortar tractor company, where people come in for a tractor part, to mull over buying a new tractor, to share photos of their tractors pulling out their firewood, or yes even discussing the ride quality of certain tractor tires. They sit on the swivel stools in front of the counter, and just talk tractors, of rural life, clearing land, and haying.

The key is people come from all walks of life, from the guy that needs a part to keep his 50 year old tractor going, to the young guy that thinks a Kubota would help his start up farm, to the old duffer that has retired from farming twenty years ago. Some people might own five acres and just use a 2 wheel BSC tractor, while others might own hundreds of acres and have bigger equipment. Some people are going through divorce, some are getting married, and some are retiring. Some are even full time farmers, and some are just keeping a tractor to help ease the work load around the house.

So while in reality we all are sitting at our computer keyboards or smart phones, coffee, tea or lattes in hand and talking tractors...talking life! That is still what we are doing, just all in cyberg space. Some people are lurkers of course, just as in real life some people sit on the stools in a tractor dealership and do not say much. Some have a lot more to say and are opinionated.

It is all good.

Ultimately it is about people and life and sharing a common bond...tractors in this case.

What is not okay is people thinking there is only one situation, only one farm, or only one way to do something. The only way someone is not going to break something, get stuck, or make a poor decision, is to stay on the couch and run the remote control on the television. I have never been a person to say, "you should never have got stuck", I am a person that says, "I was stuck like that once, this is how I got myself out", or "here is a trick I learned."

I love to help people...

MajorWager, you might think otherwise, but I would love to meet you, shake your hand, buy you a coffee (I don't drink), and talk tractors all afternoon. That goes for a lot of people on here...

 

[majorwager]

It is a waste of time to address the previous collection of voluminous inconsistant and incoherent ramblings. Since the OP' thread has already been hijacked, my replys to forum posts attempt to share helpful information to the thread topic but also disagree w/ responses that are misleading, and incorrect or speculative.

The NH poster is sensitive to contrasting facts. He wears his injuries to shin, forehead, and thigh as some " badge of honor". By ignoring the protocol for logger chaps, special purpose helmets, faceshield, hightop work boots , hearing protection, he fails to mitigate the frequency of accidents. Since he logs professionally in retirement for income, he signals the weekend warrior to follow a careless example.


Members understand this is NOT a logging forum while we discuss definations. Members do collect firewood and fell some trees for friends, neighbors, personal use and very limited commercial operations. Suggesting that members drive over stumps tall enough to hang up their tractor is simply erroneous. Members do not generally abuse their tractor and subject them to dangerous stunts like driving over tall stumps. I suggest members w/ woodlots, know the territory well, properly mark trails, and act responsibly when working in these woodlots. Again,KNOW the TBN audience. Many folks treat their tractors better then themselves! I digress. The subject is careless disregard for safety and bragging as such. Railing against chain brakes on saws is yet another foolish procedure. In fact, Muhammad himself recently posted a tragic safety related incident.

There are examples where agreement exists w/ the NH fellow, but there are also others where we disagree. If he would like to pursue them, he can initiate a thread, and they can each be debated upon the merit.

Again erroneous advice, or careless, safety specific issues will generally result in any member being called out.