Tires Longevity of Titan Trac Loader front tires?

Dougster · Jul 22, 2007

For those folks with older 4WD Mahindras using the Titan "Trac Loader" tires... what sort of service life did you get or are you expecting? Mine seem to be wearing and showing signs of damage much faster than I ever expected. I'm wondering if it is my particular (sometimes very hard) commercial use or whether this is the norm for these particular tires. In comparison, my rear industrial Titans still look like brand new. Neither are loaded and I can often get both spinning pretty good while digging out roots and rocks with the FEL grapple. Perhaps I am sometimes too hard on those front tires.

Also, when you finally did replace your Titan front tires... was it due to wear or damage? Did you replace them in kind or with some other tires?

Dougster

SPYDERLK · Jul 22, 2007

Think what those little tires have to put up with when youre doing loader work. With a full capacity load theres more weight on them than on the back - and on mine at least, sometimes I am spinning to boot. Ive no idea what might be more durable. It is possible that filling them would help marginally. When I filled mine I found the ride was better since I could use lower pressure. Then, when loaded heavily the pressure would jump high quickly due to the high compression ratio, and support the load w/o too much squat. I use water tho so no problem if it leaks.
larry

George2615 · Jul 22, 2007

My 2615 has Titan tires also. Fronts do show more wear than rear but they get more use when turning, especially in 4WD and really get tread scrubbed off if turning while on blacktop. I've only got 200 hours on mine though.

On the Bobcat at work we go through a set every 1 1/2 years but 80% of that time is running it on the blacktop parking lot.

Robert_in_NY · Jul 22, 2007

The front tires on an ag tractor with a loader get a lot of abuse and wear very quickly compared to the rears. A couple reasons for this is that the front tires drive over the stubble and such first laying it down so it doesn't damage the rear tires as bad. Also, the front tires do more scuffing as you turn (this is magnified when you have a load in the bucket). The scuffing tears them up while all the back tires do is go round and round. One more issue is that the front axle pivots which puts more stress on the edges of the bars as the axle is pivoted again leading to scuffing of the tires.

It is just the nature of a FWA tractor.

skipmarcy · Jul 22, 2007

Doug, Just changed my tires (both front & rears) a few weeks ago, the rears to hopefully correct my front drive problems, and the fronts because they were showing what appeared to be heavy wear and I got a "good" deal on some offbrand front tires. I put Titans back on the rears. I had thought my fronts were pretty worn until I had the new ones side by side to compare to - they weren't as worn down as I had thought, maybe down to 40 or 50%, just some nasty cuts here & there . The rears were still in primo shape when set next to the new ones - probably 60 - 70% remaining. The tires had about 1350 hours - at times very rough use. The first 2 years I had my tractor I spent alot of time getting gravel out of creeks - sometimes sharp-edged gravel and occassionally an odd piece of metal and such. Of course alot of tire spinning. I've probably clocked close to 15 - 20 hours on pavement in those 1350 as well. One front tire got a **** of a gash in it in the creek one time, had a large patch put inside and it has held ever since(still tubeless too). I saved the old front tires in case I tear one up in the future and sold the rears for $100 each. If these "East One" brand front tires don't hold up I'll go back to Titans for the front too. These I bought are supposedly 12 ply and have a very heavy sidewall & rim guard, but so far I'm thinking the rubber compound may be a little soft, time will tell. Boy, I could sure tell a difference as soon as I sat in the seat after getting those 16.9x24 tires on in place of the 17.5's, have had to get used to it. Also a difference in ground speed is noticeable - last time I cut my 5+ acre yard I was changing gears quite a bit more trying to get used to it.

Dougster · Jul 22, 2007

skipmarcy said:
Doug, Just changed my tires (both front & rears) a few weeks ago, the rears to hopefully correct my front drive problems, and the fronts because they were showing what appeared to be heavy wear and I got a "good" deal on some offbrand front tires. I put Titans back on the rears. I had thought my fronts were pretty worn until I had the new ones side by side to compare to - they weren't as worn down as I had thought, maybe down to 40 or 50%, just some nasty cuts here & there . The rears were still in primo shape when set next to the new ones - probably 60 - 70% remaining. The tires had about 1350 hours - at times very rough use. The first 2 years I had my tractor I spent alot of time getting gravel out of creeks - sometimes sharp-edged gravel and occassionally an odd piece of metal and such. Of course alot of tire spinning. I've probably clocked close to 15 - 20 hours on pavement in those 1350 as well. One front tire got a **** of a gash in it in the creek one time, had a large patch put inside and it has held ever since(still tubeless too). I saved the old front tires in case I tear one up in the future and sold the rears for $100 each. If these "East One" brand front tires don't hold up I'll go back to Titans for the front too. These I bought are supposedly 12 ply and have a very heavy sidewall & rim guard, but so far I'm thinking the rubber compound may be a little soft, time will tell. Boy, I could sure tell a difference as soon as I sat in the seat after getting those 16.9x24 tires on in place of the 17.5's, have had to get used to it. Also a difference in ground speed is noticeable - last time I cut my 5+ acre yard I was changing gears quite a bit more trying to get used to it.

Thanks for the report Skip (and thanks to the other follow-up posters as well). Good to know that you got an amazing 1,350 hours out of those front tires... and I know your uses have certainly been no less severe than mine!!!

After a few really rough, rocky jobs, I could not believe the deterioration I was seeing in those fronts. The big question was: Should I buy a set of replacements now and have them ready for a fast change if necessary... or can I afford to wait a while longer... maybe even a LONG while longer. You may remember that there are already two patched punctures in one of my fronts and one patched puncture in one rear. Rocks, nails and screws are NOT my friends these days.

I've also thought about going to higher ply ratings... and, alternatively... even turf tires up front to cut down on client lawn damage. Yes, contradictory and probably unworkable, I know.

These front tires are expensive but not really big money in the larger scheme of things. I just don't want to buy spares or replacements now and have them sitting around for the next 3 or 4 years unused. That makes no sense.

Good luck with those new tires! Hope this is the end of your front axle problems! Keep us informed how you're making out!

Dougster

Nightrain1 · Jul 22, 2007

Boy, I could sure tell a difference as soon as I sat in the seat after getting those 16.9x24 tires on in place of the 17.5's, have had to get used to it. Also a difference in ground speed is noticeable

I hope you will keep us up to date on your tire changes, how it is working out for you. From your above quote, I take it you are mowing in 4wd? Did you change sizes in the back? If you're in 4wd, the backs are the same size, and you are noticing a substantial ground speed difference, I can easily see why you was tearing the front axles out. Keep us uptodate Skip, your story is quite interesting and I hope this cures your problems.....

RAS323 · Jul 23, 2007

Nightrain1 said:
Boy, I could sure tell a difference as soon as I sat in the seat after getting those 16.9x24 tires on in place of the 17.5's, have had to get used to it. Also a difference in ground speed is noticeable....

Hey Nighttrain1-did you get 4110 tires on your 3510? Did you go down in size? What are 17.5's?

I like my 9.5x16 / 14.9x24 that replaced the 28x8.5-15 / 43x16-20 that came with it. I've noticed just about everything I do now is in one gear lower. In high range it's far more noticable the engine just can pull it like it did. I don't know if its the increase in tire size or the added weight (the rears are now loaded) it's probably a combination of both. Of course now with the tires loaded it's a different beast, with the hoe on the back I don't need four wheel drive.

Doug-I can't help ya with tire wear-I only use four wheel drive when I need it.

Dougster · Jul 23, 2007

RAS323 said:
Doug-I can't help ya with tire wear-I only use four wheel drive when I need it.

I am beginning to do the same.

Used to be that my "default" was always 4WD... but now that the folks here showed me how easy and painless it was to switch between 2WD and 4WD... plus with this new front tire deterioration issue... I've decided that doing my work in 2WD ain't so bad after all!

Dougster

SPYDERLK · Jul 23, 2007

Quote RAS323: Hey Nighttrain1-did you get 4110 tires on your 3510? Did you go down in size? What are 17.5's?

Rick, Nightrain1 was quoting Skipmarcy there. Skip has had mismatched tires on his 4110 since day 1, I think. Hes had a lot of front axle problems.
larry