my drott 20rr needs more floation.

[crawler drott]

hello my name is Jacob, I own a drott 20rr (Go-devil carry deck jib crane)
It is my tractor, sort of....
it does great on hard packed gravel and concrete
which is what its made for, after all it spent the last 45 years in the local fort Howard now Georgia Pacific.
but if you go on something a bit softer, especialy with the chains I put on it digs two holes (solid rear axle) and sinks down to the frame.
traction isn't really a problem, on hard pack i can drag 2-3000 lbs of car (as in no wheels just draging) somtimes with the front end lifting. its just floation. the tires on it right now are 23" dia and 5" wide. but it doesn't have room for much more.
any advice?

 

[JoeL4330]

if flotation is what you want, you will need lower tire pressure. as long as the tire is still "pneumatic" the psi on the ground is the psi in the tire. However, if the vehicle is very heavy and the tires small, then the sidewalls collapse, the rims hit the ground, and you can not achieve the large, low-psi patch of rubber on the ground that you want. The chains are definitely not helping.

The combined area of the contact patch of all the tires times their pressure equals the weight of the vehicle ...that's what holds it up. So, lower tire pressure, which may mean bigger tires depending on the vehicle weight. If you can't fit bigger tires, lighten the vehicle. if you can't lighten the vehicle or fit bigger tires (or duals) then you would require tracks (which would put a large contact patch on the ground and thus would have low bearing pressure per unit area (again, the product is the vehicle weight). If you can't change the pressure, the tires and/or the weight, you would appear to be out of luck.