Tires Picking up Glenn's Work - R1W Tires Grand L's

[slowzuki]

Re: Picking up Glenn\'s Work - R1W Tires Grand L\'s

Hi Rat, yup, I though he was bit nuts torching the loader frame too!

I wouldn't even think about spending the money on them but the turfs are completely unacceptable for the farming and logging we do. I could buy the R-4's but I find the R-1's on our other tractor don't have enough traction in our wet soils.

In our area there simply is no such thing as irrigation, only drainage and getting stuck in boggy fields happens even in July and August.

I'm more concerned about the fronts, when doing loader work on wet ground it is always the fronts that sink.

The M6800's here come with R1W's from the dealer here now.

 

[slowzuki]

Re: Picking up Glenn\'s Work - R1W Tires Grand L\'s

Rich's Loader mods pic 1 /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[slowzuki]

Re: Picking up Glenn\'s Work - R1W Tires Grand L\'s

Rich's loader mod 2 pic to fit unknown R1W size front tire. (note on L4610, very close cousin the the L4630 and L5030)

 

[slowzuki]

Re: Picking up Glenn\'s Work - R1W Tires Grand L\'s

Rich's tractor in action

 

[slowzuki]

Re: Picking up Glenn\'s Work - R1W Tires Grand L\'s

A quote from Glenn to keep this thread on track, his report never materialized! Anyone with info on stock rims that work post up the info!

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( The front tires are Michelin XM108 radial R1W's, the highest rated agricultural tire in the world. I was the first customer in the U.S. to get them in the size I needed and wanted, which had only been sold in Europe.

The rears are Michelin XM27 radial R1W/R4's (an R1W pattern with R4 reinforced sidewalls and tread).

I will lay out everything in exhaustive detail in my 4 part article. This was a six month research project. I bought a new tractor primarily because I thought I had found the perfect tire set. "Perfect" to me means being able to defeat the Oozama Ver Boten while still being gentle to my lawns.

I'll list all the candidate front and rear tires I researched from Michelin, Firestone, Goodyear and Titan. All the specs. All the necessary computations of 4WD ratios. How to get the right rims. Prices. What considerations I balanced in my final choice (including garage height; I could have used rear XM27's that were 2" bigger and hence better for 4WD ratio ... aka Mark Chalkley's rear XM27's on his former souped-up L4310.)

In short, I bought the tractor without tires or rims for a credit of about $1800. Bought the Michelins from two different local tire dealers (one having a complete monopoly on Michelin ag tires in the entire Northeast) ... $239 each for the XM108's (a monopoly price) and $405 each for the XM27's (a discounted price, I think, because they are also marketed as an R4 industrial tire by non-ag Michelin dealers). Then I had to buy a mix and match of different Kubota rims from different Kubota models, all wildly overpriced, to match the Michelin tires. When the price smoke cleared, I spent $168 dollars more for the Michelins and the Kubota rims than the dealer cost (from the Kubota factory) on L3430 R4 tires and rims. Hence, assuming a dealer markup to the normal customer on tires and rims, I claim my radial tires were "free". (Not counting the 1000 hours of research and travel I engaged in.)

Warranty? Hah! Bring it on, Kubota. Every Grand L model with R4 tires, except the 3130 and 3430, is out of acceptable 4WD ratio spec according to both the Goodyear and Firestone farm tire handbooks. The bad news for the 3130 and 3430 is that the Firestone rear R4 they all use is on the wrong (too wide) rim size, according to Firestone. (Purely for marketing reasons, Kubota sticks a smaller R4 tire on the 31/3430 than on the rest of the L Series line, but uses the exact same R4 rims as it uses for the bigger R4 tires on the 3830 and above.) My tire selections are all on the preferred Michelin rim sizes, and are all within acceptable 4WD spec.

The calclulations don't lie. I shared them all with the dealer before the transaction, and I'll lay out all the calculations to back up my claims in my planned series of posts.
)</font>

 

[slowzuki]

Re: Picking up Glenn\'s Work - R1W Tires Grand L\'s

Spreadsheet showing a bunch of info about the available R1W's, I haven't finished it yet but I thought someone might like to peruse it. I'll try pasting the html

Hmm, can't attach excel and can't insert html table code. I'll try to host it elsewhere and link.

 

[_RaT_]

Re: Picking up Glenn\'s Work - R1W Tires Grand L\'s

What amazes me about Glens front tires are that they fit with the loader. From the pictures you don't see how tight the tolerance is until you turn the wheel. The tire just barely clears the loader suport structure. We're talking a pinkys worth of room in their.

 

[JimMorrissey]

Re: Picking up Glenn\'s Work - R1W Tires Grand L\'s

I like those a lot /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif Too bad you can't specify them. The L39 would perform real well in varying conditions with a set of those. R4s are not the greatest in slick conditions.

 

[LeRoi]

Re: Picking up Glenn\'s Work - R1W Tires Grand L\'s

The following is from a PM from Glen when I e-mailed him about rim sizes. Hope this helps you out a bit. I was all set to try for R1W's on a new tractor and had the dealer working with me, but it didn't pan out.

Leroy

There are 3 sizes of XM27's that will work on the rear in conjunction with a particular XM108 on the front (and also a particular XM27 that I did not use). The rims are both Kubota, but a mix and match. The rears are the stock rims for the R4 tires that go on the 3830. The front rims for the XM108's are the rims that go with the R1 ag tires on the L5030.

BTW, if you can afford it , I would strongly recommend the 4330. Two reasons. Loader and pulling power. My 3430 doesnt cut it re power on either front. The other reason is that the XM108's will interfere with the loader support on the 3830 as it did on my 3430. My dealer had to cut off part of the loader support with an arc welder and we also shaved the corners off each tire tread. It works fine, but adds extra cost. (I can find pictures of the procedure.) I believe that there will be no such interference (or certainly less) on the longer frame of the 4330.

 

[tractorman]

Re: Picking up Glenn\'s Work - R1W Tires Grand L\'s

I am the poor *(@&^#&* that had to put those front wheels & tires on Glen's tractor and what the icture doesn't show is the material I took off of the loader frame as well as the shaving I did on the outer part of the tire lugs to get them to clear the loader frame. I hope he doesn't wear the front's out anytime soon that's all I can say!