PT425 winter traction

[jwangelin]

So I finally made it out in the 425 today to move some wet piles, it did a quicker job than I expected. The 60" plow worked very well but the weight of the snow created a traction issue. I have turf tires and an asphalt drive that is starting to blow apart. What have some of you snow state PT owners done for a little extra traction? Lower tire pressure? Chains? Rubber tire chains? Loaded tires?

Thanks in advance,
Jon

By the way, I kept having problems getting the PT started, I reset the valves a couple times and nothing. I did remember people saying the robin was cold blooded. I charged the battery up and heated the hydro/oil tank and it started right up.

 

[ponytug]

I don't have turf tires (R4 loader tires), but asking turf tires to function on snow and loose gravel/asphalt seems like it is a big ask to me. My R4s are pretty good, but on soft material, or loose gravel on slopes, they need help, and I use net chains, as suggested by @SpringHollow. Have you looked at what is available for your tire size?

All the best,

Peter

 

[2manyrocks]

I've only used chains on the loader style tires on my PT1445 like Ponytug's. They make a major difference in being able to have traction on hillsides. Never used in snow myself.

MossRoad might have specific experience from using his PT425 that might be helpful. Tend to think snow traction on turf tires would need some kind of chains.

 

[MossRoad]

I have turfs on my pt425. On the asphalt driveway I have no problems. Get off on a side-hill and you'll crab your way downhill. No getting around it. IF I had to plow on hills, I'd get chains for the winter and be done with it. But we are on tabletop flat ground, so no issues for me.

That being said, this weekend was 12" of wet, heavy snow on unfrozen ground. We call it 'heart attack snow', because it's so wet and heavy.

So the snow stuck pretty hard. Any attempt to push at an angle resulted in failure, as the machine is just too light to overcome the heavy slush and would drive off to the side VS pushing. So I had to go at it directly head on and push off to the sides in a herringbone pattern. No big deal.

 

[ernemats]

I have a pt 422 I use for most of my snow plowing and I have turf tires on it. Most of the time it works fine , my driveway is gravel and has some hilly areas on it. It does good if snow is not too deep and I plow downhill the first pass and then going back up I only take about half plow width usually no problem. I might add my plow is a pt plow for the 422 and 425 but I had a friend weld 9 inch extensions onto each side so it is now 6 foot 6 inches wide instead of 5 foot . If snow is deep and tractor bottoms out no tire tread or even chains is not going to help much

 

[MossRoad]

We could alway switch to the straight edge bucket in a pinch and dig our ways out if necessary. I had ONE winter where I had to do that. There just wasn't anywhere else to pile the snow, even with the plow pushing it up 6'. Had to dig out a snow storage yard in the backyard and shuttle the snow back there for a couple months.

Yesterday was the first time that it was necessary to plow snow in 2 years.

 

[SpringHollow]

Unless the snow is deep, my turf tires work better than the Ag. But for simplicity, I usually keep the studded chains on all winter. They work much better on icy hills or when pushing a lot of snow.

Ken

 

[CobyRupert]

It took me a while to believe it, but turf tires, in general, have more traction in snow (over a driveway) than lugged ag R1 or industrial r4 tires. It’s the summation of all the tread edges.
At some point in deep packed snow, I suspect lugged tires start to win again.

In general: weight = traction. Weight is the only thing that increases friction between the tire and the ground so you don’t spin (on a solid surface).

On a surface material that “peels” out or is “paddled away” from underneath the tread (mud and deep snow) when subjected to force, that calculation gets trickier. You then have to either 1) “dig” through the material to find solid ground with (static) friction, or 2) float on it and distribute the force over a larger area of surface that doesn’t peel way, or 3) paddle the material behind you away with enough force that there’s an equal and opposite reaction propelling you forward. 2 & 3 are very tricky. Conditions, weight, power input and most importantly the tension of surface material all have to be balanced in unison.

(I use the term paddle to represent the horizontal force of “dug in” lugs, versus the vertical forces of friction between the tires and their surface)

That’s my 2 cents….given for free!

 

[ernemats]

I agree with Coby that turfs are better on driveway if snow is not deep but in deep snow I think R-1's have a slight advantage. I have turfs on my power trac and do not have problems with traction very often.

 

[MossRoad]

Back in the 80's I had a friend that had a monster mud truck with 44" tires. He slowly drove it way up on a huge snow pile and everyone was impressed. Flotation.

When he floored it to get down, he immediately buried all 4 tires down to the frame in about 2 seconds. Paddled.

The general consensus back then was get the tallest, skinniest snow tires you could get so that you'd have more weight concentrated on a smaller patch and get you down to pavement VS wider tires that would float you up over the snow and eventually paddle down so far they could not move forward and just dig deeper.

The advantage of a bucket or plow on FEL arms on the front of a tractor is that it really doesn't matter much what kind of tire you have as long as you can lift the material off to the side and dump higher than the surrounding snow. You don't have to plow it at an angle, where traction is important. You can wishbone it all the way down the drive.

Sure it takes longer, but you get the job done VS getting stuck.